Kill Dick

An aspiring artist gets ensnared in criminal mischief in this ambitious blend of social satire and sunshine noir from Goebel (Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours). Nodding off poolside in the backyard of the $15 million Brentwood estate owned by her father, lawyer to opioid manufacturer Dick Sickler, 19-year-old NYU dropout and budding opioid addict Susie Vogelman obsesses over how she can make meaningful art—and, more importantly, a name for herself. Against the looming backdrop of the 2016 presidential election and the murders of several junkies across L.A., Susie’s habit plunges her into a gnarly plot as sprawling as the city’s freeway system. It kicks off when Susie learns that her dealer, gender-fluid teen Royal-Lee, is working for her erstwhile NYU English professor and occasional hookup Phil Krolik, who has relocated to L.A. and opened a scam rehab center in an effort to find his addict twin brother. Then the LAPD come knocking, because Susie was the last person seen with several dead addicts. At times, the thriller elements get buried under outlandish twists and Goebel’s dizzying prose. For readers open to a visionary trip down Hollywood’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams, however, Goebel delivers. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (Apr.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misdescribed the protagonist’s relationship to the character Dick Sickler.