Detective Maggie Nolan and Sam Easton have returned in P.J. Tracy’s The Devil You Know, bringing the reader back to the fascinating underbelly of the world that appears so glitzy and glamorous in Hollywood. Fans of the traditional police procedural/detective story will again find a fascinating tale full of unbelievable twists and turns, just as one expects from this highly acclaimed author. Full of back-stabbing, secret (and not-so-secret) affairs, deep fake videos, and public relations crises, The Devil You Know reflects current-day, real-world Hollywood in a myriad of ways, making for an always-exciting crime story!
Tracy’s characters are easy to care about, with their realistic back-stories and consistent personalities. Detective Nolan, her partner, Detective Crawford, and so many other characters that appear throughout the series start to feel like old friends that you are glad to catch up with. They are reintroduced in each book in such a way that a reader could this up as a standalone novel, or start from the beginning of the series, Deep Into the Dark, and they can enjoy these characters and the compelling stories either way.
Unfortunately, former soldier Sam Easton, a fascinating study in veterans returning to civilian life, is less involved in the action here than he was in Deep Into the Dark or Desolation Canyon. He is still included, but I personally always want to see more of Sam. The overall cast is large, however, which gives the reader lots of potential suspects to scrutinise, but also other law enforcement professionals in other jurisdictions that the reader gets to see Detective Nolan interact with. I would personally love to see some of these other new characters return to work with Maggie, Al, and Sam in future cases.
Readers that enjoy a good “old fashioned” detective story will find so much to love in this series, and The Devil You Know, even though it is the third book in the series is an excellent place to start.
The Devil You Know is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan returns in The Devil You Know, the next book in the series where P. J. Tracy “seems to have found her literary sweet spot” (New York Times Book Review).
Los Angeles has many faces: the real LA where regular people live and work, the degenerate underbelly of any big city, and the rarified world of wealth, power, and celebrity. LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan’s latest case plunges her into this insular realm of privilege, and gives her a glimpse of the darkness behind the glitter.
The body of beloved actor Evan Hobbes is found in the rubble of a Malibu rockslide a day after a fake video ruins his career. It’s not clear to Nolan if it’s an accident, a suicide, or a murder, and things get murkier as the investigation expands to his luminary friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, Hobbes’ agent is dealing with damage control, his psychotic boss, and a woman he’s scorned. But when his powerful brother-in-law is murdered, he and Nolan both find themselves entangled in a scandalous deception of deadly proportion that shakes the very foundation of Hollywood’s untouchables.
