CITY OF SECRETS

4 stars out of 5

I've read three other books in this series and looked forward to this, the fourth. But although I admit to staying up later than my regular bedtime to finish this one, it's not my favorite of the bunch. Oh sure, I still love LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan and her crew, but there are just too many characters in too many different places for an aging brain like mine to keep straight. Otherwise, though, it's business as usual - and that usually means plenty of action.

This one begins with the discovery of a body in what seems to have been a car-jacking; the suspicions of Nolan and her partner Al Crawford are aroused, though, when it's discovered that the victim is the founder of a pet supply company that's grown by leaps and bounds and, as a result, about to be scarfed up by an even larger company for a paltry $100 million. 

Top company employees deny any notion of fraud or foul play at the business - one of them even conducted a thorough audit in recent months. And the plot thickens when the murdered man's wife is kidnapped - with zero indication of ransom or other conditions that must be met for her safe return.

After that, things tend to get wild and crazy, with characters coming from all over the map. And while all this is going on, Margaret's infatuation with fellow detective Remy Beaudreau (and his with her) is heating up amid questions about where it should go - if anywhere. More kidnappings and close calls happen all the way up to the end, when most of the situations are resolved (with one biggie left wide open for, I hope, the next installment. I'll be waiting - and meantime, I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read a pre-release copy of this one.

City of Secrets by P.J. Tracy (Minotaur Books, August 2024); 298 pp.

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

4 stars out of 5

This is the third in the series featuring LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan; having read and enjoyed the first two, I was happy to be approved for a pre-release copy of this one. My initial reaction after finishing it is that I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the other two, but the difference is negligible and I'm pretty sure came simply because there's a bit of an overload of characters in this one.

Tapping into technology trends, highly successful actor Evan Hobbes, who has been "outed" as a pedophile in a deep fake video, is found at the bottom of a rockslide in Malibu. Conventional wisdom says an accident or even suicide, given the fake video's damage to his career, but closer investigation reveals that murder goeth before the fall. His agent, Seth Lehman, is shattered by Hobbes's death, but he's too busy fighting with his over-the-top witchy agency boss, Rebecca Wodehouse. All of them, plus a glamorous movie star, were at the posh home of a Disney exec when Hobbes went over the hill, and while everyone, including the exec's wife, seem distraught, Nolan and her competent and very likable partner Al Crawford are pretty sure the killer came from their ranks. Complicating matters is that just about every character is connected to another one (or two, or three) - Lehman, for instance, is the brother of the Disney executive's wife; as for who's sleeping with whom, well, I pretty much lost track after awhile.

Meantime, a side story follows happenings in the life of Nolan's friend Sam Easton (familiar to those who have read previous books), who still suffers from PTSD but is getting his life together and even considering a job with the LAPD. Nolan's case heats up when a second character turns up dead (with an M.O. similar to the Hobbes case). The case sends Nolan and Crawford all over their not-so-little section of California to find pieces that hopefully will come together to make the puzzle whole and makes her yearn for Remy, her own person of interest, who's away to take care of personal business. All in all, a never-a-dull-moment story that ends with a twist. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy. Well done!

The Devil Your Know by P.J. Tracy (St. Martin's Press, January 2023); 304 pp.

DESOLATION CANYON

4 stars out of 5

This is the second in the series featuring LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan, and it's every bit as good as the first. Maybe even better, because the first introduced me to a character I loved - Sam Easton, a former electrical engineer who has suffered from PTSD because of a deadly attack in Afghanistan when he was in the military. I hoped to see more of him, and in this book, I got my wish.

As this begins, Margaret is dealing with her own kind of PTSD as a result of her brother's death in Afghanistan and the fact that she killed someone in the line of duty. On one of her days off, she meets up with a sometimes-more-than-friend for drinks at the bar of a posh hotel. When the two wander out for a walk around the property's lake, they get a rather nasty surprise: A dead man is floating in it. Turns out he's a very successful lawyer who got rich in the international trade business.

Meanwhile, Sam's good friend Lenny has some issues of his own and asks Sam for help. Lenny, it seems, has picked up a woman and her young daughter who told him she was trying to escape from a religious retreat located in a remote part of the nearby desert. Run by a man called Father Paul, the retreat is quite popular with the rich and sometimes famous who are trying to get in touch with their inner selves. So why on earth would anyone need to run away?

That's a good question that needs a good answer - even more so when it becomes clear that the mother and daughter may still be in danger. And soon, even more questions pile up as the cases Margaret and Sam are involved in begin to merge with potentially dangerous consequences for all the characters. The subsequent investigations and goings-on kept me on the edge of my seat throughout, although I'll admit to having a bit of trouble keeping all the scenarios and characters straight for the first half of the book or so. 

The bottom line? Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended (it's not necessary to read the first book, Deep Into the Dark, to get the gist of this one, but since it's always a good idea to start at the beginning (and it's an excellent book as well), I'll suggest that possibility. Now, I'm looking forward to the next installment and thanking the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read a pre-release copy of this one. Nicely done!

Desolation Canyon by P.J. Tracy (Minotaur Books, January 2022); 352 pp.

DEEP INTO THE DARK

4 stars out of 5

I've read and very much enjoyed a couple of other books by this author, so I was delighted to be approved for a pre-release copy of this one through NetGalley. And I'm happy to say it did not disappoint.

Two storylines are featured here, the first of which is catching the person, or persons, who have been racking up murder victims along Los Angeles' Miracle Mile. LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan and her partner, Detective Al Crawford - plus another notable character or two - are on the case but not having much luck. In the other, Sam Easton, a former electrical engineer who's suffering from PTSD as a result of an Afghanistan attack that killed everyone in his squad except him, is working as a bar back in a popular local pub. His wife has left him, so he's alone with his nightmares and hallucinations and has only his job for solace. But when his co-worker, Melody, gets beaten up by her snobby boyfriend, he's eager to help.

But the next day, Melody's boyfriend dies of very unnatural causes, Maggie and Al are called in and Sam quickly becomes a prime suspect - at least in Al's eyes. Maggie isn't as quick to put the finger on Sam, though; she recently lost her brother who was serving overseas, making her more sympathetic to what Sam's going through. 

Melody's boyfriend may be out of the picture, but it soon becomes clear that someone else may be stalking her (and possibly Sam as well). Meantime, they meet up with a young and very rich filmmaker wannabe who leans toward being totally nuts - and he shows them a script he thinks would be perfect with Sam and Melody as the stars even though they have no acting experience whatsoever.

Everything comes together at the end (well, not everything; this is the first book in a new series, so bread crumbs leading to the next one are left on the ground). And therein lies one of the things I wasn't so crazy about; the main character in the series is supposed to be Margaret. But it's Sam who, to me at least, unquestionably steals this show (even if, PTSD notwithstanding, he came across as a little too "perfect"). Margaret's character, on the other hand, isn't nearly as well developed - so in the end it's Sam, not Margaret, about whom I'd love to read more (of course, who's to say he won't make future appearances - if I get a vote on that score, it's a resounding yes).

That said, the series is off to a strong start and I look forward to the next one. Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

Deep Into the Dark by P.J. Tracy (Minotaur Books, January 2021); 343 pp.