![]() ![]() Unlicensed investigator/troublemaker Ethan Reckless is estranged from his assistant Anna (both are white) because of his vocal disapproval of Anna's latest boyfriend. The third installment in Brubaker's Southern California-set noir series (following Friend of the Devil) opens in 1988. Series fans will ride along in anticipation. It all feels less like a self-contained story than a prelude for a dark implosion heading Ethan's way. Private-eye tropes like decadent upper-crust parties and corrupt cops abound, while sudden action scenes cut through Ethan's hazy, guilt-ridden flashback narration, such as when he smashed a drug pusher's face with a skateboard. Worried he is losing Anna-his trusty punk assistant and only friend, finally given her due in a touching origin story-Ethan loses himself in weed, old movies, and memories: "after a while, even remembering seemed pointless." Moody washed-out art recalls the cinematic oddities that Ethan and Anna watch in their old movie house headquarters. ![]() But the mystery plot ends up feeling like background as Ethan traps himself in pained nostalgia. Hired by a Black city councilmember to look into a scuzzy and rich white developer, Ethan is pleased to be sticking it to the Man. ![]() But he does pick up a case, and it's a doozie. It's 1988, three years following Friend of the Devil, and Ethan is barely pretending to be a private investigator. Still up for a fight, Brubaker and Phillips's Ethan Reckless is feeling his age in the slow-burning third entry of their Los Angeles noir series. ![]()
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