Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: A Violent Masterpiece: A Novel by Jordan Harper

 

Jordan Harper’s newest piece of crime fiction is, like his last book, about the dark side of the entertainment industry and Los Angeles. In A Violent Masterpiece (Mulholland, 2026) three distinct voices narrate a graphic tale of grimy mayhem and amorality. Jake Deal comes alive when he livestreams the nightlife of Los Angeles to his sensation-seeking audience. Bloody crime scenes, devastating car crashes, nightclub brawls, all are grist to his mill. Of particular interest just now is a serial killer known as the LA Ripper. Kara Delgado works for a secret concierge organization that arranges for entertainment the upper crust of LA can’t buy on the open market such as, but not limited to, drugs and sex parties. She’s been quietly searching for her friend Phoebe who disappeared months earlier and has begun to fear Phoebe was a victim of the LA Ripper. Doug Gibson is a defense attorney who represents the underdog against a criminal justice system that overwhelmingly bulldozes over anyone without status or money.

One of the Hollywood elite normally supported by that system is arrested for pedophilia. The complaints have been piling up and the proof is undeniable. He hires Gibson to defend him, telling him he’s prepared to turn state’s evidence against the crowd he’s been supplying with underage girls to get a better deal for himself. Despite being on suicide watch, Gibson’s client is dead within hours of offering to rat out his friends to the authorities.

The paths of Jake, Kara, and Doug cross eventually and they realize they have common goals. They begin working together to expose the most privileged icons of Hollywood in a hair-raising and explosive resolution.

An explicit story of the worst of LA excesses, strikingly narrated in terse, mesmerizing prose. Expect to see this book on the 2026 best crime fiction lists and on multiple award nomination surveys. Starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Mulholland Books

·         Publication date: ‎April 28, 2026

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎384 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0316458406

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0316458405

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/41HqcVv

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Lesa's Book Critiques: KEVIN’S CORNER ANNEX – EVERYBODY KNOWS BY JORDAN HARPER

 Lesa's Book Critiques: KEVIN’S CORNER ANNEX – EVERYBODY KNOWS BY JORDAN HARPER

Review: Everybody Knows: A Novel by Jordan Harper

 

Mae Pruett lives in Los Angeles and does “black-bag” publicity jobs for a crisis management firm in Everybody Knows: A Novel by Jordan Harper. Her job is to keep bad news out of the press at all costs or, at the very least, spin the event or incident into more positive news coverage. Her firm shapes the news we see for celebrities. The real facts of the situations, the dirt and what Hollywood does to all involved, especially the kid stars, stays hidden from view.

That is until her boss at Mitnick & Associates is killed in the street in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Mae Pruett was supposed to be meeting him for a drink and to talk. Lucky for her, she was running a few minutes late. So, she missed the shooting in what is now being billed as an attempted carjacking gone wrong. Mae can read between the lines and knows the media story being pushed hard is utter nonsense. She knows because what to look for and who is reporting the stuff. She also knows because Dan was being weird just before he was killed and had some sort of plan to make him and her rich.

She owed Dan for bringing her into the biggest PR firm in the city. She wonders why the machine is working so hard to spin the story. She wonders what he was planning that got him killed. What was he planning? What did he know? She has a couple of ideas and begins to dig. What she finds is the kind of stuff that gives one a waking nightmare if they are not murdered first.

A lot of people will be as Mae uncovers secrets and desperately tries to stay alive.

Everybody Knows is a darkly cynical read and a commentary on pop culture and the entertainment industry. It is a complex and noir style mystery tale where evil almost always wins out in the end simply because so many are employed to make sure that happens. It is also one of those books that one wonders how many names have been changed to protect the scumbags among us?

It is also one heck of a complicated read that is well worth your time. Everybody Knows: A Novel easily makes my top five book list of reads so far this year. It packs quite a punch from from beginning to end. It might also make you think twice the next time you see a story on a celebrity.

 

My reading copy came from the Central or Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023

The Hard Word: CITY OF FEW ANGELS: A REVIEW OF JORDAN HARPER'S EVERYBODY KNOWS

 The Hard Word: CITY OF FEW ANGELS: A REVIEW OF JORDAN HARPER'S EVERYBODY KNOWS

MysteryPeople Blog: Top 6 Debut Novels of 2017

MysteryPeople Blog: Top 6 Debut Novels of 2017