The Equalizer

Based on the 1980s TV show about a CIA agent–turned-vigilante, this prequel presents the backstory of how Robert McCall went from N.Y.C. bartender, attempting to remain below the radar of former colleagues and enemies, to a righter of wrongs for those faced with problems and no avenues for help. Sloan, a co-creator of the TV series, gets some details wrong (e.g., no one refers to the New York subway lines by color). More importantly, characters don’t act or think in logical ways. In a storyline in parallel to McCall’s intervention on behalf of an abused hooker, a master assassin fails to anticipate that the controllers of a female spy he’s stalking in Russia might know the location of her backup safe house. Later, McCall makes a completely baffling choice while dealing with a serial criminal that has consequences readers will anticipate, even if McCall somehow doesn’t. Having the hero advertise his services on Craigslist doesn’t make this fresh. (Aug.)