CITY OF SECRETS (Detective Margaret Nolan 4) by PJ Tracy-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 20, 2024

Los Angeles Police Detective Margaret Nolan and her partner have worked a lot of different cases, ones where things aren’t always as they appear. And it’s Nolan’s job to find the truth in the darkness around her. When they’re called to the scene of what looks like a fatal car-jacking, Nolan soon realizes her victim was a founder of a company about to sell for millions, and within a day of his death, his partner’s wife is abducted. As Nolan learns more about the victim and his life, she gets pulled into a disturbing world of sex, violence, and big business; and an even darker world, where whispers of an “Angel of Death” are beginning to surface.

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REVIEW: CITY OF SECRETS is the fourth instalment in PJ Tracy’s contemporary, adult DETECTIVE MARGARET NOLAN mystery, crime thriller focusing on Detective Margaret Nolan and the investigators of the LAPD. CITY OF SECRETS can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty but I recommend reading the series in order for backstories and cohesion.

Told from numerous omniscient third person perspectives CITY OF SECRETS follows as the LAPD begins an investigation into the murder of a billionaire businessman and owner of Peppy Pets just hours before the sale of his struggling corporation. In what appears to be a car-jacking gone wrong, Nolan and her team quickly discover that all is not as it appears to be. When the dead man’s former business partner and wife are kidnapped, the possibility of a ransom has yet to be revealed, someone else is pulling the strings in a game of winner take all.

Meanwhile, former US miliary soldier Sam Easton returns, hoping for a position with the LAPD’s SWAT team but before he is hired, Sam finds himself on the hunt for a killer, whose connection to the Cartel run dangerous and deep including the import of millions of dollar in illegal drugs.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful, animated and spirted secondary and supporting characters including the return of Nolan’s forbidden love interest Detective Remy Beaudreau, and several members of the LAPD and forensics departments. We are introduced to former co-owner of Peppy Pets Dr. Rome Bechtold and his estranged wife Nicole, as well as company CFO Cynthia Jackson. The requisite evil has many faces.

CITY OF SECRETS is a story of power and control, betrayal and vengeance, murder and mayhem. From the Cartel to organized crime, drugs and kidnapping, rogue killers and dysfunctional family values CITY OF SECRETS pulls the reader into a dramatic and twisted story of intrigue, suspense, power and madness-a wonderful addiction to any crime lovers’ collection.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy