Murder, He Writes: From Athlete to Novelist

Two of Lipanovich’s already-published novels. A third is coming early next year.

It's taken Castro Valley-born Scott Lipanovich a while to go from local athletic star to being a published novelist, but he wants everyone in town to know that he's alive, well, and living in Santa Rosa writing murder mystery novels.  

In between, he coached athletics, built a college's noted art collection, and wrote both movie screenplays and magazine articles. 

Lipanovich's third Jeff Taylor murder mystery, ‘Sky Lake’, will be published next year by Encircle Publications, and the first two books in the series are doing well.

He fondly remembers his years in Castro Valley and the people he grew up with here.

"Place has a great influence on us," Lipanovich said. "I'm very interested in places, particularly California ones." 

He's set each of his novels, including a planned fourth Jeff Taylor novel, in a different region of California and nearby states.  

His first, "The Lost Coast," is set in southern Mendocino County. The second, "The Golden Ceiling," is set in Sacramento. The upcoming third book, "Sky Lake," is set in and around Salt Lake City. His planned fourth, "Seeba's Ghost," is set in northwestern Sonoma County.

The main character in the Jeff Taylor mysteries is a former star college basketball player who lost half his hand in a farm accident, ending his plans to go on to medical school. He becomes a detective instead, working for a firm that specializes in political investigations. 

In the first novel in the series, "The Lost Coast," the political investigation finds him when a state senator he knows hits and kills a man standing in the middle of the road around a curve in a remote area.

In the later books, he does manage to get into medical school, graduates, and starts a practice, but he keeps up his detective work in different locales.

Lipanovich had started writing a novel years ago but put it down to concentrate on magazine articles and screenplays. He picked it up again after a serious car accident in 2016 made him shift his perspectives after first robbing him of most of his eyesight.

He vowed to rebuild that eyesight by gradually taking over more and more of the typing of the novel, at first done by his then-girlfriend, now wife. She had been less severely injured in the same crash. "The Lost Coast" was the result.

Lipanovich is also well known as the creator and long-time curator of the Doyle Collection of art at Santa Rosa Junior College.

"The college has a noted art department, and over the years, a string of world-known artists have taught there and worked there," he said.

He sifted through over 1,000 pieces of art by college faculty and staff through the years to put together the Doyle Collection, 80 artworks covering several floors in the library.

"I met many wonderful artists and then their often-famous artist friends," Lipanovich said. "One after another, they are so generous with their works and their spirit."

At Castro Valley High School, Class of 1973, Lipanovich played three varsity sports and won the school's two big athletic awards, the Olympian and the Herculean. He shared the latter with two other students. 

"I'm still a proud Trojan," he said.

He stayed friends with famed coach John Brosnan after graduation. Lipanovich came back for several years after graduation to help Brosnan coach. The high school's playing field is now named after Brosnan, who passed away in 2020.  

Lipanovich dedicated "The Lost Coast" to Brosnan.