Between this and the 405, Destroy All Monsters has more urban construction that you may expect, but it adds to the sense of place and authenticity which Brubaker brings to Reckless.
The central case – which Ethan uses to try and entice Anna back into his world – comes from a crummy land development deal that screwed over African-American housing and businesses, based up real research Brubaker did into the I-105 Freeway. Ethan is vexed at her moving away, but Anna is annoyed at his complacency, telling him how “you never want anything to change… you’re exactly the same as when we met.” Picky and reluctant about cases anyway, Ethan gets wrapped in his own bubble, which only shrinks without Anna around.ĭestroy All Monsters becomes a meditation on “change,” and at whose expense it comes from. The two had formed a sweet quasi-father-daughter surrogate relationship, but now Anna has more age-appropriate friends – including a boyfriend Ethan can’t stand – and a new apartment across the impenetrable 405 freeway on the other side of LA. Anna has been a background supporting player throughout the Reckless books, but here takes a central spotlight, having grown up and become restless working with Ethan. While the first entry opened in 1981, Destroy All Monsters starts in ’88, with private-handyman-for-hire Ethan Reckless opining this was “the year I started to feel old.” Noir is a nostalgic genre anyway, and Destroy All Monsters sees Ethan melancholically reflect as the world changes and is rebuilt around him.Įthan’s sense of age is only exacerbated through his friendship with his younger “projectionist-slash-assistant” Anna. But within the world of Reckless, quite a bit of time has passed.
In typical pulp paperback pace, Destroy All Monsters is the third Reckless book that Brubaker and Phillips have published in a year.
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