the only reason the ace boy and whizbang had been on their turf in the first place was that he had just broken up with this extremely nice , or at least moderately nice , resident of malibu , ms. brooke greer , a screenwriter greatly esteemed within her genre , the action adventurecromantic comedy , also a person of remarkable wit , insight , and bodily charm , and as he sped homeward down the handsome stretch of the pacific coast highway below the malibu canyon exit he yielded to an uncharacteristically edgy spell of gloom .