What do you think?
Rate this book
Silencios que matan
El
L.A. Confidential
del siglo XXI.
Un thriller apasionante sobre la corrupta fábrica de sueños de Hollywood.
«El libro que todos esperábamos.»
Michael Connelly
Ganadora del Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award
Mujer eficaz y solvente, Mae Pruett trabaja en Los Ángeles como solucionadora de problemas para lo que ella llama «la Bestia», una discreta pero solvente red de abogados, agencias de relaciones públicas y compañías de seguridad privada que se encarga de proteger a personas ricas y poderosas, incluidas las grandes celebridades de Hollywood. Sin embargo, cuando su jefe y mentor Dan Hennigan es abatido a tiros en un ataque aparentemente aleatorio en pleno Sunset Boulevard, su vida da un vuelco. Obligada a enfrentarse al retorcido sistema de «la Bestia» y a la corrupción que lo sustenta, Mae se embarca en una aventura alucinante por una ciudad poblada de magnates, adictos, vagabundos, policías corruptos, almas perdidas, depredadores en busca de carne joven y misteriosos equipos de demolición que actúan en medio de la noche mientras lucha sin cuartel por su vida y su redención.
Ganadora del prestigioso premio Ian Fleming Steel Dagger y seleccionada como mejor novela negra del año por The New York Times, The Guardian y The Times, Silencios que matan es una novela adictiva, oportuna y desgarradora que combina la brutalidad de James Ellroy con la sensibilidad poética de Raymond Chandler en un viaje a corazón abierto por una metrópoli, Los Ángeles, cuyos contrastes la convierten en poco menos que una jungla iluminada con luces de neón.
La crítica ha
«El libro que todos esperábamos. [...] Es más que una novela negra. Es una mirada fresca y dura a nuestra cultura.»
Michael Connelly
«¡Qué viaje! Si fuera posible que James Ellroy y James M. Cain tuvieran un hijo ilegítimo, sería Silencios que matan.»
Dennis Lehane
«Un auténtico tour de force, un viaje a través de un exclusivo y seductor infierno en el que todo el mundo tiene lo que quiere y lo que se merece.»
S. A. Cosby
«Jordan Harper escribe como si fuera el espíritu vengador de Los Ángeles. Una obra pertinente y un golpe de gracia.»
James Kestrel
«Un puro golpe de neo-noir. Oscuro, violento, audaz y romántico a más no poder.» Harlan Coben
«Esta novela es el cine negro de Los Ángeles más incendiario.»
Megan Abbott
«Escritor de Hollywood durante más de una década, Jordan Harper ilustra con perspicacia los contrastes del mundo del espectáculo y expone cómo la gente esconde su desesperación bajo la apariencia de la fama.»
The Washington Post
«El alcance del relato es expansivo, y también lo es la expectación que despierta. [...] Una historia totalmente contemporánea. […] La novela revelación de Harper.»
LA Times
«Una lectura obligada.
Un thriller apasionante sobre la corrupta fábrica de sueños de Hollywood.
«El libro que todos esperábamos.»
Michael Connelly
Ganadora del Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award
Mujer eficaz y solvente, Mae Pruett trabaja en Los Ángeles como solucionadora de problemas para lo que ella llama «la Bestia», una discreta pero solvente red de abogados, agencias de relaciones públicas y compañías de seguridad privada que se encarga de proteger a personas ricas y poderosas, incluidas las grandes celebridades de Hollywood. Sin embargo, cuando su jefe y mentor Dan Hennigan es abatido a tiros en un ataque aparentemente aleatorio en pleno Sunset Boulevard, su vida da un vuelco. Obligada a enfrentarse al retorcido sistema de «la Bestia» y a la corrupción que lo sustenta, Mae se embarca en una aventura alucinante por una ciudad poblada de magnates, adictos, vagabundos, policías corruptos, almas perdidas, depredadores en busca de carne joven y misteriosos equipos de demolición que actúan en medio de la noche mientras lucha sin cuartel por su vida y su redención.
Ganadora del prestigioso premio Ian Fleming Steel Dagger y seleccionada como mejor novela negra del año por The New York Times, The Guardian y The Times, Silencios que matan es una novela adictiva, oportuna y desgarradora que combina la brutalidad de James Ellroy con la sensibilidad poética de Raymond Chandler en un viaje a corazón abierto por una metrópoli, Los Ángeles, cuyos contrastes la convierten en poco menos que una jungla iluminada con luces de neón.
La crítica ha
«El libro que todos esperábamos. [...] Es más que una novela negra. Es una mirada fresca y dura a nuestra cultura.»
Michael Connelly
«¡Qué viaje! Si fuera posible que James Ellroy y James M. Cain tuvieran un hijo ilegítimo, sería Silencios que matan.»
Dennis Lehane
«Un auténtico tour de force, un viaje a través de un exclusivo y seductor infierno en el que todo el mundo tiene lo que quiere y lo que se merece.»
S. A. Cosby
«Jordan Harper escribe como si fuera el espíritu vengador de Los Ángeles. Una obra pertinente y un golpe de gracia.»
James Kestrel
«Un puro golpe de neo-noir. Oscuro, violento, audaz y romántico a más no poder.» Harlan Coben
«Esta novela es el cine negro de Los Ángeles más incendiario.»
Megan Abbott
«Escritor de Hollywood durante más de una década, Jordan Harper ilustra con perspicacia los contrastes del mundo del espectáculo y expone cómo la gente esconde su desesperación bajo la apariencia de la fama.»
The Washington Post
«El alcance del relato es expansivo, y también lo es la expectación que despierta. [...] Una historia totalmente contemporánea. […] La novela revelación de Harper.»
LA Times
«Una lectura obligada.
408 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 10, 2023
About the author
Jordan Harper
14 books1,366 followersJordan Harper is the Edgar-Award winning author of SHE RIDES SHOTGUN, THE LAST KING OF CALIFORNIA, EVERYBODY KNOWS and the short story collection LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS. He lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a writer and producer for television.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,673 reviews
March 5, 2023
A solid five stars.
I have read all my life, sometimes a hundred and fifty books a year. An avid reader. Everybody Knows is the first book that has spoken to me in regard to Los Angeles (as a place), as a three--dimensional character with a voice all its own. This city character is filtered through the eyes of the others with their own profound take on a strange, unique world. In this story Los Angeles is a living breathing brute, a fiend, a beast. People live inside this beast and try to survive. Truly amazing. This one is going to be nominated for some awards.
The prose and the voice hark back to the best of James Elroy. This writing is amped, like it’s on speed or coke. With only two alternating points of view the story is extremely easy to follow.
The story is fast paced and never for a moment gives the reader a chance to take a breath. No chaff, no fluff just head-on crash-into-a-wall story telling.
I don’t know if this book is meant to be an anti-hero story but for me, both characters lack any redeeming qualities. In fact, I’m not sure any of the characters in the book have redeeming qualities, (except the girl they are trying to rescue). This book also has an interesting structure, the true antagonist doesn’t raise his ugly head until halfway through the book. Until then, the two hero’s (use the term heroes loosely here) follow the trail of carnage.
The glimpse of how Hollywood fixers respond, assess, and spin a screwup caused by an a beloved Hollywood Icon is truly worth the price of admission. The incidences are gritty and all too real.
I really loved, “She Rode Shotgun,” by this author, (one of my favorites the year it came out), this book is nothing like it. Doesn’t matter though. This is truly the kind of book when you open it you strap-in and hold on.
One trope I didn’t really care for, one used far too often in storylines, movies and books is the ol’ “I won’t tell you now, I’ll tell you tomorrow.” But tomorrow never comes. That person is dead, and the protagonists have to figure out what was going to be told. If this concept is buried in a solid motivation it doesn’t matter, but in this novel, no reason was ever given as to the, “why,” he couldn’t tell us until later.
Another great read by this author and I’ll be again waiting in line when his next one arrives.
David Putnam author of The Bruno Johnson series.
I have read all my life, sometimes a hundred and fifty books a year. An avid reader. Everybody Knows is the first book that has spoken to me in regard to Los Angeles (as a place), as a three--dimensional character with a voice all its own. This city character is filtered through the eyes of the others with their own profound take on a strange, unique world. In this story Los Angeles is a living breathing brute, a fiend, a beast. People live inside this beast and try to survive. Truly amazing. This one is going to be nominated for some awards.
The prose and the voice hark back to the best of James Elroy. This writing is amped, like it’s on speed or coke. With only two alternating points of view the story is extremely easy to follow.
The story is fast paced and never for a moment gives the reader a chance to take a breath. No chaff, no fluff just head-on crash-into-a-wall story telling.
I don’t know if this book is meant to be an anti-hero story but for me, both characters lack any redeeming qualities. In fact, I’m not sure any of the characters in the book have redeeming qualities, (except the girl they are trying to rescue). This book also has an interesting structure, the true antagonist doesn’t raise his ugly head until halfway through the book. Until then, the two hero’s (use the term heroes loosely here) follow the trail of carnage.
The glimpse of how Hollywood fixers respond, assess, and spin a screwup caused by an a beloved Hollywood Icon is truly worth the price of admission. The incidences are gritty and all too real.
I really loved, “She Rode Shotgun,” by this author, (one of my favorites the year it came out), this book is nothing like it. Doesn’t matter though. This is truly the kind of book when you open it you strap-in and hold on.
One trope I didn’t really care for, one used far too often in storylines, movies and books is the ol’ “I won’t tell you now, I’ll tell you tomorrow.” But tomorrow never comes. That person is dead, and the protagonists have to figure out what was going to be told. If this concept is buried in a solid motivation it doesn’t matter, but in this novel, no reason was ever given as to the, “why,” he couldn’t tell us until later.
Another great read by this author and I’ll be again waiting in line when his next one arrives.
David Putnam author of The Bruno Johnson series.
May 12, 2023
I will admit to having a love/hate relationship with thrillers. I want to like them, but more often than not, I’m disappointed. Luckily, that wasn’t the case with Everybody Knows.
Mae Pruitt is a black bag publicist (think Ray Donovan). Her firm keeps the bad news from getting out, even when it probably should. When her boss is gunned down a day after he was about to confide in a dubious plan to her, she realizes she needs to investigate his death. She’s joined in her search for the truth by Chris, her ex-boyfriend, who worked for the same firm.
The story alternates between their two POVs. It moves at a brisk pace. Yes, by the end, you need to suspend your belief a tad. But at least there weren’t any Die Hard OTT action scenes.
Initially, neither character is likable. They work in a despicable business and don’t see much wrong in what they do. The interest comes as each begins to change their mindset. Things get dark in a hurry and they realize their plan is risky in the extreme. The last scenes were perfect - the desperation, the ambiguity, the realization.
I listened to this and found Megan Tussing and William DeMerritt to be well suited to their characters.
Mae Pruitt is a black bag publicist (think Ray Donovan). Her firm keeps the bad news from getting out, even when it probably should. When her boss is gunned down a day after he was about to confide in a dubious plan to her, she realizes she needs to investigate his death. She’s joined in her search for the truth by Chris, her ex-boyfriend, who worked for the same firm.
The story alternates between their two POVs. It moves at a brisk pace. Yes, by the end, you need to suspend your belief a tad. But at least there weren’t any Die Hard OTT action scenes.
Initially, neither character is likable. They work in a despicable business and don’t see much wrong in what they do. The interest comes as each begins to change their mindset. Things get dark in a hurry and they realize their plan is risky in the extreme. The last scenes were perfect - the desperation, the ambiguity, the realization.
I listened to this and found Megan Tussing and William DeMerritt to be well suited to their characters.
March 23, 2024
Everybody Knows is the second novel by Jordan Harper and surpasses his excellent debut She Rides Shotgun as exhilarating crime fiction and the epitome of Los Angeles noir. Published in 2023, the book weaves the investigations of a publicist and her ex-lover, a private security contractor, and is one of those I stayed up past my bedtime to finish. And I rarely miss my curfew.
Writing in close third person, Harper begins Everybody Knows alternating between two equally compelling narratives:
Mae Pruett is a publicist entrusted with catching and killing stories damaging to the reputations of her firm's wealthy clients. Mae's boss asks her to meet him at the Beverly Hills Hotel for a drink, triggering concern. Rather than solicit her sexually, he proposes partnering with him on something he's working on off the books. Mae senses blackmail, but before she can find out what he's got his big toe in, her boss is gunned down by a man with gang affiliations. The LA County Sheriff's Department catches and kills the shooter, with what to Mae's trained ear sounds like a cover story.
Ex-sheriff's deputy Chris Tamburro works for the private security firm BlackGuard as hired muscle. He's the guy wealthy men call when they need to send a message to someone who won't file assault charges. BlackGuard's owner summons Chris to his home and employs him to use his contacts in the LASD to find out whether the shooting is on the up-and-up. Mae and Chris soon discover they're pursuing the same answer and work together to get to the truth.
Harper exhibits great finesse articulating the cynicism of his characters as they sift through the garbage of some of the worst human beings in Los Angeles County, which puts them in the running for worst human beings on Earth. He writes like a thief, breaking into mansions and reporting back on what he found in the bedrooms and closets.
-- Blackmail isn't unheard of in the black-bag world. Shakedowns happen. Too many secrets worth too much money float through people's hands. Too many cell phone videos and scorned employees. Usually the shakedowns happen UNSAID. You triple-charge the client and dare them to ask you why. The bill is saying here is what the secret is worth.
-- Here’s what being an ex-cop teaches you: There’s all these invisible walls that keep everybody in line. And if you refuse to see them, they just aren’t there anymore. Once you walk through the walls, they never come back up again.
Harper's choice of narration limits the whiplash of head-hopping I usually experience with books that bounce from narrator to narrator. There's some summarization, but the plot is so crackerjack that I didn't mind some telling here or there where showing might've been more compelling. I didn't know where the story was headed or what might become of the protagonists.
While I usually dislike novels that fabricate celebrities--Harper name drops real ones who aren't required to contribute depraved behavior--those in Everybody Knows are credible. Thinly veiled versions of tweener sitcom producer Dan Schneider and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein are featured. Disgust rises, like it should in great fiction. In addition to depicting how a conspiracy works--things go UNSAID instead of said out loud--the book's refrain is that in LA, nobody talks, but everybody whispers. Rather than titillate with sleaze, Harper offers the only way for an industry--which among many things, preys on child actors--to change is for the whisperers to go public with how they participated. Easier said than done.
Non-Angelenos might skim the descriptions of neighborhoods or freeways, but I loved seeing details of my city, accurately reflecting how spread out LA is, why Hollywood is completely different than Brentwood, and why Venice has a whole other vibe from Koreatown. Ignore the terrible cover art. Wildfire, not earthquake, is illustrated by Harper as the region's most disruptive natural disaster.
Writing in close third person, Harper begins Everybody Knows alternating between two equally compelling narratives:
Mae Pruett is a publicist entrusted with catching and killing stories damaging to the reputations of her firm's wealthy clients. Mae's boss asks her to meet him at the Beverly Hills Hotel for a drink, triggering concern. Rather than solicit her sexually, he proposes partnering with him on something he's working on off the books. Mae senses blackmail, but before she can find out what he's got his big toe in, her boss is gunned down by a man with gang affiliations. The LA County Sheriff's Department catches and kills the shooter, with what to Mae's trained ear sounds like a cover story.
Ex-sheriff's deputy Chris Tamburro works for the private security firm BlackGuard as hired muscle. He's the guy wealthy men call when they need to send a message to someone who won't file assault charges. BlackGuard's owner summons Chris to his home and employs him to use his contacts in the LASD to find out whether the shooting is on the up-and-up. Mae and Chris soon discover they're pursuing the same answer and work together to get to the truth.
Harper exhibits great finesse articulating the cynicism of his characters as they sift through the garbage of some of the worst human beings in Los Angeles County, which puts them in the running for worst human beings on Earth. He writes like a thief, breaking into mansions and reporting back on what he found in the bedrooms and closets.
-- Blackmail isn't unheard of in the black-bag world. Shakedowns happen. Too many secrets worth too much money float through people's hands. Too many cell phone videos and scorned employees. Usually the shakedowns happen UNSAID. You triple-charge the client and dare them to ask you why. The bill is saying here is what the secret is worth.
-- Here’s what being an ex-cop teaches you: There’s all these invisible walls that keep everybody in line. And if you refuse to see them, they just aren’t there anymore. Once you walk through the walls, they never come back up again.
Harper's choice of narration limits the whiplash of head-hopping I usually experience with books that bounce from narrator to narrator. There's some summarization, but the plot is so crackerjack that I didn't mind some telling here or there where showing might've been more compelling. I didn't know where the story was headed or what might become of the protagonists.
While I usually dislike novels that fabricate celebrities--Harper name drops real ones who aren't required to contribute depraved behavior--those in Everybody Knows are credible. Thinly veiled versions of tweener sitcom producer Dan Schneider and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein are featured. Disgust rises, like it should in great fiction. In addition to depicting how a conspiracy works--things go UNSAID instead of said out loud--the book's refrain is that in LA, nobody talks, but everybody whispers. Rather than titillate with sleaze, Harper offers the only way for an industry--which among many things, preys on child actors--to change is for the whisperers to go public with how they participated. Easier said than done.
Non-Angelenos might skim the descriptions of neighborhoods or freeways, but I loved seeing details of my city, accurately reflecting how spread out LA is, why Hollywood is completely different than Brentwood, and why Venice has a whole other vibe from Koreatown. Ignore the terrible cover art. Wildfire, not earthquake, is illustrated by Harper as the region's most disruptive natural disaster.
August 27, 2023
Jordan Harper's contemporary Los Angeles Noir is an edgy well written thriller that plunges the reader into the ugly horror that simmers below the superficial gloss and glamour of Hollywood and the world of the rich and powerful, where at the root of every fortune is crime, a LA where nobody talks but everybody whispers. Mae Pruett is an experienced black bag publicist, specialising in preventing bad news leaking out, working at the top and most sought out firm, Mitnick and Associates, mentored by Dan Hennigan. It is not a profession for those who have any sense of right or wrong, you have to armour yourself from feeling any sense of morality as you protect and disconnect power from responsibility. Dan has mentored Mae, teaching her the basic tenets such as it is not that the truth isn't important, it just doesn't matter, and if you want to sell a story, you have to give them heartstrings, or give them horror.
Dan now wants to bring Mae in on a getting rich beyond imagination scheme, tempting her, telling her she already does all this dirt, so she might as well do it for herself. He arranges a time to fill her in on the details, only she arrives to find him shot dead in his car. A traumatised Mae doesn't believe the official explanations, she is certain it is his planned scheme that got him killed, and she is going to find out what it was. She is joined in her inquiries by an ex-lover and ex-cop, Chris Tamburro with his phantom heart attacks, a huge, feared man, now working private security. The blood soaked nightmare they start to uncover pushes them to consider leaving their murky and amoral lives behind, but is saving themselves even a possibility? Mae and Chris are unaware of the tragedies coming, along with the danger and trouble emanating from 'the beast', the juggernaut of powers lining up against them.
Secrets are Mae's trade, as is understanding what is unsaid, a garbage world, of drugs, where the rats thrive, an LA where someone is bombing the homeless in their tent cities, and the police are corrupt killers too. She is averting her eyes as the darkness and lies she ventures into shows her how the world really is, the truth about what she is and what she does. Mae wants the impossible, to go 'back to when she could walk through this burning world without noticing it's on fire'. The sewage of humanity we encounter here are difficult to read about, hard to stomach, pure filth and poison protected by the likes of Mae and Chris. The protagonists are unquestionably unlikeable, but Mae and Chris's journey to try and redeem themselves is a riveting reading experience. This is a must read that I highly recommend! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
Dan now wants to bring Mae in on a getting rich beyond imagination scheme, tempting her, telling her she already does all this dirt, so she might as well do it for herself. He arranges a time to fill her in on the details, only she arrives to find him shot dead in his car. A traumatised Mae doesn't believe the official explanations, she is certain it is his planned scheme that got him killed, and she is going to find out what it was. She is joined in her inquiries by an ex-lover and ex-cop, Chris Tamburro with his phantom heart attacks, a huge, feared man, now working private security. The blood soaked nightmare they start to uncover pushes them to consider leaving their murky and amoral lives behind, but is saving themselves even a possibility? Mae and Chris are unaware of the tragedies coming, along with the danger and trouble emanating from 'the beast', the juggernaut of powers lining up against them.
Secrets are Mae's trade, as is understanding what is unsaid, a garbage world, of drugs, where the rats thrive, an LA where someone is bombing the homeless in their tent cities, and the police are corrupt killers too. She is averting her eyes as the darkness and lies she ventures into shows her how the world really is, the truth about what she is and what she does. Mae wants the impossible, to go 'back to when she could walk through this burning world without noticing it's on fire'. The sewage of humanity we encounter here are difficult to read about, hard to stomach, pure filth and poison protected by the likes of Mae and Chris. The protagonists are unquestionably unlikeable, but Mae and Chris's journey to try and redeem themselves is a riveting reading experience. This is a must read that I highly recommend! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
October 24, 2022
Know It All.
In the public relations world of crisis management, Mae is near the top of her game. Her mentor Dan has been described as a “black bag PR wizard to the stars” and Mae is close behind in his footsteps.
While not in the limelight herself, she’s always “on” as celebrities rely on her to avert or spin bad news and her employers are paid lavishly for the firm’s services.
When her ex-boyfriend Chris, an enforcer of sorts and a huge scary man, is added to the mix, the nail-biting ratchets up.
I was predisposed to Mae and her ‘black bag’ career label luring me to request this book. The elusive description sounded sure to involve secrets and I’m happy to report that the subterfuge was off the charts.
My excitement to try this author was rewarded with a staccato writing style aligning perfectly with an edgy story. Set in Los Angeles, there’s a noir feel but it takes place in the present with a smoky ambiance.
In an era of self-branding, the perception is that anyone can do it. However, the professionals in ‘Everybody Knows’ manipulate the media at an astonishing level.
If you’ve ever wondered what transpires behind the scenes and the management of public perception, this is a feast for curious minds. I was fascinated.
Thank you to Mulholland Books, Jordan Harper, and Novel Suspects for my Advance Print Copy due to publish on January 10, 2023.
In the public relations world of crisis management, Mae is near the top of her game. Her mentor Dan has been described as a “black bag PR wizard to the stars” and Mae is close behind in his footsteps.
While not in the limelight herself, she’s always “on” as celebrities rely on her to avert or spin bad news and her employers are paid lavishly for the firm’s services.
When her ex-boyfriend Chris, an enforcer of sorts and a huge scary man, is added to the mix, the nail-biting ratchets up.
I was predisposed to Mae and her ‘black bag’ career label luring me to request this book. The elusive description sounded sure to involve secrets and I’m happy to report that the subterfuge was off the charts.
My excitement to try this author was rewarded with a staccato writing style aligning perfectly with an edgy story. Set in Los Angeles, there’s a noir feel but it takes place in the present with a smoky ambiance.
In an era of self-branding, the perception is that anyone can do it. However, the professionals in ‘Everybody Knows’ manipulate the media at an astonishing level.
If you’ve ever wondered what transpires behind the scenes and the management of public perception, this is a feast for curious minds. I was fascinated.
Thank you to Mulholland Books, Jordan Harper, and Novel Suspects for my Advance Print Copy due to publish on January 10, 2023.
February 12, 2023
even though it is only january, i already know this will make my "best of 2023" list. so good it makes me want to return to book reviewing just to praise it.
September 25, 2022
There is a lot of talk about neo-noir and I've read more than a few. I like a lot of the original crime noir, and often what I'm looking for in neo-noir is a modernization that still stays true to the genre, it doesn't always deliver. But this is one of the best, absolutely a model for how you can take an old genre, make it your own, update it for the era, and be completely satisfying.
Harper gets a lot of what makes noir what it is. There's Los Angeles setting with its mix of sleaze and glamour. You need a twisty plot and a long list of unsavory characters. You need what we now call the unlikable protagonist or antihero. Here we get two. And when I say unlikable I don't mean they have negative qualities but you still like them. It can be very hard to like Mae and Chris. Mae is a publicist on paper, but really she's a fixer. Her firm makes bad stories go away. Chris is in security after being pushed out of the police force, he knows how to work the system and he's still doing it on the private side. They had a fling a few years ago but they were both scared off by their emotional attachment.
Now Mae and Chris find that they may have reached their breaking point when it comes to helping the rich, powerful, and just plain horrible get away with murder and more. They start to wonder if maybe it's time to cut ties, go solo, or possibly something even bigger. Or have they gotten themselves in way over their heads? That's our underlying emotional/plot arc, and it's a rewarding one. There is no sudden epiphany, no moment where our happily ruthless protagonists suddenly become upstanding moral people. No quick fix that will suddenly solve everything. Instead it's a slow roll as they move from worrying about their own fallibility and then slowly starting to look around and see the system they are part of.
The plot feels pulled from the headlines, and it dares to live in the reality of the post-metoo movement. (At one point someone calls it a "moment," a calculated word to make it clear that the moment is over.) Where yes there are some kinds of allegations that can get some kinds of people into trouble. But most of the time the system is still hard at work keeping everything just as it is.
The prose is short and snappy, with a ridiculous flair for the chapter-ending kicker. The violence is ramped a lot higher than you would've seen 70 years ago, but so are today's headlines.
I really don't have any notes, it's impressively solid.
Harper gets a lot of what makes noir what it is. There's Los Angeles setting with its mix of sleaze and glamour. You need a twisty plot and a long list of unsavory characters. You need what we now call the unlikable protagonist or antihero. Here we get two. And when I say unlikable I don't mean they have negative qualities but you still like them. It can be very hard to like Mae and Chris. Mae is a publicist on paper, but really she's a fixer. Her firm makes bad stories go away. Chris is in security after being pushed out of the police force, he knows how to work the system and he's still doing it on the private side. They had a fling a few years ago but they were both scared off by their emotional attachment.
Now Mae and Chris find that they may have reached their breaking point when it comes to helping the rich, powerful, and just plain horrible get away with murder and more. They start to wonder if maybe it's time to cut ties, go solo, or possibly something even bigger. Or have they gotten themselves in way over their heads? That's our underlying emotional/plot arc, and it's a rewarding one. There is no sudden epiphany, no moment where our happily ruthless protagonists suddenly become upstanding moral people. No quick fix that will suddenly solve everything. Instead it's a slow roll as they move from worrying about their own fallibility and then slowly starting to look around and see the system they are part of.
The plot feels pulled from the headlines, and it dares to live in the reality of the post-metoo movement. (At one point someone calls it a "moment," a calculated word to make it clear that the moment is over.) Where yes there are some kinds of allegations that can get some kinds of people into trouble. But most of the time the system is still hard at work keeping everything just as it is.
The prose is short and snappy, with a ridiculous flair for the chapter-ending kicker. The violence is ramped a lot higher than you would've seen 70 years ago, but so are today's headlines.
I really don't have any notes, it's impressively solid.
May 10, 2023
This book is written in third person from the alternating perspectives of two lead characters - Mae and Chris.
We spend a lot of time in their heads - getting to know their inner thoughts, whether we like them or not - we are invested.
Mae is a "fixer" for the press.
Chris is an imposing former LA County deputy sheriff who was exposed as a dirty cop. Now he works for an attorney.
Their job is "to protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary."
Both Mae and Chris are flawed characters, which makes them more than interesting.
The author features, cynical, brooding, deeply flawed protagonists struggling to survive in a very dark world.
The interplay of light and dark becoming blurred is the most prominent elements of this story.
The book is going to take us down a very steep and winding path of themes that touch on ethics, power and moral dilemmas.
And of course, there is the setting of Los Angeles, where we can look at the glitz and glamour, but we are also going to see it seething with corruption underneath.
James Ellroy fans will love this one!
We spend a lot of time in their heads - getting to know their inner thoughts, whether we like them or not - we are invested.
Mae is a "fixer" for the press.
Chris is an imposing former LA County deputy sheriff who was exposed as a dirty cop. Now he works for an attorney.
Their job is "to protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary."
Both Mae and Chris are flawed characters, which makes them more than interesting.
The author features, cynical, brooding, deeply flawed protagonists struggling to survive in a very dark world.
The interplay of light and dark becoming blurred is the most prominent elements of this story.
The book is going to take us down a very steep and winding path of themes that touch on ethics, power and moral dilemmas.
And of course, there is the setting of Los Angeles, where we can look at the glitz and glamour, but we are also going to see it seething with corruption underneath.
James Ellroy fans will love this one!
March 9, 2023
This book was quite different than most books I read - so different, I’m not even sure how to review it! Let’s look at what we have…
Pros:
-The writing was fantastic
-I enjoyed reading about the two main characters, Mae and Chris
-It was interesting enough to keep me going
Cons:
-There were SO MANY characters
-I didn’t find Mae or Chris very redeemable
-There were too many variables and side-stories and it became confusing in places
The story itself isn’t confusing; Mae is a “black bag publicist” who works to keep bad stories about her clients out of the news. Chris is a former police officer gone rogue. They find themselves working together, on so many things - fires at homeless camps, underground police gangs, pedophilia and grooming in the entertainment industry, a steroid cartel, starlets with opiate addictions, kidnapping - the list of “investigations” they had going at any given time were a bit much.
Overall though, I liked this book. I’m not into slow burns, but this one didn’t bore me as some can. The characters weren’t necessarily likable, but they were interesting. The ending was abrupt for everything else that happened in the book, but it did tie things up for the most part. I’m giving this 3.5 stars, rounded down for being too cluttered and thus, a bit slow. People who like straight crime books may enjoy it more!
(Thank you to Mulholland Books, Jordan Harper and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)
Pros:
-The writing was fantastic
-I enjoyed reading about the two main characters, Mae and Chris
-It was interesting enough to keep me going
Cons:
-There were SO MANY characters
-I didn’t find Mae or Chris very redeemable
-There were too many variables and side-stories and it became confusing in places
The story itself isn’t confusing; Mae is a “black bag publicist” who works to keep bad stories about her clients out of the news. Chris is a former police officer gone rogue. They find themselves working together, on so many things - fires at homeless camps, underground police gangs, pedophilia and grooming in the entertainment industry, a steroid cartel, starlets with opiate addictions, kidnapping - the list of “investigations” they had going at any given time were a bit much.
Overall though, I liked this book. I’m not into slow burns, but this one didn’t bore me as some can. The characters weren’t necessarily likable, but they were interesting. The ending was abrupt for everything else that happened in the book, but it did tie things up for the most part. I’m giving this 3.5 stars, rounded down for being too cluttered and thus, a bit slow. People who like straight crime books may enjoy it more!
(Thank you to Mulholland Books, Jordan Harper and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)
June 30, 2023
A dark, gritty, and disturbing behind the scenes look at the star-making machinery that chews up and spits out young hopefuls. A bleak experience that will leave you feeling hollowed out.
May 23, 2024
Harper tells a nice sleuthing story here, and also tries to capture the true sleazy atmosphere of Los Angeles. The first part is more convincing than the second, and such weaknesses as the novel displays are in trying a little too hard to create a dystopian vision of a city of sleaze ruled over by a few rich men. (Still, the existence of Harvey Weinstein suggests this isn't a complete fantasy. Harper just overdoes it a bit.)
We are dropped directly into a story involving Mae, a Hollywood publicist, and her ex-cop, ex-boyfriend Chris. Both have spent their professional lives supporting a system that protects the strong and victimizes the weak, and we meet them in separate story threads just about at the point they've decided they've had enough. Circumstances bring them back together as they're both chasing the same quarry for different reasons. I really enjoyed the author's ability to get into these two characters' heads and make them imperfect but sympathetic.
Harper has certainly immersed himself in LA's look-at-me culture. He describes one throwaway character as "an intern in selvage denim and an Elvis pompadour." If there are more than fifty male readers in the US that know what 'selvage denim' is, then I'm more out of touch than I thought. Even if I have no idea what an Alexander McQueen handbag is, all of this felt authentic in capturing what a certain segment of society cares about, and cares deeply.
Like millions of other readers, I have spent time in Los Angeles and I have worked in corporate America. The existence of the aforementioned Weinstein suggests that the movie industry may differ somewhat from other industries -- what's for sale is people, basically, instead of inanimate goods -- but at the end of the day, movie studios exist to make money, and the wholesale sleaze to serve the movie gods rather than the shareholders seems unlikely to me. Not to mention the fact that the movie industry is probably the most heavily-scrutinized in existence. There is no doubt that certain sleazy elements exist, but a world in which cops, reporters, politicians and movie moguls all work together seamlessly does not strike me as realistic. And the only jarring sentences in an otherwise masterfully-written book are when he tries too hard to create this doom-laden atmosphere:
Minor quibble, though. I really enjoyed this and it delivers. Thanks to Joe Valdez for putting this on my TBR.
We are dropped directly into a story involving Mae, a Hollywood publicist, and her ex-cop, ex-boyfriend Chris. Both have spent their professional lives supporting a system that protects the strong and victimizes the weak, and we meet them in separate story threads just about at the point they've decided they've had enough. Circumstances bring them back together as they're both chasing the same quarry for different reasons. I really enjoyed the author's ability to get into these two characters' heads and make them imperfect but sympathetic.
Harper has certainly immersed himself in LA's look-at-me culture. He describes one throwaway character as "an intern in selvage denim and an Elvis pompadour." If there are more than fifty male readers in the US that know what 'selvage denim' is, then I'm more out of touch than I thought. Even if I have no idea what an Alexander McQueen handbag is, all of this felt authentic in capturing what a certain segment of society cares about, and cares deeply.
Like millions of other readers, I have spent time in Los Angeles and I have worked in corporate America. The existence of the aforementioned Weinstein suggests that the movie industry may differ somewhat from other industries -- what's for sale is people, basically, instead of inanimate goods -- but at the end of the day, movie studios exist to make money, and the wholesale sleaze to serve the movie gods rather than the shareholders seems unlikely to me. Not to mention the fact that the movie industry is probably the most heavily-scrutinized in existence. There is no doubt that certain sleazy elements exist, but a world in which cops, reporters, politicians and movie moguls all work together seamlessly does not strike me as realistic. And the only jarring sentences in an otherwise masterfully-written book are when he tries too hard to create this doom-laden atmosphere:
She says, "Okay." What she tells him after that blows out the back of his head like a book-depository bullet.I mean: Really? She's just communicating information to him. And how did the JFK assassination end up in a modern-age story about Hollywood?
Minor quibble, though. I really enjoyed this and it delivers. Thanks to Joe Valdez for putting this on my TBR.
June 28, 2024
And then there's the parable of the elephant. Five blind men, each extending a hand to a different part of the beast; trunk, tail, ear, leg and torso. Each describes a piece of the animal imagining this is the whole. Los Angeles is very much the parable of the elephant. So, so very many authors slip into the specificity, mistaking this for the whole.
Jordan Harper (our author) is a transplant, hailing from Missouri, who now works in Los Angeles as a writer and producer for television. As such, his city is Industry-centric and incendiary, perhaps even Hollywood in its death throe. Mae Pruett, a smooth-talking down-and-dirty publicist, takes the lead here; her work a deep and bloody vein of celebrity crisis management. A boss with whom she is allied falls victim to a deadly Beverly Hills carjacking, but not before reading her in on a major payday involving one of the ultimate power players in town. Mae's ex and erstwhile boyfriend, a muscle-bound enforcer named Chris, joins her to unravel the scam and determine the worth of the takedown.
This is a trainwreck of a tale, and purposefully so. The chapters are short and fast, the characters hurtling to destinations on one-way ticket fares. No one is particularly intelligent or adept at anything beyond keeping one step ahead of the next death or career ruination. It would be fair, I think, to suggest Mr. Harper's experience in the City of Angels has been thoroughly disillusioning.
But he is, very specifically, making the most of it.
Jordan Harper (our author) is a transplant, hailing from Missouri, who now works in Los Angeles as a writer and producer for television. As such, his city is Industry-centric and incendiary, perhaps even Hollywood in its death throe. Mae Pruett, a smooth-talking down-and-dirty publicist, takes the lead here; her work a deep and bloody vein of celebrity crisis management. A boss with whom she is allied falls victim to a deadly Beverly Hills carjacking, but not before reading her in on a major payday involving one of the ultimate power players in town. Mae's ex and erstwhile boyfriend, a muscle-bound enforcer named Chris, joins her to unravel the scam and determine the worth of the takedown.
This is a trainwreck of a tale, and purposefully so. The chapters are short and fast, the characters hurtling to destinations on one-way ticket fares. No one is particularly intelligent or adept at anything beyond keeping one step ahead of the next death or career ruination. It would be fair, I think, to suggest Mr. Harper's experience in the City of Angels has been thoroughly disillusioning.
But he is, very specifically, making the most of it.
February 26, 2024
Please read the summary for the book.
It's Sunday. I'm lazy.
Heavy on the noir vibe this crime thriller is filled with all the good things.
Morally grey characters.
The rich, the famous.
Murder.
Crime aplenty.
Various bad deeds.
Various bad seeds.
Large cast of the usual suspects.
L.A. A character in its own right.
And so much more.
I found it to be a well-written, well-woven easy-to-follow story despite the intricate plot and the numerous characters.
Yes, well done.
It's Sunday. I'm lazy.
Heavy on the noir vibe this crime thriller is filled with all the good things.
Morally grey characters.
The rich, the famous.
Murder.
Crime aplenty.
Various bad deeds.
Various bad seeds.
Large cast of the usual suspects.
L.A. A character in its own right.
And so much more.
I found it to be a well-written, well-woven easy-to-follow story despite the intricate plot and the numerous characters.
Yes, well done.
July 3, 2022
From Book Riot's Unusual Suspects Newsletter
I have been waiting for a new Jordan Harper novel since the second I finished She Rides Shotgun, which is one of my favorite crime novels and one of my favorite child characters. I mention this because that’s the high bar I had when I dropped everything last year to inhale a galley of this book and it immediately became one of my favorites of 2023. It’s an L.A. crime novel that follows the kind of people that are the behind-the-scenes puppet masters no one really knows about. But bad puppet masters. Mae Pruett works for a firm that basically cleans up celebrity and wealthy people’s messes. Sometimes Mae is tasked with dealing with a once child star and other times she’s helping bad, cruel people just get away with anything. She’s always been okay with her job, she’s good at it, until a coworker who had something to tell her is murdered. It’s ruled a car jacking gone wrong, but Mae isn’t letting it go. Instead she ends up partnering with Chris, an ex who was once in law enforcement and has since gone private after being forced out. He’s also on the not right side of the law or ethics in his field of work. And like Mae, he’s willing to start risking the life he has to figure out what is really happening behind a murder. The further they dig, and the more they put their lives in danger, the more Chris and Mae are going to have to question who they currently are and whether they’re okay with that…
And just like that I’m back to awaiting for Harper’s next novel!
(TW addiction/ mentions attempt to film sex without permission/ mentions partner abuse/ alludes to past suicidal thoughts/ mentions forced, induced miscarriage without knowledge or consent/ anxiety/ pregnant teen via rape/ predators of teens, not graphic/ brief mention eating disorders/ mentions suicide, detail)
-------
She Rides Shotgun is one of my all time favorite crime novels and since reading it I have regularly checked to see if Harper has a new novel coming out. So when I saw that not only he has a 2023 title but that there was a galley I had access to I literally dropped everything and read it. It's fantastic. Harper has the ability to write about crime, people, and our world with a laser focus to the heart of the issues and problems while stacking all the people in the way of change. This will be a favorite title I read in 2022 and a favorite title released in 2023. Now to go sit with my thoughts and wait for the feeling of "this novel has ruined me for other crime novels" to pass.
I have been waiting for a new Jordan Harper novel since the second I finished She Rides Shotgun, which is one of my favorite crime novels and one of my favorite child characters. I mention this because that’s the high bar I had when I dropped everything last year to inhale a galley of this book and it immediately became one of my favorites of 2023. It’s an L.A. crime novel that follows the kind of people that are the behind-the-scenes puppet masters no one really knows about. But bad puppet masters. Mae Pruett works for a firm that basically cleans up celebrity and wealthy people’s messes. Sometimes Mae is tasked with dealing with a once child star and other times she’s helping bad, cruel people just get away with anything. She’s always been okay with her job, she’s good at it, until a coworker who had something to tell her is murdered. It’s ruled a car jacking gone wrong, but Mae isn’t letting it go. Instead she ends up partnering with Chris, an ex who was once in law enforcement and has since gone private after being forced out. He’s also on the not right side of the law or ethics in his field of work. And like Mae, he’s willing to start risking the life he has to figure out what is really happening behind a murder. The further they dig, and the more they put their lives in danger, the more Chris and Mae are going to have to question who they currently are and whether they’re okay with that…
And just like that I’m back to awaiting for Harper’s next novel!
(TW addiction/ mentions attempt to film sex without permission/ mentions partner abuse/ alludes to past suicidal thoughts/ mentions forced, induced miscarriage without knowledge or consent/ anxiety/ pregnant teen via rape/ predators of teens, not graphic/ brief mention eating disorders/ mentions suicide, detail)
-------
She Rides Shotgun is one of my all time favorite crime novels and since reading it I have regularly checked to see if Harper has a new novel coming out. So when I saw that not only he has a 2023 title but that there was a galley I had access to I literally dropped everything and read it. It's fantastic. Harper has the ability to write about crime, people, and our world with a laser focus to the heart of the issues and problems while stacking all the people in the way of change. This will be a favorite title I read in 2022 and a favorite title released in 2023. Now to go sit with my thoughts and wait for the feeling of "this novel has ruined me for other crime novels" to pass.
January 27, 2023
Did not finish book. Stopped at 22%.
This book is to classic noir what CGI action movies are to classic action movies. The darkness, corruption, and violence are overblown like runaway special effects, to the point that it becomes cartoonish and losses its impact.
The world these people live in is sleazy, heartless, and revolves around drugs and sex and power. This is laid on so thick in the first part of the book that it is boring. I didn’t care about the characters or what was going on.
This book is to classic noir what CGI action movies are to classic action movies. The darkness, corruption, and violence are overblown like runaway special effects, to the point that it becomes cartoonish and losses its impact.
The world these people live in is sleazy, heartless, and revolves around drugs and sex and power. This is laid on so thick in the first part of the book that it is boring. I didn’t care about the characters or what was going on.
July 5, 2023
***3.5 Stars****
July 25, 2026
Harper brings the noir genre absolutely up to date with this 2023 thriller that is Ellroy-esque in its ugliness and violence, and also draws inevitable comparisons with Epstein and all those other super-rich and powerful men who consider themselves beyond any laws. And I say 'men' advisedly, though here (like Epstein, again) we see women whose complicity enable, support and protect the dominant men who trample and destroy for their own profit and pleasure.
What makes this book so good is that it stays downbeat all the way through to the end. There's no complacency or easy get-out clauses where the good come to the rescue and the bad are punished. Instead, we see LA life in all its urban, money-grabbing malevolence, from the exploitations of Hollywood and the studios to the parasitic PR firms whose job is to clean up and hide away any exposure of criminality or corruption upon which the system depends.
There are some scenes of sickening violence here which are, however, never gratuitous, and the moody atmosphere carries through to the end. Fast-paced, slick, and with a gimlet eye on the culture which is being exposed, this is dark, dark, dark. More Harper for me, please.
What makes this book so good is that it stays downbeat all the way through to the end. There's no complacency or easy get-out clauses where the good come to the rescue and the bad are punished. Instead, we see LA life in all its urban, money-grabbing malevolence, from the exploitations of Hollywood and the studios to the parasitic PR firms whose job is to clean up and hide away any exposure of criminality or corruption upon which the system depends.
There are some scenes of sickening violence here which are, however, never gratuitous, and the moody atmosphere carries through to the end. Fast-paced, slick, and with a gimlet eye on the culture which is being exposed, this is dark, dark, dark. More Harper for me, please.
June 18, 2023
Fuuuuuuck. This is the real shit. The A-grade crime novel everyone is looking for.
Everybody Knows is a complex, grimy and utterly absorbing deep dive into the underbelly of modern-day LA. A place where the rich and famous fuck everybody over to serve The Beast - the machine that keeps the money and the power flowing on the same direction. A cynical shithole where the only currency is secrets and the only method for getting them is blood.
Into all of this is thrown Mae, a black bag publicists whose job has not one scrap of morality about it. She's not a lawyer, or a journalist, or an agent. She's all of them and worse. And she's the fuckin hero of this story - that should tell you all you need to know about the dark heart of this place.
This gave me the same feeling I got when I first read James Ellroy or Don Winslow. It's LA Conf. for today's world. It's a sneering, snarling muthafucka of a crime novel. It's the absolute bomb.
Everybody Knows is a complex, grimy and utterly absorbing deep dive into the underbelly of modern-day LA. A place where the rich and famous fuck everybody over to serve The Beast - the machine that keeps the money and the power flowing on the same direction. A cynical shithole where the only currency is secrets and the only method for getting them is blood.
Into all of this is thrown Mae, a black bag publicists whose job has not one scrap of morality about it. She's not a lawyer, or a journalist, or an agent. She's all of them and worse. And she's the fuckin hero of this story - that should tell you all you need to know about the dark heart of this place.
This gave me the same feeling I got when I first read James Ellroy or Don Winslow. It's LA Conf. for today's world. It's a sneering, snarling muthafucka of a crime novel. It's the absolute bomb.
January 25, 2023
Nothing made sense, told from 2 different perspectives but nothing was coming together. Felt like i was just reading words-not for me.
December 19, 2022
I'll be honest, I almost skipped this book because it has a horrible cover. That being said, I saw a bookstagrammer who I respect raving about this book and figured, why not give it a try?! Well, I'm so happy I did because I really had fun with this crime-noir procedural. Jordan Harper's upcoming release, EVERYBODY KNOWS takes place in Los Angeles, and the city itself is a character of its own in this mystery. Mae Pruett is a publicist who handles crisis management for some of LA's most powerful people. After her boss is shot and murdered in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel, Mae decides to find out who is guilty of this murder. The company she works for has shady business dealings and she wants to make sure she is safe. This book alternates between Mae and Chris—a former police officer who has gone into the private sector and specializes in "making things happen."
I had so much fun with this book and I got major Meg Gardiner vibes! This book is a dedication to LA, to Hollywood, and the secret society within that realm. I really enjoyed reading Mae and Chris' journey into this world of crime, corruption, power, and sex. I highly recommend this book for all crime-fiction fans!
I had so much fun with this book and I got major Meg Gardiner vibes! This book is a dedication to LA, to Hollywood, and the secret society within that realm. I really enjoyed reading Mae and Chris' journey into this world of crime, corruption, power, and sex. I highly recommend this book for all crime-fiction fans!
February 6, 2023
Give them horror or give them heartstrings. Nothing else sticks.Jordan Harper is one of the best crime writers today and in his latest novel, he’s tackling the underbelly of the City of Angels.
Jordan Harper’s Los Angeles is a place of secrets, black bag PR, sponcons, money and celebrity in excess; a world filled with “noise to hide the whispers” and corruption so widespread that it’s a wonder anything ever gets done. You can feel the love/hate relationship with the city here, with a condemnation of the town so scathing that it could only come from when you love a place.
His two main characters, Mae Pruett and Chris Tamburro, are two people haunted by what they have done for the PR beast and desperate to somehow make things right and regain whatever decency they have left.
It’s a powerful novel, which is not a surprise given how great Harper’s writing here. It reads like something James Ellroy would write if he stepped into 2022. Harper’s writing even evolves into something akin to the Ellroy, with muscular and punchy prose that hits hard and fast. Harper does an amazing job with character here, navigating the emotion maturely and riding that line of sentimentality perfectly.
It’s still early in Harper’s career so it’s exciting to imagine what he has in store next.
“It’s like I’m in this backward purgatory. Like maybe if I commit enough sins, I’ll be able to get free.”
January 22, 2023
Disappointing book considering how good Harper’s previous books were. This book reads like the basis of a screenplay. All kinds of bad people, even the good people are bad. Violence. Many twists. Faceless, rich, powerful people pulling the strings and living in decadence. Maybe Harper will take some time away from Hollywood, get back to his roots and write a good book again.
January 18, 2023
Mae’s job as a publicist in one of LA’s powerful crisis PR firms is to keep secrets for celebrity clients — or, better yet, ignore the truth. It doesn’t matter that some of these clients are sleazy or even downright dangerous; there’s a long list of lawyers and security firms working to protect these depraved clients.
When Mae’s boss is gunned down in gridlock Beverly Hills traffic after hinting at a side job that could bring them both some cash, she begins an investigation to discover how dangerous his cash grab was — and for whom.
With the help of former cop Chris, they strategically work through the fading glamour of LA mansions, influencers, and producers to find a secret that could shock the current state of Hollywood.
While I’m a huge fan of Jordan Harper’s writing (She Rides Shotgun is a forever favorite), this modern noir just couldn’t get off the ground for me. The plot feels like a real world headline playing out on the pages and yet it just wasn’t a compelling read for me. I wanted to love this but honestly, I’ll probably forget most of this book by the end of the year.
Thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Everybody Knows was released January 10, 2023.
When Mae’s boss is gunned down in gridlock Beverly Hills traffic after hinting at a side job that could bring them both some cash, she begins an investigation to discover how dangerous his cash grab was — and for whom.
With the help of former cop Chris, they strategically work through the fading glamour of LA mansions, influencers, and producers to find a secret that could shock the current state of Hollywood.
While I’m a huge fan of Jordan Harper’s writing (She Rides Shotgun is a forever favorite), this modern noir just couldn’t get off the ground for me. The plot feels like a real world headline playing out on the pages and yet it just wasn’t a compelling read for me. I wanted to love this but honestly, I’ll probably forget most of this book by the end of the year.
Thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Everybody Knows was released January 10, 2023.
January 16, 2023
Everybody Knows, Jordan Harper's US follow-up to She Rides Shotgun, is a supremely confident -- and righteously so -- pitch-perfect noir tackling the criminality of the rich and powerful that prop up Hollywood and the support system that sustains them. (I say US follow-up because his The Last King of California came out in December in the UK but has yet to materialize on this side of the pond.)
Mae is a black-bag PR operator for the rich. Need a famous, young celebrity's OD covered-up, or the rough edges of a problematic actress smoothed over in the press? Mae's your go-to. The firm she's employed with oftentimes liaises with Blackguard, a private security consultant firm that does clean-up for the rich. Know your elite TV exec is a pedophile with hard-drives stuffed with pics of underage kiddos and it's all about to crash and burn around him? Blackguard will bring a portable incinerator over and make it all disappear. Her ex, Chris, a former dirty cop, does investigatory work for them but most often operates as a fist for the son of Blackguard's owner. After Mae's mentor is murdered, and the shooter conveniently killed by cops, the two find themselves digging for answers and uncovering far more sin and depravity than even they bargained for.
Harper's writing is tack-sharp pulp, quick and punchy, with a number of delectable, highlightable bon mots. When Mae clues Chris in on what she knows about Dan's murder, the info "blows out the back of Chris's head like a book-depository bullet." Or, "Everybody talks about how actresses are crazy. Nobody talks about how they got that way." Or Mae's own personal belief, shaped and refined by her years working the Hollywood elites, "Nobody talks. But everybody whispers." Coupled with the propulsive plot's hairpin turns and insider look deep behind the scenes (Harper is a TV writer and producer), not to mention the moral morass our already-questionable and conflicted compromised protagonists find themselves in, Harper's crafted one hell of an unputdownable barnburner with echoes of James Ellroy and Robert Crais.
Everybody Knows is a richly rewarding and deeply dark and cynical noir exploring the layers of corruption and complicity at the heart of Hollywood, informed by the big bold headlines of #MeToo and Jeffrey Epstein, police corruption, and the criminal impunity of the supremely wealthy. It's a noir with thick, dense layers and so many disparate plot threads that all come together amazingly well, and in rather twisted fashion. Unremittingly bleak, with only a few splashes of hope here and there, it's a testament to the idea that heroes are only a fiction from the silver screen. Off-camera, there's no such thing as heroes. But that's something everybody knows.
Mae is a black-bag PR operator for the rich. Need a famous, young celebrity's OD covered-up, or the rough edges of a problematic actress smoothed over in the press? Mae's your go-to. The firm she's employed with oftentimes liaises with Blackguard, a private security consultant firm that does clean-up for the rich. Know your elite TV exec is a pedophile with hard-drives stuffed with pics of underage kiddos and it's all about to crash and burn around him? Blackguard will bring a portable incinerator over and make it all disappear. Her ex, Chris, a former dirty cop, does investigatory work for them but most often operates as a fist for the son of Blackguard's owner. After Mae's mentor is murdered, and the shooter conveniently killed by cops, the two find themselves digging for answers and uncovering far more sin and depravity than even they bargained for.
Harper's writing is tack-sharp pulp, quick and punchy, with a number of delectable, highlightable bon mots. When Mae clues Chris in on what she knows about Dan's murder, the info "blows out the back of Chris's head like a book-depository bullet." Or, "Everybody talks about how actresses are crazy. Nobody talks about how they got that way." Or Mae's own personal belief, shaped and refined by her years working the Hollywood elites, "Nobody talks. But everybody whispers." Coupled with the propulsive plot's hairpin turns and insider look deep behind the scenes (Harper is a TV writer and producer), not to mention the moral morass our already-questionable and conflicted compromised protagonists find themselves in, Harper's crafted one hell of an unputdownable barnburner with echoes of James Ellroy and Robert Crais.
Everybody Knows is a richly rewarding and deeply dark and cynical noir exploring the layers of corruption and complicity at the heart of Hollywood, informed by the big bold headlines of #MeToo and Jeffrey Epstein, police corruption, and the criminal impunity of the supremely wealthy. It's a noir with thick, dense layers and so many disparate plot threads that all come together amazingly well, and in rather twisted fashion. Unremittingly bleak, with only a few splashes of hope here and there, it's a testament to the idea that heroes are only a fiction from the silver screen. Off-camera, there's no such thing as heroes. But that's something everybody knows.
March 21, 2023
Alright let’s just jump in.
I was bored with this. I hated the ending. Didn’t like how it was written (all of the random caps like UNSAID got so annoying). Mae referring to the beast got tiring after the first 5 times. Too many side stories (that never panned out) took away from what was happening, and the main characters were awful. Why even have them be romantically involved if it was going to mean nothing? If you loved this book, great. But this was too much of a mess for me to enjoy. It felt like it was trying really hard to be something it’s not.
Only pro was the dog Mandy.
I was bored with this. I hated the ending. Didn’t like how it was written (all of the random caps like UNSAID got so annoying). Mae referring to the beast got tiring after the first 5 times. Too many side stories (that never panned out) took away from what was happening, and the main characters were awful. Why even have them be romantically involved if it was going to mean nothing? If you loved this book, great. But this was too much of a mess for me to enjoy. It felt like it was trying really hard to be something it’s not.
Only pro was the dog Mandy.
May 21, 2023
My review disappeared. ☹
I'm not rewriting a 3.
Not worth the effort.
I'm not rewriting a 3.
Not worth the effort.
June 3, 2023
Mae Pruett is a publicist for a LA PR firm--her job isn't to celebrate good news, but keep bad news from getting out for her famous, wealthy, and powerful clients. When her boss, Dan, tells Mae he wants to bring her in on an exciting and secretive side project, she's intrigued. But then Dan is murdered shortly before a meeting. As Mae tries to figure out what happened, she gets entangled in the web of what she calls "The Beast," a group of lawyers, security firms, and PR folks who protect the rich and famous. Can she face The Beast and come out alive?
I read this book based solely on the recommendation of Michael Connelly, whose advice I usually love. And, honestly, this is a well-written and fascinating story, but it confused the absolute heck out of me half the time. I will freely admit it: I was not smart enough for this book. Figuring out who was after who in the labyrinth of The Beast took almost too much energy than I wanted to use when reading for pleasure. That doesn't make this book terrible in any way--it just means it wasn't the best fit for me!
EVERYBODY focuses on the selling of secrets and keeping secrets and the conglomerate of the Beast. There are very few likable characters in this story, filled with Hollywood moguls sleeping with young girls and the abuse and murder of homeless people. My favorite part was Mae's relationship with Chris, a former police offer whom she teams up with to tackle The Beast. Chris seems a bit more human than everyone else, even with his background of brutality and current use of brute force.
This book is complicated and often very gruesome. It is a dark story that features a greater and deeper message about society and its obsession with power. It's certainly intriguing, but I was disappointed by its vague and unfulfilling ending. 3.5 stars.
I read this book based solely on the recommendation of Michael Connelly, whose advice I usually love. And, honestly, this is a well-written and fascinating story, but it confused the absolute heck out of me half the time. I will freely admit it: I was not smart enough for this book. Figuring out who was after who in the labyrinth of The Beast took almost too much energy than I wanted to use when reading for pleasure. That doesn't make this book terrible in any way--it just means it wasn't the best fit for me!
EVERYBODY focuses on the selling of secrets and keeping secrets and the conglomerate of the Beast. There are very few likable characters in this story, filled with Hollywood moguls sleeping with young girls and the abuse and murder of homeless people. My favorite part was Mae's relationship with Chris, a former police offer whom she teams up with to tackle The Beast. Chris seems a bit more human than everyone else, even with his background of brutality and current use of brute force.
This book is complicated and often very gruesome. It is a dark story that features a greater and deeper message about society and its obsession with power. It's certainly intriguing, but I was disappointed by its vague and unfulfilling ending. 3.5 stars.
April 8, 2025
Pues se me ha hecho larga y con eso más o menos está dicho todo. Tal vez el tema ese que trata de esos personajes de Hollywood me importan un pimiento y casi me parece bien que las pasen canutas.
El caso es que me caían igual de mal casi todos los que aparecen en el libro, los malos y los que van de buenos, que más que buenos parece que no les llega el maiz,
3 estrellas en plan generoso.
El caso es que me caían igual de mal casi todos los que aparecen en el libro, los malos y los que van de buenos, que más que buenos parece que no les llega el maiz,
3 estrellas en plan generoso.
March 10, 2023
Terrible . Didn't really understand the plot at all. And why were there so many characters with no development . Boring, borning. Writing style was not something I could get into.
Thanks NetGalley for advance read for honest review
Thanks NetGalley for advance read for honest review
March 1, 2024
My first novel by Jordan Harper, this was a look at the seedy underground of Los Angeles and good ol’ Hollywoodland. However, there’s no glitz and glamor here; this is the side of Hollywood that is actively being buried and kept far from public view in the most scrutinized city in the world. The characters include a Hollywood starlit who’s been pulled into a dark world of exploitation, a woman who is a fixer of sorts for the rich and famous—she essentially swoops in and cleans up their messes and spins a yarn for the media if necessary, and lastly a corrupt ex cop and a few others of his ilk who were truly the disgraceful definition of dirty cop, the kind you don’t want to be behind the wheel when you’re getting pulled over.
All of this makes for an excellent set-up. Mae’s introduction was fantastic and especially memorable; it painted a picture of exactly what she does in a way that feels grotesquely realistic. Chris’s introduction was almost as good—we were given a quick rundown of his dirty past, and shown where that behavior has gotten him.
But all that is just the beginning of the story. From there, we’re launched into all means of debauchery all over the Los Angeles underground. We’re dropped into quite a few, sometimes quite complicated, storylines, some of which work better than others. This is where the book started to feel meandering and a bit disjointed to me…like it wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be, so it tried to be everything at once, told in a blisteringly fast paced style. The character development is minimal. In fact there really isn’t much character development here at all unfortunately, and I do think the book suffered from it. We had the backgrounds of the two main characters, but I still never really felt like I knew them. They weren’t especially likable, which is fine as I don’t need a book to have a likable protagonist, but in this case it really left me grasping for a character to grip onto, and I didn’t find one through the whole book.
Harpers writing is good, in fact I liked it quite a bit. Lots of great turns of phrase and descriptive language (the final sentence is one example), so his prose stuck out as well above average to me, surprisingly. The storytelling , along with character development, were the main issue here for me. It just rocketed into storyline after storyline. Some of them were good (and there are definitely a few very memorable scenes from the book), but the way it all rolled out worked against the book. I personally wish the author would’ve taken his time a bit more, and gotten a bit more immersed in the city and with the characters. The potential was there, the setup was fantastic, but it never really fully delivered in my opinion.
That said, the book is still worth a look. It’s seedy, dark, and at times, sickening. And at times, a bit graphic. Some of the imagery was disturbing, in a good way, and there’s one seen in particular that will stick with me because of the way it was presented. The book has faults, and is definitely a bit uneven feeling to me, but it’s still an above average LA noir that will likely satisfy most who are into that kind of thing and pick it up.
3.5/5
All of this makes for an excellent set-up. Mae’s introduction was fantastic and especially memorable; it painted a picture of exactly what she does in a way that feels grotesquely realistic. Chris’s introduction was almost as good—we were given a quick rundown of his dirty past, and shown where that behavior has gotten him.
But all that is just the beginning of the story. From there, we’re launched into all means of debauchery all over the Los Angeles underground. We’re dropped into quite a few, sometimes quite complicated, storylines, some of which work better than others. This is where the book started to feel meandering and a bit disjointed to me…like it wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be, so it tried to be everything at once, told in a blisteringly fast paced style. The character development is minimal. In fact there really isn’t much character development here at all unfortunately, and I do think the book suffered from it. We had the backgrounds of the two main characters, but I still never really felt like I knew them. They weren’t especially likable, which is fine as I don’t need a book to have a likable protagonist, but in this case it really left me grasping for a character to grip onto, and I didn’t find one through the whole book.
Harpers writing is good, in fact I liked it quite a bit. Lots of great turns of phrase and descriptive language (the final sentence is one example), so his prose stuck out as well above average to me, surprisingly. The storytelling , along with character development, were the main issue here for me. It just rocketed into storyline after storyline. Some of them were good (and there are definitely a few very memorable scenes from the book), but the way it all rolled out worked against the book. I personally wish the author would’ve taken his time a bit more, and gotten a bit more immersed in the city and with the characters. The potential was there, the setup was fantastic, but it never really fully delivered in my opinion.
That said, the book is still worth a look. It’s seedy, dark, and at times, sickening. And at times, a bit graphic. Some of the imagery was disturbing, in a good way, and there’s one seen in particular that will stick with me because of the way it was presented. The book has faults, and is definitely a bit uneven feeling to me, but it’s still an above average LA noir that will likely satisfy most who are into that kind of thing and pick it up.
3.5/5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,673 reviews