#TheDevilYouKnow – Rosepoint Publishing

Rosepoint Reviews-December Recap

December always sweeps in on an icy blast with more activities to accomplish associated with the holidays than can be easily handled.

Frosty, our Bichon Frise Despite the winter chill, the CE and I managed to get out for a couple walks and one or two additional short rides (around the block) before the bikes had to be left to cool in the garage for the winter. The frigid storm that hit near Christmas dropped outside temps to -0F with a wind chill factor of -34F, which alarmed me sufficiently that I felt I needed to protect Frosty’s little ears and put booties on her little paws for potty time. The CE is always very good at shoveling a small path for her as it’s too difficult to try and keep little booties on her paws in several inches of snow.

I worry about the wild critters in those conditions too and wonder how they manage to survive–much less the homeless—more than 16,000 in Chicago according to the news. It’s a blessing to have a roof overhead with food in the fridge and I think that’s Christmas gift enough—that and our health—knock on wood.

Reading in December took a back seat but we still managed ten books and audiobooks. A hard look at my schedule had me paring one post per week and I’ll keep that schedule into the new year with an occasional extra post. The current schedule is ebook reviews on Sunday and Tuesday and an audiobook review on Thursday. As I mentioned before, I took on (Amazon) Vine reviews that have proven to take more time than expected as well as a new preview club the CE and I are participating in as well. The latter is interesting but of course appears to also take more time than we expected. Have you heard of the Netflix Preview Club? Are you a member?

December book reviews

The Trackers by Charles Frazier (CE review)
Swamp Story by Dave Barry (my 5*)
Keep Sharp by Dr Sanjay Gupta (audiobook)
Hemlock Hollow by Culley Holderfield (CE review)
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill (book club selection)
Someone Else’s Bucket List by Amy T Matthews (CE review)
The Devil You Know by P J Tracy
Borderline by Nevada Barr (audiobook)
Revolution by Mike Bond (CE review)
Guild Boss by Jayne Castle (audiobook)

Swamp Story was super and too short. A laugh out loud silly storyline that has you shaking your head while gobbling up the next chapter. It will be on my favorites of the year list and is totally recommended!

Reading Challenges

My challenges page has been caught up through December. As mentioned before, that page will undergo a change for 2023. My 2022 challenges have been achieved and I will take a look at the new schedule and adjust the challenges as well. I hope to have the new Reading Challenges page updated for the 2023 challenges some time in mid-January.

How did you do on your 2022 TBR? What titles have you already pegged for your January reads? Have you planned your first read of the year? I’d love to know the title—show me the cover.

I do so appreciate my followers. A special shout-out to those who like, share, and comment! Hope you all have a happy, healthy 2023!

Happy New Year - 2023

Book Blurb:

Darkness is nothing new to LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan, but in P.J. Tracy’s The Devil You Know, even she isn’t prepared for the scandalous deception of deadly proportions that shakes the very foundation of Hollywood and its untouchables…and leaves her entangled in its rotten core.

Los Angeles has many faces: the real LA where regular people live and work, the degenerate underbelly of any big city, and the rarefied world of wealth, power, and celebrity. LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan’s latest case plunges her into this insular realm of privilege, and gives her a glimpse of the decay behind the glitter.

Beloved actor Evan Hobbes is found in the rubble of a Malibu rockslide, a day after a fake video ruins his career. It’s not clear to Nolan if it’s an accident, a suicide, or a murder, and things get murkier as the investigation expands to his luminary friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, Hobbes’s agent is dealing with damage control, his psychotic boss, and a woman he’s scorned.

My Review:

My first experience with LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan and perhaps that is part of my problem, this book being #3 in the series. Sometimes, it matters not; sometimes it’s best to have started with book 1.

Detective Nolan is a hardened, experienced woman on the LAPD force borne of time spent negotiating with the men in the department as well as the three well-known layers of LA society; that of the underbelly, the regular people who work and pay taxes for the lower layer as well as the top layer of the privileged, wealthy, and powerful. It is the top layer she will deal with here.

First, I found that the book gets a slow start with excessive use of descriptive adjectives, losing me several times in the sheer volume of characters being introduced as well as the twenty-dollar words when two dollars ones would do.

“Crawford appeared in the doorway, interrupting her elegiac meanderings.”

There is the death of a popular and well-known actor that is determined homicide (not accident), followed by a multiple pile up of bodies. The slow pace eases somewhat as the sixteen-syllable words decrease, but still I could find no way to engage and lost the thread several times.

It doesn’t take long to discern the guilty party and then it becomes difficult to hang on long enough for the plot to catch up. The focus tends to spread when I wanted to concentrate on the whodunit. It seems like the storyline is carried along by the support characters until Maggie finally takes over towards the second half of the narrative.

I just could not seem to connect and stay connected and particularly wanted to after the invitation from Ms. Haring of St. Martin’s Press. I usually enjoy police procedurals—perhaps this was a bit cerebral for me and those who enjoy a twisty, intelligent crime thriller will embrace.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Police Procedurals, Crime Thrillers
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: ‎ 1250859948
ASIN: B09Y46NXKL
Print Length: 294 pages
Publication Date: January 17, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: PJ Tracy is the pseudonym of mother-daughter writing duo P.J. and Traci Lambrecht, authors of the New York Times and internationally bestselling MONKEEWRENCH series, and winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards.

After PJ’s death in 2016, Traci began writing the Detective Margaret Nolan series, set in Los Angeles, where she lived for many years. DEEP INTO THE DARK and DESOLATION CANYON are available now, and the third novel, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, will be released in January 2023.