Everybody Knows
by Jordan Harper
Little, Brown
January 10, 2023
“A mesmerizing whodunit, escapist yet thought-provoking.”
EVERYBODY KNOWS is a propulsive LA crime thriller about Mae Pruett, a "black-bag publicist" - she doesn't get the good news out, she keeps the bad news in – who works for “The Beast,” her name for the loose collection of lawyers, publicists and private security firms who protect and serve the wealthy and depraved of Los Angeles.
Chris Tamburro is Mae’s ex, an ex-cop fired for corruption and a now-fist on the Beast’s arm, working as muscle for a shady lawyer. They must both confront the bad things they aid and abet when Mae’s boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel, dying with a secret Mae is determined to learn. Unraveling the mystery of her boss’s death takes them through an electric, pulpy vision of Los Angeles, a world of homeless camp bombers, drug-addled celebrities, cop gangs who mark their kills with tattoos, a livestreamed murder, and powerful men with a secret so dark they will kill to keep it.
This ambitious neon-noir matches breakneck twists and napalm prose with meditations on power, fame and all of our complicity with evil.
Foreign Sales:
Ullstein / Germany
Faber & Faber / U.K.
Southside Stories / Sweden
Luitingh-Sijthoff / Netherlands
Actes Sud / France
Kariera / Russia
Salamanda / Spain
Neripozza / Italy
Praise for Everybody Knows:
Named as a finalist for the Anthony Award as Best Hardcover Novel
Shortlisted for the CWA Dagger Award
"Hollywood noir doesn't get any darker than Jordan Harper's
dazzling Everybody Knows, where cynicism is rewarded, romance
thwarted and redemption narratives undercut at every turn."
—New York Times Book Review
“Harper writes with a[n]…earthy-yet-elegant wit….This book is
recognisably part of a great tradition, but never seems ersatz: I
doubt there will be a better American crime novel this year.”
—The Telegraph (UK)
“Virtuosically written...Consider me shocked and awed.”
—Airmail
“A mesmerizing whodunit, escapist yet thought-provoking.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“Harper displays an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture and
Hollywood history as he spins a tale that isn’t just ripped from
the headlines—it’s probably predicting them.”
—Bookpage, Starred Review
“Don't be surprised if this utterly compelling thriller, which builds on timeless
themes and brings new shading to an iconic landscape, is the noir of the year.”
—Booklist, Starred Review
“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.”
—Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review
“Everybody Knows is a classic LA noir for the #MeToo era….As ingenious as Harper's plot is,
it's also the cynical lyricism of the language of Everybody Knows that kept me transfixed;
reading it is like watching Sunset Boulevard for the first time.
—NPR’s Fresh Air
“Harper’s dark vision — and it is very dark — imbues ‘Everybody Knows’ with a tight
plot that is on fire from the first sentence and believable characters one wants to root for.
—The South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“EVERYBODY KNOWS rages through the City of Angels like a broken-dam flood.
It’s got it all, but most of all it’s got deep insight. It’s the book everybody’s been waiting for.”
—Michael Connelly, Edgar Winner and #1 NYT Best-Selling author of the BOSCH series
“EVERYBODY KNOWS is the best mystery novel I’ve read in years. It’s also one of the darkest.
Is L.A. worthy of a circle in Dante’s Inferno? Seems reasonable to me. Jordan Harper writes sentences,
and in this case an entire book, that is both terrifying and exhilarating.”
– James Patterson, #1 NY Times bestselling author
"EVERYBODY KNOWS is one of the best LA noir novels I've ever read. The writing
is astonishingly good. It's a wild, honest, sharp, and suspenseful ride, full of wry observations
about the nature of power and the cost of being good in a bad, bad world."
—Attica Locke, Edgar Winner and NYT Best-Selling author of BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD
"Just as Ellory mastered the atavistic heart of 1950's corruption, so Jordan Harper
has mastered articulating the Day-Glo Technicolor nightmare that is postmodern
Los Angeles. EVERYBODY KNOWS is filled with ballsy movers and shakers, of course,
but also plastic social media influencers, high-rent hoods, nihilistic cops, and the sorts
of lost souls you’ll never forget. EVERYBODY KNOWS is an absolute tour de force.
—SA Cosby, bestselling and LA Times Book Prize-winning
author of BLACKTOP WASTELAND