An easygoing hippie noir series; a fantastic, dark serial-killer movie; and an album of retro-pop bangers

Roundup 11/03/2024

Greetings from Read Max HQ, and welcome to our weekly roundup column, in which I pick out some worthwhile and often overlooked books, articles, movies, and music to recommend to paying subscribers. For this week’s round-up, I’ve got:

• A charming, easygoing hippie noir novel (and series) in the same neighborhood as Inherent Vice or Altman’s Long Goodbye;

• a terrific, grimy Hong Kong-set thriller that’s the best serial-killer movie of the decade so far; and

• a new album of ‘90s-ish retro-pop bangers.

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Now, the roundup. First, as always, a dispatch from the future: