LAPD Margaret Nolan investigates a possible drive by shooting of a prominent businessman. Soon the crime becomes more complex with the kidnapping of his business partners wife. You will be quickly pulled into the mystery and the disturbing world of violence and money. This is the fourth installment by PJ Tracy of the Detective Margaret Nolan series but easily read as a standalone book. Great characters and involved plot. Thanks to Minotaur Books and Net Galley for an opportunity to review this bookl

Book four of Tracy’s Los Angeles based, Detective Margaret Nolan crime series. I wait for these books — for me they are a perfect combination of pacing, surprises, and just the right amount of tension (i.e. not too much because I don’t enjoy being anxious, but just enough that I’m not bored reading about tea parties while someone is murdered offstage).

In this episode, what appears to be “just” another fatal car jacking, turns out to be a far more complex crime involving big business, cartels, and some pretty crazy people. I love Margaret Nolan as a detective. She has the same qualities you would appreciate in a male detective — strong, competent, honest, determined — and manages to be simultaneously female without having to introduce any “traditionally feminine” traits. No shopping scenes! No whining with girlfriends about men! No struggling with single motherhood while trying to have a career! She’s just a consummate cop who happens to be a woman. Thank goodness. She’s a great character and I’m happy to read more about her. Other strong characters populate the series — her cynical and somewhat world-weary partner Al Crawford, Sam Easton — a friend recovering from Afghanistan induced PTSD, and Remy Boudreau, fellow homicide detective and a more serious than planned lover.

One of my favorite mystery / crime writers. I really like her writing — a few quotes:

“They were victims of a rotting culture of violence — domestic terrorism, really, — that wouldn’t go away, no matter how many gangsters the LAPD locked up.”

“He was wearing a foul weather windbreaker and his frowny, pissed-off face. Maybe it was because his tiny umbrella had unicorns on it.”

“From a young age, her mother had always told her that her rare combination of strawberry-blonde hair and pale skin made her a genetic tinderbox and her temper should be managed early.”

“Consorting with evil to exterminate greater evil was an existential conflict of the job — hell, of the world — but it was getting more difficult to justify.”

“Interviewing witnesses was like slowly unwrapping a gift, hoping there was a gold nugget inside instead of a lump of coal.”

“Nolan was always amazed by the sullen indifference of criminals, like they were ordinary citizens who’d just gotten a bogus speeding ticket.”

“The job was slowly corroding him from the inside, like poison that didn’t kill you right away. So was Los Angeles. It had a shrill, dangerous hum that hadn’t existed five years ago, and it scared him.”

City of Secrets (Detective Margaret Nolan – Book 4) by PJ Tracy

304 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books
Release Date: August 20, 2024

Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Police Procedural, Kidnapping

Margaret Nolan gets a call of a dead body found in a car. The body is that of Bruce Messane, the owner of a successful petfood company, Peppy Pets. Now the other founder, Rome Bechtold’s wife, Nicole, has been kidnapped. Veteran Sam Easton is a friend of Rome’s and tries to console him. He has also worked as a consultant with Detective Nolan on past cases. He has applied for a position on S.W.A.T.

What, if any, is the connection between the murder and the kidnapping. Everyone involved with the pet food company has secrets. Money laundering, sex games, torture, drugs, etc. You name it and some is doing it. There are other cases that may or may not have connections to these crimes. The book has a steady pace, the characters are somewhat developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. This is the fourth book in the series. Although I have read previous books in the series, you could probably read this book out of order.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

A man has been shot in his car in a rough area of town and then his former business partner's wife is kidnapped. This is mainly Nolan and Crawford doing the investigating, but there are a wide selection of other police officers, including Remy, Nolan's love interest. I like the way the author is developing their relationship. I have slightly lost track of Sam and Melody, but if you remember them from previous instalments they are here too.

I found the plot well paced and the story as a whole a page-turner. It managed to be realistic without being unduly violent and there is a fair amount of humour too. There were a couple of plot points I might quibble about - would audits etc really have missed what was going on at the pet food company? what was with that decision taken by one of the police officers at the end? - but overall, recommended.

I was invited to review this book, and while I was apprehensive as I have never read anything in this series before (this being installment four), I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this book flowed without any prior knowledge. I felt the mystery kept the reader guessing well throughout the book, and the crime element was not over the top. The storyline in this book was pretty intriguing and I appreciated the author's creativity in that regard. I also really liked the characters and how they came across as actual people, with many aspects to their respective characters. A real-life cast of characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Although written in current times it had that film noir feel to it!

This is a new author for me, which is the purpose of this type invitation. Thank you Natalie Sun at St. Martin's Publishing Group for the email inviting me to read this ARC.