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 that 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.)

Evereybody Knows is the book of year!. In fact, I haven't read a book since and probably never will. It is that good! I want it to be the last book I ever read.

Jordan Harper has solidified himself at the top of the crime writer pyramid. There is good reasons he is your favorite crime writer's favorite crime writer. Check him out you will not be dissappointed.

Quick and terse writing had the story moving. It would make a great movie. Having lived in the L.A. area, the characters are believable.

5-Stars!
I devoured Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper in two sittings and only stepped away in between because I had to. We’re led on a wild ride through the streets of LA by Mae and Chris, both secretive and dark characters who I wasn’t sure I’d like. But their story was so compelling that I could not look away. Mae does snuff PR for Hollywood big names and politicians. She’s thrown into a world darker than she’s known when her boss and mentor is gunned down on the streets of LA in a seemingly random carjacking. But if her life as taught her anything it’s that if something seems off, it is off. With the help of her ex-cop, ex-lover, hired fist Chris, the two try to find out what happened to Mae’s boss. Along the way, we meet a cast of characters fit for a blockbuster thriller: the starlet, the teen up-and-comer, the dirty politician, influencers, and more dark ops than I want to admit exist. Mae is forced to confront the evil underbelly of LA and admit that maybe, just maybe, she’s done her fair share of terrible things, too. As she reckons with everything she’s done, Mae can’t find a way out without some collateral damage.

I really loved the pacing, characters, and plot. There are some really exceptional lines that just sucked the air right out of my lungs. The way Harper builds suspense and develops his characters is really superb and enjoyable. Loads of gratitude to NetGalley, Jordan Harper, and Mulholland Books for the opportunity to read and review this stunner.

This is an incredibly fast-paced noir thriller. It has all the tropes of the genre that you’d expect, but the plot is unusual, complex, and touches on a number of the Hollywood and Los Angeles scandals that are relevant today. Harper’s Los Angeles is very true-to-life. He captures the city as it is, covering all the nuances between different neighborhoods. Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and towards the end couldn’t put it down.

Well done! Style and tone give this a unique voice. Kept me turning the pages. Highly enjoyable crime thriller.

We meet Mae, publicist in LA, in this neo-noir tale set in the seedy underbelly of Hollywood. After revealing that he has knowledge of something explosive in the upper echelons of show-biz society, Mae’s boss is killed, leaving her to put together the parts of the mystery with the help of her ex, ex-cop Chris.

The story is fast-paced and atmospheric, and doesn’t shy away from the gritty, unpleasant realities of Hollywood in the post MeToo era. I would be interested to read whatever comes next from this author.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

Wow! This book was such a fast read because I couldn’t and didn’t want to put it down. So enticing to finish in all one go. The novel starts off with such an intriguing opening that makes you crave more and more and more. Such a good book if you want to be sucked into a world for a couple of hours.

WOW. This is probably the best crime thriller I've read in the past couple years. Holy cow. Fast-paced, entertaining, enthralling, butt-kicking... this has it all. It's full of darkness, and there are characters that have some deep flaws, but there's no flaws at all in the writing. Jordan Harper is a master of noir.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My second read by this author and it was going to be tough to beat SHE RIDES SHOTGUN. Solid hype and advance praise for this book gave me such high hopes. I did like the damaged characters but the story was just ok for me. I appreciated how this was told as fiction for a real LA vibe. An online author event did give away some spoilers for the ending so I wasn’t as much on the edge of my seat when finishing it. I believe he is working on a new book that is going to be even more intense than this one so I will be eagerly waiting for it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not a huge detective novel reader, they don't usually call to me, but this one called to me because it involves the rich and famous along with their dirty secrets and the people they hire to bury things and prevent them from making it into the newspapers or gossip columns. Somebody is killed and the race begins to find what truly happened to them. This book definitely had my heart pumping at times and I enjoyed it but I found it very repetitive at times. There are too many directions, and how many right & left turns to take. Overall it was an interesting story but not amazing.

Everybody Knows has a slow beginning but as Jordan Harper cleverly weaves this dark Hollywood horror story together, it surges to an exhilarating, exhausting finish.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mulholland for the opportunity to read this intense book.

I kept seeing the word noir used to describe Edgar Award winner Jordan Harper’s latest, Everybody Knows. After a few hmmms, I looked it up, thinking I was unclear as to what it really meant. I got this: “a genre of crime film or fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity.” Thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley, I dove right in.

One reviewer said this book is “as noir as it gets.” Not sure about that, but I did like it once I got into it. I’m kind of a sucker for stuff that digs into the less glitzy reality of LA, the behind-the-scenes stuff set in Hollywood, and a good murder mystery always helps. A young woman named Mae works as a publicist whose work revolves around covering up the misdeeds and crimes of the rich and famous while promoting them with more or less true good stories about them. Mae’s boss gets gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel, leading her and her ex-boyfriend, a former cop named Chris, into an investigation of the crime. Next thing you know, we have pedophilia, drugs and more drugs, famous creeps, homeless encampments, and crooked cops.

The title refers to the way everybody knows what is going on under the surface (or behind the scenes), but people don’t talk about it if the money is good enough. Overall, once it got going, it was great fun. Four stars.

"One of their best moves is getting to control what we call violence and what we don't."

Controlling the narrative. In a world where that control grip gets tighter and tighter and can be traced to seemingly everyone, who can you turn to when danger hits?

Money and power corrupt, and also prey on the vulnerable.

When there doesn't seem to be any hope, sometimes you gotta go out and make that hope happen, because maybe, instead of what you show the world, maybe "you are what you do, and not how you feel about it."

Everybody Knows is a brilliantly paced thriller and terribly hard to put down. This book flies by, and there were moments where I didn't want to put it down, didn't even know if I could, but I also kind of wanted to prolong the reading experience, so tried to pace myself a little, too. That didn't work. I just breezed on through, page after page after page. And when it was done, I had one of my most favorite thoughts: I found a new author!

Not that Jordan Harper is new. Oh no. For me, though, this is my first Jordan Harper book. It won't be my last. I eagerly await the next one.

Absolutely stellar book. Fast paced, descriptive...
Full Murder in Common review here:

https://murderincommon.com/2023/01/29/jordan-harper-everybody-knows/

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.

It took a bit for me to get into this book, but once I did the pacing was quite good. It alternates between Mae and Chris, and goes a bit into their background/how they first met. It is creepy to think about aspects of this story that are probably true. At times it felt like I was reading a script instead of a narrative...just the writing style I guess.

It is overall a bleak story, but there's a smattering of hope at the end.

Harper, Jordan
EVERYBODY KNOWS

Everybody whispers, but no one talks. Truth doesn’t matter . . . They (the rich and powerful) always win . . . or do they? Mae wants to make a difference, and Chris wants to help her, but it’s dangerous and the odds are terrible.
Hollywood glamour covers a multitude of ugly misdeeds, and it was Mae’s job to spin the consequences, but at what point does one lose one’s soul? What’s the cost of taking a stand?
This is not an easy book, rough and violent in places, but caring and hopeful in others, and I found it hard to put down. I’m still caught up in it, worrying about characters I don’t want to let go of. Might there be a sequel? I hope so. Meanwhile, breathe . . .

An excellent neo-noir thriller. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy the whole Hollywood setting but it ended up being perfect. Very flawed but likeable characters will have me back for whenever a sequel is written.

Edgar Award winner, Jordan Harper has given us LA noir at its finest. The propulsive story line exposes the belly of the beast., and LA itself is given a starring role. Recommended. #EverybodyKnows #NetGalley #SaltMarshAuthors