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.

Will you be picking up The Devil You Know? Tell us in the comments below!

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.

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Right away, the reader meets back up with Los Angeles Police detective Margaret Nolan, who is still struggling to cope with the loss of her brother, Max, but now also has the heavy burdens she was left with after the events of Tracy’s Deep Into The Dark. We also find Sam Easton, the physically and emotionally scarred military veteran that Nolan met by happenstance during the events of the previous instalment of this popular series. Sam was also left with sadness and loss to process at the conclusion of that case, and we are quickly reminded of what difficult circumstances he still must face.

The second book in a series often gets the advantage of telling a story in a more straightforward way since so much of the world and its inhabitants were already introduced in the first book, and that is the case here, with fantastic results. The story is streamlined in a way that could not be done if each character still had to be introduced to the reader. But because all of this groundwork was done so well in Deep Into The Dark, we get to focus purely on story here, and it is an outstanding criminal tale.

With Desolation Canyon, the reader is also treated to a larger share of the world these characters live and work in. Margaret Nolan’s parents are both part of this story, and we get to understand Nolan even better by seeing her relationship and interactions with these two people who are also grieving for Max, but instead of this bonding the family together, it seems that it is eroding their relationship instead.

With Desolation Canyon, P.J. Tracy has written a cleverly crafted and intricately weaved mystery as well as a pulse-pounding, page turner of a thriller. I am already excited to see more of these characters!

Desolation Canyon is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.

Will you be picking up Desolation Canyon? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

P.J. Tracy “seems to have found her literary sweet spot” (New York Times Book Review) with her dazzling new series, and in Desolation Canyon, fans get a deeper look into the complex characters who call Los Angeles home.

LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan is struggling to move forward after the death of her brother in Afghanistan and taking a life in the line of duty. Her stoic parents offer little support – they refuse to address anything difficult, and she’s afraid their relationship is eroding beyond the point of recovery.

The days off are the hardest, because they give Margaret time to think. A moment of weakness leads to cocktails with a colleague—an attraction she knows could be dangerous —at the luxurious Hotel Bel-Air bar. A stroll through the grounds leads to a grim discovery beneath the surface of Swan Lake: the body of a successful attorney who made his fortune in international trade.

It initially appears to be death by misadventure, but the case is anything but straightforward. As a series of shocking revelations emerge, Nolan finds herself confronting a sinister cabal that just might destroy her and everyone she loves.

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This is a very well crafted and well told mystery, but it is by no means a quick or light read. Heavy themes of revenge and obsession are woven throughout. Tracy introduces the character of Sam Easton in the opening pages of the story, and the reader is immediately confronted with the PTSD symptoms Sam is suffering through, related to his military service. There are dense, heavy scenes throughout as Sam suffers nightmares and other symptoms, and confronts all the ways these have, and continue to, effect his life, his marriage, and his relationships. Tracy has created Sam as a likeable character, and it is easy for the reader to sympathise with Sam’s situation and truly care about him and his well-being.

Margaret Nolan, an LAPD detective on the rise, is our other focal point throughout the novel as she and her partner are attempting to solve a murder that will lead them to cross paths with Sam. The deceased is the sometimes-abusive, sometimes-boyfriend, of Sam’s friend Melody, so both Melody and Sam will naturally fall under the microscope of suspicion. Margaret had a brother who also suffered from PTSD following his military service, so she views Sam much differently, and with a much more open mind than her partner. Scenes between Sam and Margaret are almost heartbreakingly painful at times as we see her reminded of her brother and his struggles.

Tracy does an outstanding job of creating characters that the reader feels connected to, but she also lays out a mystery that is both fascinating and unpredictable. With unexpected twists and turns throughout, Tracy carries the reader along on a captivating, but painful journey through the grim underbelly of a city where not everyone is part of the glitzy and glamorous side of Los Angeles.

Deep Into The Dark is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.

Will you be picking up Deep Into The Dark? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

Deep into the Dark features up-and-coming LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan

Sam Easton – a true survivor – is home from Afghanistan, trying to rebuild a life in his hometown of LA. Separated from his wife, bartending and therapy sessions are what occupy his days and nights. When friend and colleague Melody Traeger is beaten by her boyfriend, she turns to Sam for help. When the boyfriend turns up dead the next day, a hard case like Sam is the perfect suspect.

But LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan, whose brother recently died serving overseas, is sympathetic to Sam’s troubles, and can’t quite see him as a killer. She’s more interested in the secrets Melody might be keeping and the developments in another murder case on the other side of town.

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