A Violent Masterpiece
'This is THE noir novel for our times' New York Times
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
FROM THE AUTHOR OF EVERYBODY KNOWS
'If you like your horror/suspense/mystery, with a hanging that parallels the Jeffrey Epstein 'suicide", pick this barn-burner up now. The only book that equals it for sheer terror is The Silence of the Lambs' STEPHEN KING
'I loved this book [it] will define the LA novel for a long, long time' SARA GRAN
'It's one hell of a journey' BBC, Books you need to read in 2026
This place is a crime that can't be solved. And that's why we love it.
LA is a brutal, burning city. It is America with nowhere to run. Each night Jake Deal captures it on a livestream to his blood-hungry subscribers. Above board, Doug Gibson is a street lawyer trying to fix the system one case at a time. Underground, Kara Delgado is working for a private concierge company - a make-a-wish foundation for the terminally rich.
When Kara's best friend Phoebe goes missing, she soon finds herself in the worlds of both Jake and Doug. Will the remaining humanity of this fragile team kill them all or expose one enormous, unspeakable crime?
Readers loved A Violent Masterpiece:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Wow! A contemporary noir masterpiece. Adrenaline-filled pacing that cranks up and up and up and never stops'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Gritty, emotional, and intense . . . I'm a fan!'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Timely and hard-hitting. This one's not just a violent masterpiece, it's a searing f***ing indictment'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Harper makes brutality sing'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'PURE EXCELLENCE. the author is truly firing on all cylinders- this book is angry, incisive, and unrelenting'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'The language? It defies description. The reader is boiled in oil and lightning-struck, all at the same time. I've never read anything like it'
Customer Reviews
It’s certainly violent
The author is an American writer of both fiction and non-fiction, screenwriter and television producer. This is his 4th published novel, and his 16th book overall.
The setting is contemporary LA, a place where you can get anything you want if you can afford it. The three protagonists are a nightcrawler who live-streams from his car as he trawls for sleaze, a black defence lawyer who fights for his clients and advertises on bus shelters, and a female operative for Sub Rosa, a private concierge company, which she describes as “a make-a-wish
foundation for the terminally rich.” A serial killer is offing young attractive women. A controversial movie producer is arrested for child exploitation and commits suicide in jail, or does he? A sinister group of drug-addled power brokers shows scant regard for the law. Yada, yada, mucho gore, depravity and drug-taking. Our heroes team up to bring everything down, some of it anyway, but only one lives to tell the tale.
Short- punch sentences and sentence fragments a la James Ellroy. Frenetic pace as a result. Convoluted but derivative plot. Think The Black Dahlia meets American Psycho meets Jeffrey
Epstein: a dark windows of the soul triple treat.
Bottom line
Violent, definitely. Masterpiece, not so much. If you’re new to Mr Harper’s work, I recommend The
Last King of California (2024).