I enjoyed the first half of this more than the second. Mae's work for a crisis management/PR firm was really interesting, although increasingly morally dubious. Then there was Chris, an ex-police officer, whose unit had become more or less a gang in itself, and now working as a sort of enforcer for a security firm. Somehow the author made me warm to them. They gradually realize how far their employers are connected and controlling of the movie industry in LA. The second half was more of a thriller and interested me less. ( )

A book about very powerful people. About a system that is probably not far from the truth. And yet, making the story into a thriller takes away what power the book itself may have had. The victims are just a reason for unfolding a story, not the focus of the narrative. It's about whether bad people or very bad people abuse and / or profit from them. There are no heroes in this book, the system is self-contained and self-preserving.
But: the presentation of Los Angeles and everything it has come to stand for is tremendously powerful. No need to judge or critizise, the mere details of life in L.A. are enough to unfold a city so full of misconceptions, unreasonably high expectations, greed, hopes, depravity, power and shattered dreams, that it adds to the uncanny realism of this story that would be preposterous if it happened anywhere else. This is the only place a story like this can be true. L.A. is not a setting in this book, it's a protagonist.

After her boss is gunned down at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Mae Pruett, a publicist/fixer working at LA's most powerful crisis PR firm protecting the rich and depraved, decides to investigate, running afoul of the whole system.

This was a complicated story that moved at a good pace with many people who needed their illegal or immoral activities covered up. Mae liked knowing the secrets and was good at manipulating stories or the press to keep her clients out of trouble. She started questioning it all when her boss is killed. Mae and her ex-boyfriend who helps her were not likeable. Nor were all the sleazy people doing sleazy things. This story seemed similar to ones I’ve read like this and didn’t have the surprises or suspense that Harper’s book “She Rides Shotgun” had. Just a so-so read. ( )

Los Angeles, crime, noir ( )

Mae Pruett lives in Los Angeles and does “black-bag” publicity jobs for a crisis management firm in Everybody Knows: A Novel by Jordan Harper. Her job is to keep bad news out of the press at all costs or, at the very least, spin the event or incident into more positive news coverage. Her firm shapes the news we see for celebrities. The real facts of the situations, the dirt and what Hollywood does to all involved, especially the kid stars, stays hidden from view.

That is until her boss at Mitnick & Associates is killed in the street in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Mae Pruett was supposed to be meeting him for a drink and to talk. Lucky for her, she was running a few minutes late. So, she missed the shooting in what is now being billed as an attempted carjacking gone wrong. Mae can read between the lines and knows the media story being pushed hard is utter nonsense. She knows because what to look for and who is reporting the stuff. She also knows because Dan was being weird just before he was killed and had some sort of plan to make him and her rich.

She owed Dan for bringing her into the biggest PR firm in the city. She wonders why the machine is working so hard to spin the story. She wonders what he was planning that got him killed. What was he planning? What did he know? She has a couple of ideas and begins to dig. What she finds is the kind of stuff that gives one a waking nightmare if they are not murdered first.

A lot of people will be as Mae uncovers secrets and desperately tries to stay alive.

Everybody Knows: A Novel is a darkly cynical read and a commentary on pop culture and the entertainment industry. It is a complex and noir style mystery tale where evil almost always wins out in the end simply because so many are employed to make sure that happens. It is also one of those books that one wonders how many names have been changed to protect the scumbags among us?

It is also one heck of a complicated read that is well worth your time. Everybody Knows: A Novel easily makes my top five book list of reads so far this year. It packs quite a punch from beginning to end. It might also make you think twice the next time you see a story on a celebrity.

My reading copy came from the Central or Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023 ( )