Everybody Knows

Edgar winner Harper (She Rides Shotgun) brilliantly taps into the zeitgeist for this crime novel that perfectly reflects its time and place. As a series of bombings ravage the homeless encampments of Los Angeles, the city’s wealthy elite are protected by “black-bag publicists” like Mae Pruett. A crisis manager for L.A.’s rich and famous, Mae helps to keep their dirty laundry and debauched escapades from reaching the public. This can, of course, be a complicated job, and requires a tag team effort from a multidisciplinary group of lawyers, journalists, and, when necessary, hired muscle. When Mae’s boss, Dan Hennigan, is murdered, Mae and her ex, Chris Tamburro, a disgraced former cop who’s now employed by a private security company, wind up working the same case. As they investigate, they follow Hennigan’s side hustle down a dark road involving über-rich predators and some of Hollywood’s most vulnerable. Combing the brutality of James Ellroy with the poetic sensibility of Raymond Chandler, Harper takes the reader on a searing journey into L.A.’s underworld where truth and righteousness have become irrelevant and only power has currency. This neo-noir is a must read. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc. (Jan.)