NEVER BACK DOWN

Susannah Faulkner, the Atlanta gangster’s niece who moved from a supporting to a starring role in Never Go Home (2022), lives up to every inch of Swann’s title as she battles her uncle’s playfully sadistic ex–comrade in arms.

Suzie’s good at finding and rescuing people, but she comes a cropper when Brooke Elton’s father hires her to pluck his daughter from the clutches of her wealthy, abusive lover, Dale Dickerson. By the time Suzie’s whirlwind plan to rescue Brooke from what was supposed to be her engagement party has played out, Brooke has been shot to death—not by her boyfriend, whose proposal she actually never accepted, but by Finn Finnegan, who, convinced that Suzie’s uncle Gavin Lester has cheated him out of the millions they looted from Iraq, is determined to visit havoc upon his family. Not content simply to kill Suzie or her brother, Ethan, Finn prefers to disrupt their every move and threaten them on an hour-by-hour basis if Suzie won’t follow the latest trail of breadcrumbs that he claims will lead to meetings with him or evidence against him. This game of cat and bigger cat unfolds against a background notable for geographical sweep (Suzie travels from Georgia to Arizona and Missouri), quirky complications (Finn manipulates the police into arresting Gavin and Frankie Gutierrez, the boyfriend of Suzie’s buddy Caesar Jones, and scruffy Suzie impulsively asks FBI agent Alisha Rondeau for a date), and semi-guided tours introducing offbeat walk-ons and their colorful trades en route to a hostage showdown at the private school where Ethan teaches.

Red meat for thrill-seekers who can buy into the manic I-demand-that-you-catch-me-if-you-can premise.