Starred review from April 11, 2022
Set in 1987, Drew’s devastating sequel to 2017’s Shadow Man finds police detective Ben Wade responding to an emergency call in Rancho Santa Elena, a planned community south of Los Angeles. Ben drives to a nearby home, where he finds a distraught mother holding a small boy who’s not breathing. Ben manages to get the boy breathing again and drives him to the hospital, where it’s determined he accidentally ingested rat poison. The heinous intent of the near-lethal incident becomes apparent after the body of the child’s missing dog is found in connection with a hate crime targeting a Vietnamese grocery store owner and his family. Ben’s girlfriend, forensic expert Natasha Betencourt, becomes involved after discovering evidence linking the murder of real estate developer Walter Brennan with the crime scenes of other targeted racial attacks. Ben believes Brennan’s killing was in retaliation for his leasing properties to immigrants, whom some view as a threat. Ben and Natasha soon get on the trail of a growing white supremacist movement. Drew takes a nuanced approach in tackling the conflicts of gentrification. This socially complex police procedural, with its issues that remain all too relevant today, deserves a wide audience. Agent: Dorian Karchmar, WME.