January 4, 2016
In Bruen and Starr’s scattershot fourth Max Fisher noir (after 2008’s The Max), a new designer drug called PIMP (an acronym for peyote, insulin, mescaline, and psychosis) is poised to give the ne’er-do-well New York City “businessman” (i.e., drug dealer) another shot at the big time. Since the first book in the series, 2006’s Bust, in which Max and his secretary, Angela Petrakos, plotted to kill his wife, Max has fallen on hard times, appearing after his plastic surgery “like Philip Seymour Hoffman after the autopsy.” Meanwhile, Angela has stumbled as well, making a living in porn. But she’s caught a break, too. In a metafictional twist, a movie of Bust is in heated development, and she’s determined to produce and star. The usual torrent of pop culture references (and relentless self-references) heap satire on filmmaking and crime writing as Bruen and Starr take a comic look back at their initial collaboration. Longtime fans may enjoy the 10th-anniversary antics, but new readers might want to start with Bust and work their way up.