Detective Margaret Nolan is back. This time her investigation is taking her deep into the folds of LA’s Hollywood scene. When her suspects become additional murder victims,  Nolan finds herself at the center of a scandalous Hollywood story.

Deep into the dark review | Desolation Canyon review

This is the third book in the series and honestly my least favorite. I’ve seen quite a few reviews of people reading this as a stand-alone, and I don’t recommend doing that. There is tons of character building in the first two books, that the third book just doesn’t provide.

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, so was excited to dive into another. When the first book came out, it was hard to see Nolan as the main character with Sam playing such a strong role in the book. I was actually surprised that it was a series based around Nolan at the time.  In book 2, we see Nolan more and I started to get a feel for how this series was following her career and not Sam’s. But in this newest installment it’s purely Nolan focused, and honestly Sam’s pieces of the story are sidebars that have little relevance, other than continuing to bring him on the journey. It does seem as if P.J. Tracy is ramping up to something with Sam’s story, but for this book I felt it detracted from the storyline.

Unlike the first two books, The Devil You Know, lacked growth for our characters that I have become accustomed too while reading the series. The first two books focus so much on the stories of Sam and Nolan, that to have lack of that in this book was a little jarring. Nolan, this go around felt stale and uninteresting. Sam’s role felt unclear and bogged down the story at times.

The actual police procedural part of the story is fine – there are some twists, it’s well written, and it will keep you guessing. But I did find this one a bit harder to follow. There are quite a few additional subplots that I felt bogged down the main storyline, and overall, I felt something was missing. Ultimately, I didn’t love this book and felt a bit too disinterested in what was going on. I might read a 4^th, but this one wasn’t at all what I was hoping it would be.  

Deep into the dark review | Desolation Canyon review

AMAZON | GOODREADS |★★★★

The Devil You Know  comes out January 17, 2023. Huge thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books.