I rounded up a bit bc I don’t think I could give an entirely fair assessment having not read the first two books in the series. I’ve picked things up midway through before with other series and gotten a feel for characters and their backstories, but here I felt like I was going in blind. Some of the characters weren’t really used and kind of felt superfluous but I could tell they were important in previous installments. So I tried to set that aside.

The mystery had a lot of parts that come together neatly. But I felt not.. that into it. I think there were too many people involved for me. Not so much in the mystery itself but in the POVs. I felt like it was distracting since none of them were very likable. Sometimes this jumping around works for me but I think the combination of feeling like I should know the main detectives but don’t, and the focus being too many other places was distracting.

BUT again, that might be bc I jumped in on the third book. So I didn’t want to take anything off for that. I think the whodunnit holds up, and if you’re already invested in the characters, it’s probably a good story.

304 pages

3 stars

Seth Lehman is a reprehensible character. Aside from that, I found that I didn’t like any of the actresses and actors portrayed in the book. Perhaps the only good one was killed in the landslide.

Detectives Maggie Nolan and Al Crawford respond to a body being found in a landslide. The body is the famous and widely loved actor named Evan Hobbes. Was it suicide? Murder? Accident? We must wait for the autopsy.

I liked the detectives. Nolan was driven and determined to discover what happened to Mr. Hobbes. The rest of the story was kind of blah, blah… The violent domestic scenes and Seth’s behavior made the book rather tedious.

I truly enjoy police procedurals and I was hoping that this book would be a solid procedural. While the police work was good, the rest of the novel just didn’t have it for me.

This is the first time that I have been disappointed by a book for St. Martin’s Press. I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.

The Devil You know by PJ Tracy tells the story of LAPD Detective Maggie Nolan. An accident, suicide, or murder of a well known star occurs in the area. This is the first time I have read this author. I’m guessing there is a history with the characters from prior novels. It was a bit difficult to follow the characters and story line. It did come together and the main plot was really good. It kept me reading. I would recommend this novel. Thank you to NetGalley for letting me review this book.

I received a complimentary electronic copy of this Detective Margaret Nolan, #3 of the series, from Netgalley, the author P. J. Tracy, and at the invitation of publisher Minotaur Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read The Devil You Know of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am happy to recommend P. J. Tracy to friends and family. She writes an excellent police procedural and paints exceptional mental pictures with her prose.

I am so pleased to have found Ms. Tracy. Our story flows occasionally back to 1864 in Lancaster, Pa. for the Easton family history, but for the most part, we are in the present day in Southern California. Los Angeles Homicide Detective Margaret Nolan and her partner Al Crawford battle their way through L.A. traffic and up and down to coastal towns via Pacific Coast Highway. When Malibu calls them in to investigate the death of Hollywood heart-throb Evan Hobbes, whose body was found on a section of a cliff face that separated and fell down onto State Highway 1 (PCH) during the earthquake. Traffic is backed up on the one-lane highway for miles in both directions. they aren't sure if the Malibu local police didn't want to handle such a high-profile case or just didn't want to crawl down the 200-foot unsteady cliff face to investigate and retrieve the body. If it was murder, there are a lot of potential suspects - the actor had recently been outed on social media with an accompanying film as a purveyor of kiddie porn and sexual abuse. Rumor has it the film is a deepfake though that has not yet been explored. Or it's possible he was just in the wrong place, the wrong time. There had been a party at the top of the cliff the night of the earthquake, and the victim smelled strongly of alcohol. But before the coroner can determine whether Hobbes's death was a homicide, suicide, or accident, more bodies are found.

P.J. Tracy’s mystery, revolving around four murders, involves several characters: the victims, the victimizers, and those trying to solve the crimes. Alternating viewpoints can be an effective storytelling technique; in this instance it it is not. Rather, it is confusing. There are too many characters in this work; some seem extraneous. The inflated diction is distracting and impedes the tension of the plot. Finding the solution becomes tedious rather than intriguing.

This is my first outing with P. J. Tracy as author and unfortunately I am less than a fan. There were far too many references to the first couple of books in the series that added nothing to this story and left me wondering why they even mentioned it. Add to that the lack of character development, so one could get to know the players in this book without having read the previous ones. I felt the story was a bit confusing with a lot of characters to keep straight and could never get fully invested in any one of them. There were too many characters, too many murders, not enough evidence, and too much capitulation between first names and last names to be able to keep things straight. I won’t be reading any more books by this author. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

I really liked this novel, despite not being a big fan of police procedurals. I used to read P. J. Tracy all the time when P. J. And Tracy Lambrecht, the mother daughter author team wrote about the Monkeewrench Gang, an operation of computer geeks in Minneapolis that used their talents to solve crimes. After P. J. died, Tracy changed the setting and style and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to like the new series. I chose to read an ARC of this, the third Detective Margaret Nolan offering, based solely on my good experience with the Monkeewrench series.

I read The Devil You Know in essentially one week (fast, for me) while on vacation. I was cruising from San Diego to San Francisco. Santa Barbara, one of our stops, was also one of the settings of the book. The context of the book is basically a look at Hollywood insiders and the strange things that keep them together and apart.

It might have been helpful to have read the first two offerings in this series, but it certainly was not a necessity. The characters are well developed. But I think I will go back and read volumes one and two based on my positive reaction to this one. To that end, I have already backed up and purchased the first of the series.

It seems to me that there is a lot of room for this series to go on at least as long as Monkeewrench did. Margaret (Maggie) Nolan and her partner Al are smart and dedicated L. A. cops. There are lots of other ancillary characters, including a vet with PTSD, an F.B.I. computer geek named Darcy, and a singer with a need for a fresh start.

I haven’t told you much about the plot, but needless to say, murders abound. Deepfakes and the Dark Net raise their ugly heads. But there is also tenderness and reunion at some points. I’m looking forward to learning more about the mysterious Remy, Nolan’s love interest. In fact, I’m rather glad that P. J. Tracy is back on my radar screen.

When the perfectly polished veneer of fame and fortune is stripped away, what remains often fall tragically short of glamour. Author P.J. Tracy explores Hollywood’s decadence and excess as the backdrop of a series of murders stemming from the worst of human nature as Detective Maggie Nolan returns in this third installment as the hard as nails Los Angeles homicide detective in the suspense thriller “The Devil You Know.”

Battlelines are drawn and loyalties are tested when a salacious video of a Disney superstar with an underage actor hits the internet. Swearing he’s the victim of a deepfake as the public, the industry, and even his agency questions his innocence, Evan Hobbes is found murdered outside of a party of Hollywood elites. Rich and powerful suspects abound, but clues are few and far between. Within days, three additional murders are tentatively linked to the Hobbes murder and Detective Maggie Nolan and her partner must wade through the dregs of humanity disguised by fame and fortune to find justice for a man who may have gotten exactly what he deserved. All the wealth and fame in the world aren’t enough to hide the truth that monsters roam among us in “The Devil You Know.”

P.J. Tracy created a wonderfully dynamic and engaging cast of characters with 2021’s “Deep into the Dark” and 2022’s “Desolation Canyon.” The characters return once again, and the characterization of the protagonists remains one of the strongest elements of the novel. Detective Margaret Nolan and her partner Detective Al Crawford return as LA homicide detectives balancing intense investigations with empathy and relationships that feels genuine and thoroughly developed. Both detectives clearly care about the work they do and are a far cry from the cynical, burned-out detectives that often populate the genre. Sadly, two of the series most engaging characters, Sam Easton and Melody Traeger, are largely under-utilized in this installment. While they make appearances and contributions to the plot, their character evolutions seem to largely lay the groundwork for a future installment featuring both characters. Detective Jenny Wyler of the Santa Barbara PD is also likeable and a dedicated detective but adds little to the plot. The standout characters remain Maggie Nolan and Al Crawford with the remaining cast serving as little more than accent pieces to service minor subplots.

A distinctly mysterious tone rings throughout the narrative as the plot gets increasing more complex with each chapter. New victims, suspects, and investigations arise throughout the narrative and add to the intrigue inherent to the subject matter. Evocative descriptions of characters and settings support the mysterious tone throughout by adding texture and nuance to a very complicated string of investigations.

The themes of technology and the darker side of fame are explored in great depth. Technology from a social media standpoint and the contemporary advent of “deepfakes” serve as anchors for the plot. The unfortunate global trend of the vast majority of society living their lives fully immersed in electronic devices result in a phenomenon where everyone feels as though they truly know the personalities they “follow” on social media. By providing the entire world a vantage point into our lives, even if that vantage point is wholly manufactured and manipulative, a deeper sense of familiarity is resulting in unrealistic expectations, both elevated and diminished, of those we allow into our spheres of influence. As an extension of the pseudo-intimacy garnered through social media, an obsession with fame has grown uncontrollably over the past several decades. Through social media and entertainment outlets, the lives of the rich and famous are on full display to the world, and not always for the right reasons. These windows into the lives of the rich and famous, once again result in expectations that are in no way commensurate with reality. P.J. Tracy does an amazing job of exploring these deeply relevant themes from the perspective of a homicide detective and the victims and suspects involved in her investigation.

As with previous entries in the Nolan series, there are troublesome story elements that prevent a fully immersive reading experience. Several murder investigations are being led by different investigators and the result is a somewhat muddled composition as a whole. While each investigation has tangential connections to the others, a sense of narrative cohesion is never achieved, and certain lines of investigation are never fully resolved. The inherent covenant between writer and reader is somewhat neglected as certain plot points remain unresolved and a level of satisfaction that might have otherwise resulted is never fully realized.

The story is told from several 3rd person POV characters, and similar to previous entries the head-hopping effect felt early in the story results in a jarring narrative flow. While most of the POV characters are lead protagonists, some are very minor characters whose perspective lends little more than confusion in the sense that certain characters feel more important that they truly are. The narrative eventually gains enough traction to support the literary weight of multiple POV characters and the intrigue created through the many POV characters adds to the mysterious tone of the narrative.

As a fan of earlier entries in the Nolan series, I am once again a fan of the 3rd entry. The plot in engaging and the characters are compelling. While there are weak points that I feel burden the overall enjoyment of the story, I am hopeful that certain unanswered questions and underutilization of important characters will be resolved in future installments. Fans of the series will enjoy this newest entry, and fans of character-driven suspense thrillers will thoroughly enjoy P.J. Tracy’s latest entry “The Devil You Know.”.

Having not read the previous books, some of the characters seemed superfluous without any added value to the plot. It was a bit slow going in the beginning because of all the characters, and trying to figure out if they were critical to the plot or not.
There were a couple sentences that were missing a word but otherwise the book kept me engaged enough to read it in one sitting. The outcome was a surprise to me.
I would continue to read the series just to see the personal development of the main character.

law-enforcement, veterans, PTSD, murder-investigation, crime-fiction, thriller, noir, family-dynamics, friendship, triggers, procedural, suspense, toxic-people, multiple-murder, psychological, lies, LAPD ****

A dive into the harsh realities of those traumatized by extraordinary circumstances. A gritty story with emotionally fragile, often suicidal protagonists working The Job one day at a time. One at a time, no less than four loosely connected deaths come under the LAPD scrutiny of Detective Margaret Nolan. The investigations are messy, as only Hollywood can make things messy. I good but exhausting read.
I requested and received an EARC from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you.

The Devil You Know is the latest in a series that features Detective Margaret Nolan who's with the LAPD. In this latest installment, Nolan is investigating the mysterious death of an actor the day after a scandalous video appeared on the internet. I hadn't read any of the other books in the series, so I was completely unfamiliar with the characters. There are a lot of characters in the book, and I felt lost at first. I found it difficult to read as a standalone. Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Quite complex mystery, story line was somewhat contrived. It was a pleasure to read, a light read, for the 'read in bed' group. it was interesting, but didn't keep me awake.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read and review a pre-publication copy of <i>The Devil You Know</i> by P.J. Tracy. This is the third book in the Detective Nolan series. I had not read the previous two. Even so, it worked well as a stand-alone mystery. The characters were well developed and relatable despite the Hollywood setting.
The mystery begins as a well-loved actor is found dead in a landslide. Was it an accident, or was he murdered before ending up in the rubble? It is up to Detective Margaret Nolan to discover what happened. Her investigation becomes more involved as more and more bodies show up.
This was an enjoyable read. I recommend it to mystery lovers in general and to readers of Hollywood noir in particular.

Another complete winner by one of my favorite author duos....

Smart, complex, and layered, this is a great story with intriguing and well-written characters.

This is 3rd in the Nolan series but can 100% stand alone.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting e a copy. It is my pleasure to write an honest review.

This is number 3 in the Detective Maggie Nolan series and my first to read, and even though I picked it up fairly quickly, I do feel like I would have gained insight into the characters/history by starting at the beginning.

Maggie and her partner Al look into not one but FOUR murders within three days of the rich and powerful in the entertainment business in LA. Are they related? And if so, are there accomplices? Is there just one motive for all four deaths or multiple ones?

There are sordid secrets/misdeeds, backstabbing and surprises here. My only distraction was switching back and forth between multiple characters (mains and second-tier) with most chapters…it was a bit disorienting and interrupted the flow at times. Otherwise, it was absorbing and humorous too, and I enjoyed the read enough that I’d like to go back to the beginning of the series.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing the free early arc of The Devil You Know for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Mysteries have been becoming one of my favorite genres recently and this book sounded so interesting. Unfortunately, it started out so slow and I was lost from the beginning. Was it because this book was from a series? I really don’t know. I just never figured out what was going on and gave up about a fourth of the way in.

I appreciate NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press giving me this opportunity to read this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the first book from P J Tracy that I have read and I believe it is part of a series. For me, it was a very slow read and hard to finish. To be honest, I never really knew what was actually going on. Sorry, this one left me confused. I left like there was too many characters to keep up with making it hard to follow.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for the eARC, for an honest review.

This is the third in the Detective Margaret Nolan series and my first in the series. I enjoyed the mystery novel and if this is your genre I believe you'd enjoy it. I have to like the main character and Margaret is a strong likeable female detective. An actor is found dead on the rocks after having his career ruined by a fake video. Margaret has to decide if it is an accident, suicide or murder.....I enjoyed it enough that I plan on reading the first two books, I wasn't 'lost' but if you haven't read the first two, read them, I plan to. Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur books for the ARC....and especially thank you to P.J. Tracy.

The Devil You Know
A Mystery
by P. J. Tracy
The book had promise. It was a very slow read and became a task to finish. I am assuming this was a series of books. But, I never really knew what was actually going on. Sorry, this one left me confused and bored.

I’m a huge PJ Tracy fan and was super excited to get an ARC of her newest release from NetGalley.

In this third volume of the Maggie Nolan series, I feel the characters starting to be well-fleshed out. The tone and feel of this series is edgier than the Monkeewrench series, and I can sense Tracy finding her individual style after writing so many books in partnership with her mother. I like the reinvention a lot.

This series is set in the LA region and adds a fresh spin to other series set there. If you’ve been a fan of Jonathan Kellerman, for example, I think you’ll enjoy delving into Maggie Nolan’s world. Mystery fans who love the backstories as much as the mystery will also find this series fun to follow. I’m now seriously attached to each character’s well being and will snarf up every volume to come.

Do not read this book out of sequence with the prior two; they are meant to be read in order and the personal stories will fall flat if you haven’t become acquainted with each character’s personal struggles. There are also unavoidable spoilers that would ruin the reading experience of the first two books.

As a mystery, this volume works well. It’s a more traditional police procedural, well plotted, with good twists and turns. I figured out the ending a bit a head of time, but that in no way detracted from my enjoyment.

If you are already a fan of this series, I predict you will enjoy this addition. If you haven’t started the Nolan series yet, go back to the first and be excited that you have three books to binge through. Now I have to wait a year or so for the next update. Boo hoo.