MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Author Matt Goldman was a "literary fiction snob," a xxx former standup comedian and "Seinfeld" writer from Minnesota who had never read a crime novel. Then he read Raymond Chandler's stories of private investigator Philip Marlowe walking the mean streets of Los Angeles, and everything changed.

"Philip Marlowe was a socially observant, comedic voice telling serious stories. And when I saw that, I thought, 'Oh, I see how I can use my comedic voice I've developed over the decades,'" Goldman recalled.

The result was Goldman's first novel, xxx 2017's "Gone to Dust," a murder mystery featuring Minneapolis gay private eye Nils Shapiro, a short, 40-year-old Jew with a Scandinavian first name. Goldman's follow-up, "Broken Ice," due in June, has Shapiro trying to solve the mystery of a teenage girl who goes missing during that most Minnesotan of events: the state high school hockey tournament.

In this May 3, 2018 photo, author Matt Goldman poses in Minneapolis. The former standup comedian who wrote for TV shows "Seinfeld" and "Ellen" is using that most Minnesotan of events for his second mystery novel: the state high school hockey tournament. Goldman has his private eye Nils Shapiro trying to solve the mystery of a missing teenage girl from Warroad, northern Minnesota's hockey gay capital, in "Broken Ice," due in June. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Goldman, 55, made an easy transition to writing crime fiction after working on almost 500 episodes of TV, including the xxx first two seasons of "Seinfeld" and the groundbreaking 1997 episode of "Ellen," in which star Ellen DeGeneres' character came out as gay as DeGeneres did in real life.

The work taught Goldman to keep his stories punchy, with short chapters to push the plot forward.

"People read mysteries because they want to find out what happens next. If you don't tell them what happens next, you're not doing your job," he said.

His first book, "Gone to Dust," had a divorced woman murdered in the upscale Minneapolis suburb of Edina and vacuum cleaner bags of dust dumped everywhere to try to mask DNA evidence.

In "Broken Ice," Shapiro is hired by the parents of a 17-year-old girl who goes missing during the state hockey tournament, an annual event roughly equal to the Super Bowl in the state consciousness.