Pyne offers three noirish novellas set in different decades. It's 1954 in The Big Empty, and L.A. is awash with McCarthy's accusations of Communists everywhere and forebodings about nuclear war, the latter brought on by TV coverage of the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests. L.A. shamus Rylan Lovely, shrewd, but not smart enough to avoid the trouble that invariably will find him, is hunting for the murderer of the wife he hasn't seen since he went off to basic training during WWII. The era of the Reagan Revolution frames Losertown, in which a San Diego attorney hunts a drug lord and gripes about his Reagan-adoring boss. Present-day Portuguese Bend has a Long Beach female undercover cop who was paralyzed in a gun battle, but is determined to solve what is likely to be her last case as a cop. Pyne (Fifty Mice, 2015), who has written high-profile Hollywood screenplays like the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, writes evocatively and cinematically, and the noir linchpins of cynicism, moral ambiguity, and fatalism prevail, regardless of the decade.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2017 Booklist

Taking its cue from the unique California weather phenomena created by an offshore vortex that leads to low-lying inland fog, Pyne's (Fifty Mice) newest book produces its own nebulousness in story and characters. The truth is often opaque, especially when trying to get to the bottom of murder. There are three vaguely connected novellas at play here, all involving protagonists seeking emotional release or at least clarity. Instead, they find themselves being swept up in the monotonous, murky swirls of life, the times they live in and the unpredictability of the human animal. Pyne, who has also written successfully for television (Bosch) and film, turns in a quick-paced trio of gritty yarns with staccato dialog and grim survivors, all seeking redemption in whatever form is allowed. Verdict This is a fun read for the suspense and gumshoe detective crowd.-Russell Miller, Prescott P.L., AZ © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Three loosely connected novellas, each focused on a homicide case, make up this gritty, darkly witty, and often bitter California noir from Pyne (Fifty Mice). In "The Big Empty," set in Hollywood in June 1954, PI Rylan Lovely, an Army vet, investigates the murder of the ex-wife who betrayed him with his blind best friend; along the way, Lovely rescues a child, Gilbert Kirby. In "Losertown," set in San Diego in June 1987, Kirby, now an assistant U.S. attorney, is trapped between a politically appointed boss, Sabrina Colter, "somebody's kid sister crossed with a poisonous snake," and his lover, FBI agent Tina Z, as they attempt to trap a drug lord. Kirby never knows that he's the father of Tina's Marine daughter, Willa, who's arrested for killing her husband in "Portuguese Bend," set in Long Beach in June 2016. Paralyzed homicide detective Riley McCluggage and freelance photographer Finn Miller try to crack the case. Pyne's wounded characters walk their mean streets honorably in this compelling account of attempts to find sense in a senseless world. Agent: Victoria Sanders: Victoria Sanders & Associates. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.