This is the third book in the Maggie Nolan series. Though I don’t personally recommend reading a series out of order, I think that if I hadn’t read the first two books, there were things that wouldn’t have made sense and that would have gone right over my head. Just my opinion though.
Being a detective in Los Angeles is no easy job and Maggie winds up investigating a murder( or was it an accident or maybe even a suicide), when a well-known actor is found dead. He is well respected though and no one can imagine anyone having a reason to kill him. The more the police dig into his life and the lives of those around him, the more puzzling this case becomes, and the body count continues to rise.
There were a lot of characters and storylines to follow. After about the 20% mark, I was comfortable with who everyone was and I can pat myself on the back for figuring out who done it though not the why. There was also a twist that I didn’t see coming, so the author got me in the end.
There was a character (Sam )who had a larger role in the first two books. I hope he has a more prominent place in the next one( fingers crossed).

I started reading this and it wasn’t what I had hoped for. I was getting confused at the back and forth and it was not what I thought it was.

Another well done mystery by PJ Tracy. The characters are well developed and the story line will keep your attention. The action is fast paced and very suspenseful. A great mystery book to read in one sitting! I cannot wait for the next book in the series!

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was so interesting and kept me on my toes! I've always loved a good Hollywood scandal and this was no different. There were so many jaw-dropping moments and twists and turns, which is everything you would want in a thriller. I have not read anything from P.J. Tracy before, but I loved the writing style. P.J. knows how to lay out a good thriller!

I loved how the plot also went deep into the inner workings of Hollywood and why some celebrities acted the way they do. That was so interesting and added another layer of depth to the story.

Overall, this was a good read and I would recommend it! Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this free arc in exchange for my honest review.

The Devil You Know is book 3 in the Detective Maggie Nolan series, which I was unaware of prior to reading. I do think this one worked as a standalone, though there were several times characters referred an incident from the prior books. I’m sure knowing a bit of the character backgrounds would help the reader feel more engaged with the story!

Maggie Nolan is a detective in LA, and an interesting case falls into her lap in this one. A deepfake video of actor Evan Hobbes goes viral, and then the next day his body is found in the rubble from a rockslide. Maggie and her partner begin their investigation and bodies start to pile up.

There were things I liked about this book- the interesting characters that become the suspects, the storyline itself, and the short chapters. I am guessing some of the other characters such as Sam are main characters in the other books, but here his storyline felt like a waste of time. I also felt that it was very slow to get going at the beginning of the book, while I enjoyed the second half much more.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I will leave a review on Amazon and B&N on Jan 17th

This was a new author for me, so wasn't sure what to expect. It had lots of interesting twists and turns but so many didn't characters that I couldnt keep up with them all. I am a avid read and have a pretty good concept of words and their meanings, yet with this book there were words that I had no idea what they meant without looking them up in a dictionary. I found that to be a little bit trying. I was able to figure out the culprit before it was actually revealed. I would still recommend this book to others.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Minotaur Books for free, I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Who doesn’t love a good Hollywood scandal, complete with a murder mystery and twisty ending? Certainly not me! While “The Devil You Know” is the first book I’ve read by author P.J. Tracy, it definitely won’t be my last!! The premise is what initially pulled me in, but it’s the writing style and cleverly thought-out storyline that kept me engaged all the way through. When it comes to Detective Margaret Nolan, however, I’m a bit on the fence with regards to her likeability factor. But since I haven’t read the first two books in this series, I’m going to give her character the benefit of the doubt here and attribute my uncertainty to that fact alone. As for the rest of the many players, it was a bit of a challenge to keep them all straight, but they were all pieces of a bigger puzzle that ultimately came together for me by the very end.

Excitement, suspense, plot twists galore keep you turning pages. For a change this was a mystery that took a while to figure out who dunnit....

The Devil You Know by P.J. Tracy
(Detective Margaret Nolan #3)

I listened to the first two books in this series and read this third offering. There are so many characters in this story and we get deep into the head of not just the regulars but characters that we'll probably (or for sure) just see in this book. Even little used side characters can be given some character development, which I like, but it can add a lot of information to wrap one's mind around. Detective Nolan is the person this series is named after but she shares the starring role with a wounded veteran, Sam, who Margaret befriended in an earlier book.

The Hollywood movers and shakers are a pretentious, snooty, snotty, conniving, stab you in the back, spit on your grave, best caviar and champagne for breakfast bunch. A few of them can have their endearing moments and a couple are deadly vipers with the venom they spew without much provocation.
I could barely get through the overly wordy thoughts of some of these people. They make my thoughts seem like a first grade primer but I think I'm happier than this lot. I connect much better with the working class law enforcement types, especially since a few of them can be pretty simple and funny, such as Margaret's partner, Detective Crawford.

The story starts with a body and then more bodies pile up. This is a tangled tale and the farther the detectives go in their investigations the more the same names seem to appear in the trails that are left behind. How many more people are going to be snuffed out almost under the detectives' noses? There are a lot of people that I suspect until some of them are "eliminated" from my suspect list in a very permanent way. The story starts very slowly for me since there is almost too much wordy building of character for the Hollywood types. But once Margaret gets on the job of solving crime, I think the story gets good. You might want to take notes if you want to keep this tangled web from scrambling your brain.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for this ARC.

3.5-4 stars
Enjoyable crime drama that is the third in a series but which I read as a stand-alone. A beloved actor is found dead and Detective Margaret Nolan has to determine whether he died by accident, suicide, or murder. Then additional bodies start turning up.

I found the plot to be pleasingly complex with some twists I didn't see coming. I also liked that the book was a bit more character-driven than some detective stories. I didn't connect too much with the main character, but that might not have been a problem if I had read the previous books in the series.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

I received this book from NetGalley for my unbiased review.

I went back and checked that I had read other books by P. J. Tracy--the monkeewrench series. I had read a couple of them and enjoyed them. Enough that I had a friend get hooked on reading them!

This book just didn't do it for me. It was an interesting story, but I just couldn't keep the characters straight, and really didn't enjoy most of them. There were people that, I guess, play a more important role in other books of the series that just came and went in this book. Not quite sure what their purpose was in this book.

This is the 3rd book in the Detective Margaret Nolan series and I'm hooked! I love her character. The plots are kinda out there as far as reality but that's what fiction is for!

This is a new author and series for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the chance to read and review!
The case revolves around Evan Hobbes , a Disney actor who was apparently set up in a compromising video and is subsequently found dead, fell off a cliff at a Hollywood party. The LAPD detective Margaret Nolan gets the case and at first it is unclear if it is even a murder.

Overall I really enjoyed the book and its plot. There were lots of twists to keep things interesting. What I enjoyed most was the varying viewpoints the reader got from all the characters embroiled in the murder mystery itself. It felt like I was solving the crime(s) ahead of the detectives. The characters were strongly depicted but I never really felt connected the Margaret Nolan and her views of the case.

The story was a most interesting exposure of the inner working of Hollywood and felt very real and relevant. The plot was well thought out. The pacing was at times a little erratic but the ending was satisfying and clever.
I am curious to read more Margaret Nolan to flesh out her character more and see other sides to LA.
Expected publication date is 1/17/2023.

I was expecting more of a mystery from this book. It felt like it took a long time to set up the premise of the book.

It was not the book for me.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, P.J. Tracy, and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

Long a fan of P.J. Tracy and their work (from the era when it was a duo and now a single author), I have followed things from the Monkeewrench series to this new collection. While things have proven to be less impactful for me, the stories remain strong and have the needed spark to attract many readers. Full of action and set on the West Coast, Tracy keeps the reader guessing in this unique police procedural that has subtle undertones of personal struggle. Tracy has done well as a single author, though I do miss the duo that had my rapt attention with every turn of the page.

LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan is back with a new case that takes her into all aspects of the city’s citizenry, including the stars who feel that they are untouchable. While the every day citizen toils and the dark underbelly use crime to get by, there is a privilege the rich feel they have, and Nolan sees this first hand. She’s also forced to contend with her own issues, which might pale in comparison, but are still prevalent as she does her job each day.

Prominent actor Evan Hobbes turns up dead in the rubble of a recent rockslide. Shouldering accusations of child pornography kept Hobbes from being able to live his best life, but Detective Nolan thinks that there might have been more than a rockslide involved in his death. The world of the entitled makes Nolan’s job all the more difficult, parsing through truth and deception. Still, Detective Nolan is determined to get to the bottom of what’s happened and who might have wanted to smear Hobbes’ name.

When another body turns up, with strong connections to Hobbes, Detective Nolan is all but assured that there is a killer on the loose; someone with an axe to grind and message to deliver. Detective Nolan will have to work with her team to get to the bottom of what’s happening, all while she tries to deflect the gleam of riches and entitlement that stardom leaves in its wake. With a killer hiding, Detective Nolan knows that this will be a challenge, but when has she ever shied way from it? A great addition to the series!

Authors surely undergo a transformation for a number of reasons, be they personal changes or writing styles. P.J. Tracy is one of those authors, moving from a strong mother-daughter duo into the daughter alone after the death of the elder. I have seen a significant change in the writing, which is to be expected. I have not been able to connect as much with this new series, but it could simply be that my writing tastes have shifted as well. Still, this is a series that has a great deal of potential and should attract the attention of many readers.

The key to a strong police procedural is to keep the crime at the centre of the narrative and build from there. P.J. Tracy does that well, adding her own flavouring with characters and setting development. Plot twists throughout keep the reader guessing, which permits things to be less than predictive. I appreciated this, as well as shorter chapters, which propelled the story forward. While I did not feel as connected to the story, I can appreciate how some would find this to be their perfect reading experience.

Kudos, Madam Tracy, for a decent novel that is sure to impress many, even if it was not something about which I can rave.

I did not read the first two books in the season so maybe this is an unfair review, as I didn’t have the full backstory in some of the characters. But taking the returning characters out of the equation, I also felt like I didn’t really feel anything for any of the main characters in this story and i only wanted to read to the end to see who was guilty.

One thing I did notice is that there were so many words used in this book that I haven’t seen used before (argot, tremolo, simulacrum, gustatory, lachrymal, apogee, coterie…) instead of allowing me to just read fluidly I stumbled over the words and had to pause to look them up.

Thank you to Minotaur books and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

This story had too many characters and side plots that detracted from the main plot. I guessed the killer which is always a test and although the subject was a little late in a metoo kind of way there were some redeeming features. Strong dialogue and crisp settings were highlights but not enough to make up for this quick reads lengthy cast of characters.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

After selecting this book I realized it was the third in a series. I’m mostly a completist so I decided to read Books 1 and 2 first and I’m glad I did. I think “The Devil You Know” stands on its own and you can follow the story without having read the first two, but there’s just more depth and interest to the characters if you know the details of their back stories from the first two novels.

All three were page-turners, well-written with fast-paced plots. While they are all set in LA, “The Devil You Know” is the first to deal heavily with the entertainment industry. I enjoyed the story and new characters in this one, as well as some interesting directions for the recurring characters.

I’d recommend this series for lovers of crime fiction! It’s not too violent or gory (a couple of things here and there but not too bad) and not too graphic.

Thank you to the publisher - I received a complimentary eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of this book for an honest review.
This is the third book in the series and the first one I have read. There are different characters to keep up with in the book so you have to pay attention. It’s a quick read and a mystery you can figure out fairly early on. I will read the other 2 books by this author in the series since I can tell this author is good.

I enjoyed the book but I found it a bit challenging not reading books 1 and 2 in the series. I will probably read the others to get the background information on the characters.

The dark, ominous tone of Hollywood was a great atmosphere. The story kept me interested and it was not obvious who the killer was plus I loved the twists that were interwoven in the story.
Thank you for providing me this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion