Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper (Faber, £8.99)
Hollywood publicist Mae Pruett works for a crisis management company where “the only job is to disconnect power from responsibility”. Her ex-boyfriend, a former cop, has a similarly morally sordid job with a security company that “fixes” things – sometimes using physical force – for its high-value clients. When Mae’s boss Dan is murdered, shortly after inviting her to join his mysterious and possibly illegal side-hustle, the pair end up investigating, working against the system they formerly sustained. Cinematic and insightful, with one-liners worthy of Raymond Chandler on a good day and a sprawling plot that unfolds in a James Ellroyesque underworld of sexual predators, crooked police officers and unscrupulous wheeler-dealers, Everybody Knows is a tour de force.
