Where The Body Was

January 15, 2024
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.

Starred review from October 1, 2023

Prolific collaborators Brubaker and Phillips follow their surrealistic thriller Night Fever with this playfully experimental, though no less grittily gripping, stand-alone whodunit-style murder mystery set in a suburban neighborhood over the summer of 1984. Tommy is infatuated with Karina, a runaway with a habit of stealing cash and jewelry from the homes surrounding the boarding house where they live. They're both wary of running afoul of Palmer, a bullying police detective enjoying a passionate affair with Toni, the dissatisfied wife of a prominent psychiatrist who seems to be engaged in some sort of secret conspiracy with a Vietnam War veteran living in the woods near their home. They all live under the watchful eye of a lonely preadolescent girl named Lila, who, disguised as the masked hero Roller Derby Girl, regularly patrols the neighborhood in search of any evil forces in need of vanquishing. One afternoon she finds a dead body instead, setting in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of all involved forever. VERDICT A fast-paced mystery, propelled by a fascinating cast of characters, that builds to a profoundly moving and deeply romantic climax. Absolutely not to be missed.

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