Jordan Harper is a writer I’ve been hearing a lot of positive things about lately, mostly from podcasters. Harper has written for TV in addition to his novels and it seems he has a lot of friends and fans in the industry. His latest novel, A Violent Masterpiece, came out earlier this year to great acclaim, and I decided I should give him a shot. Then I realized I already owned an earlier book on Kindle (I buy too many books on sale on Amazon.)
Everybody Knows is set in Hollywood, specifically in the world of black bag PR. Our two protagonists are Mae, a PR flack who specializes in killing negative news stories for celebrity clients, and Chris, an ex-cop who works private security, essentially as muscle for the mega-rich. When Mae’s mentor and boss is killed in a supposedly random car-jacking just before he was going to inform Mae about a new scheme he had cooked up, she decides that she needs to find out the truth no matter what. Chris is mysteriously assigned to investigate the murder as well, with a vague assignment to make sure there’s nothing going on that his firm’s billionaire owner should be concerned about. When Mae and Chris, who happen to be exes, encounter each other on the trail, they decide to pool their efforts without telling their respective bosses.
This book got off to a flying start, showing Mae in her element, saving a former teen starlet from throwing away her best chance at a comeback. It felt lived-in and knowledgeable about the world it was depicting. Given Harper’s experience in Hollywood, that makes a lot of sense. But then, of course, the dead bodies start piling up and Harper finds himself on territory that obviously is less familiar to him. Harper makes the seamy side of the industry come alive, but when he has to deal with rogue cops, drug dealers, sex traffickers, and mega-rich, he relies on stock characterizations and cliches.
The plot of Everybody Knows gets really bogged down, throwing the pacing way off and sapping the reader’s interest in what happens next. As more characters are introduced into the story, Harper’s weakness at bringing them to life comes to the forefront, and all this excess weight really gets in the way of the suspense and the mystery.
The main problem, though, is with the two main characters. Harper struggles to make them believably tortured by the things they have done. Mae has ruined lives and reputations for money, while Chris has been a thoroughly corrupt law enforcement officer. They express regret for their past actions, but not all that much, really. Which is only a problem because Harper really seems to expect the reader to be rooting for them just because this one time they happen to be on the right side. It’s a tough sell, and Harper can’t pull it off.
