I didn't realize this was a third in a series of books until part way through the novel. It like the fast past feel of the writing and the narrator did a good job. Special thanks to NetGalley and the author for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

I wish I knew that this was the 3rd book in a series. I had no idea and was VERY confused by all of the characters. It felt like it was jumping around so much and I got lost very quickly.
Someone else described it as coming into a movie halfway through, and I resonate with that so much.

Aside from this, I did enjoy this story. The writing was good, the plot twist was wonderful, and I didn’t see it coming (either because I was too lost, or the writing was too good).

I give this 3/5 stars. Had I known it was a series and read the previous two, I may have given a higher rating and better review. Making that part known would be super beneficial!

Just OK

This read like a first novel. The characters were shallowly written, nobody was like-able, and parts of the book were terribly over-written. The beginning in particular was an explosion of adverbs. The plot wasn't bad, but not very compelling. I listened to the audio book (on double speed), so I finished it, but if it had been in written form I probably would have bailed after a few chapters.

This was a fast, well-paced read. It's rare that I read (or, in this case, listen to) a mystery and am truly at a loss for guessing the killer. However, this one had so many suspects I was really unsure until the very end. I love that the Hollywood/trained actor setting made all of the guessing more convoluted, it SHOULD be harder to tell who's lying when you're dealing with professional actors.
My only complaint and I realize this is part of a series, is that the Sam thread really didn't further the story at all. I felt like it was so separate and unrelated to anything else that it felt incongruous.

LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan s investigating the death of Hollywood star, Evan Hobbes. Hobbes is found dead the day after a doctored video goes viral and destroys his career. Too many people, the death looks like a suicide but Nolan isn’t so sure. This is a rather ugly portrait of life in the Hollywood fast lane, where everybody has something to hide, something to sell and someone to screw over. This is the third book in the series, and if you haven’t read the first two, there’s a good chance you’ll be lost. Tracy does a good job of highlighting the world of the have and have nots in this gritty series

Thanks NetGalley for the early access to this book. I thought the characters were really exciting and really relatable. I didn’t know this book was a series so maybe listening to it as a standalone could have changed a perspective a little bit. There were a few parts that were confusing and I had to go back a few chapters if I missed something but I’m sure if you’ve read the other 2 you would understand the characters a bit better.

The Devil You Know by P. J. Tracy
Narrated by Abby Craden
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Expected Publication Date: January 17, 2023

The Devil You Know is the third book in the Detective Margaret Nolan series by P. J. Tracy. This book can be easily enjoyed as a standalone book or as part of the series.

This is a fast read that I did not want to step away from! I was captivated from the start and was on the edge of my seat throughout. There were so many twists and turns and I loved seeing it all come together. I thought the characters were great and the story was engaging.

The narration by Abby Craden was incredible! I loved how she brought the story to life!

I highly recommend this book! I will definitely be reading the other books in the series because I could not get enough!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I feel like there was good potential for this audiobook.... and maybe that is exactly it, the audiobook was hard to follow, but maybe it would be a better book. There were so many characters and I like that they were trying o tie them together, but I just ended up confused and still am... I REALLY wanted to like it!

The Devil You Know by P.J. Tracy was an amazing thriller of a whodoneit. I loved the real feel of life and personalities in modern-day Hollywood. Not only did we get glimpses at the A-list experience, but also the dreamer, the schemers, and the people who struggle to make ends meet, despite having 2 jobs in La-La Land. I think that all of the perfectly imperfect characters are what drew me in from the very first page. And the characters do run the gamut of society, and felt true to today.

When what looked like an accidental death of an A-lister was found to be murder (coincidentally after a deep-faked video of him and a minor had just been leaked), so many people from all areas of his life were then suspects. …and his death was just the first of many in this suspenseful thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape for the audioARC of this amazing new mystery!! I 10/10 Loved it!

This was another "first time" author for me. When I received the ARC, I didn't at first realize that this was the third book in the series. After finishing the book, I do not think that it made too much of a difference to start at book 3, but it might have been a little helpful with information for a couple of the character relationships. I definitely think that this book can be read as a stand alone.

About the book. I have to admit, it took me a little while to get used to the writing style. I was listening to the audio version and I have to admit to being quite lost at the beginning. The first chapter is from an unknown POV - all we know is that she (and another unknown someone) is murdered at the end of the chapter (that's not a spoiler, it happens in Chapter One), then we switch to a timeline in the 1800's where a letter is being read. As a first time reader, at this point I had absolutely no clue what the book was about, nor even the correct timeline and at this point, we had not even been introduced to the MC's. Anyway, it was a little disconcerting. I went and got the print version and actually read the first few chapters until I got a better feel for the writing style and for exactly WHO everyone was. This story is told in so many POV's that it took me a while to understand each time that we had switched to a different person.

The story itself is interesting. It begins with one murder (not including the murders at the VERY beginning) and the murder count increases as the story progresses. The female MC is a homicide detective in the LA area and she regularly has to deal with the famous "Hollywood" types. She apparently has gained a bit of fame with some of her cases and I got the feeling that she was a pretty good detective.

The narrator - Abby Craden - did a fine job with the narration. The case has a couple of twists and turns and the ending is supposed to have that kind of "gotcha" moment. I did figure everything out beforehand, but I will admit that it did keep my interest.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read/listen and review this ARC. The opinions above are mine and mine alone.

This is the third book in the series. It surrounds the murder of an actor, and the subsequent investigation. The book is a little hard to follow without reading the other 2 books. I was able to work out the dynamics, it just took a little extra time and thought. It's worth reading, but advise reading them in order. I listened to the audiobook, Abby Crayden did a great job bringing the book to life. She made each character different and made it easier to follow. It's an interesting story that has a great twist.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and PJ Tracy for this ARC.

I was so excited to receive this audiobook copy of the Devil You Know. However, I didn’t realize it was a third in the series. I gave it a go but quickly learned I would’ve needed to read the first two to understand most things happening in this one. I was pretty lost so it was hard to understand even the current plot. Sadly, this was a DNF for me. Thank you, Net Galley for the opportunity.

Margaret Nolan investigates the death of a Disney star who had a deep fake child pornography video surface just before before his body was found in rubble that fell from a cliff during an earthquake. Was this an accident? Suicide? Murder? As she investigates the Hollywood elite she finds that it's easier to find someone with a motive than without.

I'm going to give this one the benefit of the doubt and say I might have enjoyed it more had I read the first two books in the series. Usually with this genre you can jump right in, but nothing in this book hooked me. I didn't get to know any characters well enough to care about them. I really tried to get into the mystery but I couldn't and by 60% in, where it should have at least started getting interesting, I found myself just wishing to be done with it instead of turning pages wanting to know what was going to happen next.

2.5 stars rounded up.

This book would have been better if I had read it instead of listening to it as an audiobook. I found it challenging to keep track of all the different characters in the novel and kept trying to figure out how they were all related to each other. I also didn’t read the other two books in the series, so that might have played into the confusion.
I enjoyed trying to figure out “who dun it” and was pleasantly surprised at the end.

I didn't get very far into this -- there were so many separate stories, it was just too much work to keep track of.

Unfortunately, I had no idea this was part of a series. I was a little (a lot) confused on character dynamics. Also there are a lot of characters and I cannot keep track on audio.

The narrator is great, unfortunately this audiobook was just not working for me. I would definitely need to read the books in order.

However, that's clearly my fault, not the book's.

I went in not knowing this was the third book in a series as it wasn’t mentioned in the description.

I still had a good time listening to this and getting into this case. Maybe at some point I will go back and read the other books now.

I picked this up not realizing it's the third book in the series. Usually crime thrillers make sense as independent books so this doesn't have a huge impact. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those books. None of the characters were clearly introduced and their backstories weren't sufficiently explained. As a result, I was lost throughout the story and couldn't focus on the plot.

Three stars because it did seem like it was probably a compelling mystery and it isn't the fault of the book that I picked it up a mid-series.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this book ahead of publication. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

2 stars (rounded up)

This is the end of the road for me and this series and most likely this author.
For a short book, boy this felt long and boring and full of backhanded comments that were absolutely useless.
Also the book is extremely predictable, despite the fact that the detectives still had no clue who the murder was till the very end.

The narrator was pretty terrible too.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape for allowing me to read this book!

The Devil You Know was one of those books that sounded like something I will love but unfortunately, I just struggle to get fully invested in it. The story takes place in LA and there is an event that leads to a murder which leads to more murders.

The story really reminds you just how entitled some people are and it depicts this aspect very well. There were plenty of unlikeable characters that were unlikeable by design and I enjoyed those characters.

The main characters I just did not know enough about to like and some of that is my fault. This is the third installment in the Margaret Nolan series. It does work as a standalone but I was definitely missing out on some relationships and important character development to really like the main characters.

There were also a lot of supporting characters in this story, too many where it was a little hard to follow who was who.

As for the investigation, it was extremely straightforward and predictable with the exception of the epilogue. The epilogue was the strongest story point of this book and that alone brought it up a point in my review.

The writing in this book was good and I’m sure it would have seemed even better if I had knowledge of the series. I do not recommend this book as a starting point but I do recommend starting at the beginning and giving this series a try,