Fatale. Book One, Death chases me

In 2011-set prologue, a beautiful woman arrives in the nick of time to save a writer's heir from strange gunmen. Cut to the mid-50s: the same beautiful, mysterious woman is on the run from unnamed forces, all the while causing every man she meets to become obsessed with her. This is set against a backdrop of constant darkness, dirty cops, ritual human sacrifice, and Cthulhu-headed monster-men.

As I'm normally a big fan of Brubaker/Phillips, I was quite surprised to find that Fatale wasn't really working for me. I had an unusual amount of difficulty keeping the characters straight and had to keep hunting through earlier chapters just to keep up with the story.

But I think the big issue is that Fatale has Lost syndrome. It raises question after mystery after enigma, with not an answer to be found. I found it tiring.

But everything is relative. Brubaker and Phillips are masters of their craft, and a poor effort by them is still pretty darned good by most standards.