Everybody Knows

""Everybody Knows," by Jordan Harper. It's an instant classic, a harrowing trip through the Day-Glo Technicolor Hades that is Los Angeles, and a thoughtful examination of the price of fame and power."

"Also awarded by the CWA is the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, named after the author of the James Bond books. Fleming’s criterion for a good thriller (apparently) was that “one simply has to turn the pages.” The 2024 winner was Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper. It’s set in LA and is very much a commentary on that world (I found myself googling words I’d never heard before a lot). The main character is a ‘black bag’ publicist, a term coined by Harper. Her job is keeping bad news about celebrities (drug overdoses etc.) from getting out and clearing up literal and metaphorical vomit. In an interview, Harper said his working title for the book had been Hollywood Sickos. In terms of genre, this is firmly LA noir."