Title: Everybody Knows
Rating: 5 Stars
When it comes to modern noir writers, Jordan Harper is my favorite. His short story collection, Love and Other Wounds (written about here), is one of the most amazing set of stories that I’ve read (Knockemstiff by Donald Roy Pollock is its only serious competition). Each and every story absolutely bristles with action and mayhem. His novel, She Rides Shotgun, is a similarly high octane adventure that features, of all things, a teddy bear. If you haven’t read either of these, I strongly recommend them.
When I saw that Harper had just released another novel, I had incredibly high expectations. The bottom line is that he met them all.
The novel features two protagonists. One is Mae. She is what is known as a black bag publicist. If there’s a dead body found in a celebrity’s bed, she’s the one that’s called to develop a cover story. When an actor on a drug binge shows up the day before a film starts shooting sporting a massive black eye, she’s the one that’s called to save the actor’s career. As she’s gotten better at her job, she’s lost whatever morals or values she might have once possessed. Now, it’s all about doing whatever necessary to fix your clients’ problems and get as much money as she can.
The other character is Chris Tamburro. He was a cop for many years. With his huge size and aggression (fed by cocaine and steroids), he was a natural fit for one of the brutal LA County police squads terrorizing neighborhoods in the name of justice. Caught trying to steal a pound of cocaine from a police evidence room, he escaped prison but lost his badge. Now forty-one years old, he makes his living as a fist. He is a person that puts the hurt on someone that has somehow crossed a person in power.
Mae and Chris were once an item but now are still friends. They consider themselves part of what Mae calls The Beast. It’s a web of intrigue that is threaded throughout the entire LA scene. The Beast controls everything and is implacable. Your only choice is to be part of The Beast and hope that it doesn’t eventually spit you out.
One day, Mae is invited to a secret meeting with her boss, Dan. He offers her the chance for a major score. It’ll be incredibly risky, but if it pays off, Mae would be able to quit and start her own firm. She decides to join him. At their next meeting, Dan was to explain the details of the plan. Before that happens, Dan is shot down and killed in what appears to be a carjacking gone violently wrong.
Even though devastated by the death, Mae figures out just enough of what Dan was doing to start thinking that she can take over and still cash in. Knowing that she can’t do it along, she brings in Chris.
As they begin to unravel the mystery, it becomes clear that they are seemingly striking at the heart of The Beast. It quickly becomes dangerous for them as they struggle to save themselves and also get rich in the process.
Since it is such a new book and so much fun to read and experience, I won’t spoil more details.
This is a wonderful example of LA noir. You see the beautiful weather, the billionaire moguls, and the flawless celebrities. Underneath that gilded façade lies a darkness. There are wealthy, powerful men casually using and abusing young women. There is an army of security forces ready to ruthlessly quash any challenge to the status quo. Sons of the rich rule with the same mien as crown princes. Politicians are in the pockets of the powerful. LA County police is effectively a set of organized gangs. There are small fry criminals trying to scratch out a living that will be ruthlessly murdered if their dreams of scoring become too grand.
In short, it’s a Hobbesian world where a life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
In other worlds, it’s the world of James Ellroy. Self described as the Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction, he is the master of LA Noir. The four novels that comprise his LA Quartet: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential, and White Jazz are all ferocious works of fiction. Writing in staccato sentences, his deeply troubled, morally challenged characters live a live wire, tight rope existence. His style is not for everyone and I wouldn’t want to subsist just on that literary diet, but I find his novels thrilling and compelling to read.
Jordan Harper is the author that I’ve read that comes closest to matching Ellroy in intensity, cynicism, and depravity. I can only hope that his literary career has the same longevity of Ellroy’s.
dorkenstein 