Goodbye L.A.

Semi-jaded screenwriter Ben Crandel (Only in L.A., Tough Luck L.A.) is trying to cope with his 15-year-old adopted son's attempts to become an unintelligibly loud punk singer. Ben also tries to buck up his newly divorced best friend, L.A.P.D. detective George Steifer. When Steifer's new girlfriend disappearsshe's an L.A. Times reporter doing a story on the punk scenethe workaholic detective goes a little crazy. Then one of his snitches is murdered in a punk club men's room and Steifer goes on a rampage, dragging Crandel along. What they finda connection between a right-wing TV preacher and a real neo-Nazi punk-rock group almost gets them both killed. Sinclair's dialogue in two diverse worlds sparkles occasionally (the preacher's tirade is eerily, funnily accurate), and he provides a lot of color and motion if not much sense of action before an appropriately violent, roman noir ending. (May)