Billboard Man

In Fusilli’s cryptic noir, the nameless 41-year-old drifter introduced in 2012’s Road to Nowhere continues to hit the road in the wake of his wife’s death. He stops at a small Arizona copper-mining town, where he tells a woman he meets in a bar, Ginger, that his name is J.J. A wiry guy in the bar, Boone Stillwell, calls J.J. “an old man” and makes threatening moves. J.J. prefers to turn down the heat, but ends up smashing a beer mug in Boone’s face. J.J. leaves the bar, accompanied by Ginger, with whom he has a one-night stand. He later travels to Memphis, where he gets entangled with another woman. Thousands of miles away, Francis Cherry, a Wall Street powerbroker with a mysterious vendetta, sends henchmen to find J.J. Meanwhile, the now recovered but still humiliated Boone begins to pursue the drifter, too. Spare prose only partially redeems the obscure plot. (Sept.)