Where the Body Was

A quiet suburban block heats up with drugs, suspicion, and murder over the summer of 1984 in this accomplished if abbreviated outing from Brubaker and Phillips (the Reckless series). The duo bring their trademark wry and world-weary tone to a tangle of badly kept secrets and neatly packaged twists. A nosy neighbor, one of many narrators in a crowded ensemble, describes how a fight at a run-down boarding house on the block kicked off assorted mayhem: “the break-ins... the murder... heartbreak.” Other characters include a bored wife engaged in an affair with her police detective neighbor, drugged-up teens on a burglary spree, a private investigator looking for a lost girl, and a roller-skating 11-year-old self-appointed neighborhood guardian whose cape and mask style her like a G-rated Hit-Girl. Brubaker barely sets up his story elements, which Phillips depicts in his usual pulpy realism, before cuing the chain reaction that leads to the tidily constructed climax—unsatisfying dramatically but greatly improved by a moodily romantic coda. The throwback setting is evocative even if it seems designed only to allow the proceedings to carry on without the glare of social media (and for Brubaker to drop in tips of the hat to classic punk bands like the Descendants). Though not quite up to the duo’s usual panache, this is still savvy enough to be a sure thing for fans of suburban neo-noir. (Jan.)