Editorial Content for Everybody Knows
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Reviewer (text)
EVERYBODY KNOWS, a noir thriller set in sunny Los Angeles, is narrated from the alternating perspectives of Mae Pruett and Chris Tamburro. Though they once dated, Mae and Chris haven’t seen each other in years --- until their paths cross as each tries to solve the same mystery.
Mae’s boss, Dan --- a PR strategist charged with protecting celebrity clients from their own misdeeds --- has been gunned down, and Mae thinks she knows why. Chris, an ex-cop, has been hired to find out if the perps are still playing on the same team as his clients. Once they decide to join forces, it’s pretty clear that this won’t remain a strictly professional partnership. And soon it becomes even clearer that whoever killed Dan won’t let Mae and Chris disrupt their plans.
"EVERYBODY KNOWS is one of those admirable genre novels that sets the scene and allows readers to watch as the pieces first explode and then fall into place. Harper manages our expectations expertly."
There are a few rules that Dan enunciated early on in the book, the most memorable of which are “Nobody talks, but everybody whispers” and “Keep as much as possible UNSAID.”
No one in EVERYBODY KNOWS is innocent, but while some, like Mae and Chris, are simply exploiting opportunities, others are pure evil. There’s a strong correlation between wealth and power, and unabashed iniquity. But there’s always a lawyer, security firm or publicist to clean up the mess. The ones who suffer are those who won’t bend to the power, and they suffer in horrific --- and graphic --- ways.
Every page of this book is calibrated to deliver insights into its characters and extravagant plot turns. As the story progresses, the divide between the good guys and the black hats becomes more evident, but author Jordan Harper never lets us forget how relative those sides are. In the end, there is no guarantee that the good side will win, but there is also no question that readers are rooting for the “gooder” guys. That the setting is LA (an opening scene takes place at the Chateau Marmont) is the perfect metaphor: beautiful on the outside, corroded underneath.
EVERYBODY KNOWS is one of those admirable genre novels that sets the scene and allows readers to watch as the pieces first explode and then fall into place. Harper manages our expectations expertly. The result is both impressive and haunting.
Teaser
As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae Pruett works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” After her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a random attack, Mae takes it upon herself to investigate and runs headfirst into The Beast’s lawless machinations and the twisted systems it exists to perpetuate. It takes her on a roving neon joyride through a Los Angeles full of influencers pumped full of pills and fillers; sprawling mansions footsteps away from sprawling homeless encampments; crooked cops; and mysterious wrecking crews in the middle of the night.
Promo
As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae Pruett works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” After her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a random attack, Mae takes it upon herself to investigate and runs headfirst into The Beast’s lawless machinations and the twisted systems it exists to perpetuate. It takes her on a roving neon joyride through a Los Angeles full of influencers pumped full of pills and fillers; sprawling mansions footsteps away from sprawling homeless encampments; crooked cops; and mysterious wrecking crews in the middle of the night.
About the Book
In this “hardboiled mystery” (Maureen Corrigan) from an Edgar Award-winning author, a fearless black-bag publicist exposes the belly of the L.A. beast.
Welcome to Mae Pruett’s Los Angeles, where “Nobody talks. But everybody whispers.” As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” They protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary.
After her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a random attack, Mae takes it upon herself to investigate and runs headfirst into The Beast’s lawless machinations and the twisted systems it exists to perpetuate. It takes her on a roving neon joyride through a Los Angeles full of influencers pumped full of pills and fillers; sprawling mansions footsteps away from sprawling homeless encampments; crooked cops; and mysterious wrecking crews in the middle of the night.
Edgar Award winner Jordan Harper’s EVERYBODY KNOWS is addicting and alarming, a “juggernaut of a novel” and “an absolute tour de force.” It is what the crime novel can achieve in the modern age: portray the human lives at the center of vast American landscapes, and make us thrill at their attempts to face impossible odds.
Audiobook available, read by Megan Tusing and William DeMeritt
