Plot Summary:Meet Lou Rossi, a Generation X slacker who’s out of step with the rave culture of Miami, 1990. He’s a freelance newspaper artist, an aspiring author, a 21-year-old virgin... and suddenly an amateur detective. His humdrum life takes a turn when he meets—and quickly falls in love with—the young and beautiful Janet Laughton. But when she suddenly vanishes, leaving only a cryptic note behind, Lou will have to pull out all the stops to track her down.
Review: Lou Rossi is not a PI. Like at all. Dry County takes place in 1990 and Lou draws a weekly comic strip for the local alt-weekly. He also writes that occasional film review. However, this is a PI story. It explicitly takes the form and shape and intonations of a PI story and does so earnestly.
Lou goes to do laundry in his buildings laundry room and meets a woman he’s never seen there before. They chat and hit it off. Whatever this is it isn’t fully love. There’s definitely a connection but it’s probably closer to lust. Lou was probably just hoping to get laid. But there’s something nascent there. You take those early stage feelings and put them into someone who is maybe a little bored and has an active imagination and you get a guy like Lou and a story like Dry County.
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring by Patrick Horvath from IDW Dark (sequel to one of the best crime comics of 2024)
The Eisner-nominated cozy-horror comic series returns in this sequel to the critically acclaimed first volume!
It’s been eight long years since a bloodlusting brown bear drove into the city, kidnapped a kind young duck, dissected his body, and buried the pieces in the woods. The duck’s family painstakingly sought justice…but this brown bear was smart…she covered her tracks…and in the ’80s, there simply wasn’t a way for the duck’s family to find answers.
But it’s not the ’80s anymore. Almost a decade after cuddly brown bear Samantha Strong solidified herself as the sole serial killer in Woodbrook, the world is entering a new era. As Samantha will soon find out, there are no secrets in the age of the internet. And those who lost loved ones to her massacre haven’t given up the flame of justice.
A reckoning is coming to Woodbrook. Join visionary writer and artist Patrick Horvath as he returns to the hit series that has taken the comic world by storm!
Plot Summary: Tate Debs specializes in rescuing and deprogramming people from abusive groups with extreme beliefs — like the one Tate herself escaped, that believed in inter-dimensional travel and taboo ritual sex. When a femme named Vera, who may just be fatale, hires Tate to infiltrate a group of mystical hippies out in the desert, she must decide if Vera’ s charms are worth being re-traumatized. Soon, Tate must face her past out of devotion to the femme she may be falling for… and a single minded drive to avenge her family.
Review: In his essay, “The Simple Art of Murder” Raymond Chandler famously wrote:
Synopsis: Atom Vercorian is trying to make it as a private detective in post-war Paris, and he just needs that one big case to make a name for himself. His father, a police detective, isn't making any headway in the case of a jewelry theft in the south of France. Atom, however, gets a lead that takes him and his partners, Mimi and Jojo, south to Marseille, where they meet ex-resistance fighters, gangsters, and henchmen. With audacity and enthusiasm, Atom and his cohorts dance their way through the worlds of organized crime, pro wrestling, and the ultra-rich in the pursuit of Miss France 1930's stolen jewels. This could be Atom's big break—if he survives the experience!
Review: Atom Agency is a bande dessinée comic by Yann and Oliver Schwartz from Europe Comics
The first thing that caught my attention with Atom Agency was the cover, a dynamic in media res image. It's not until later in the book that the cover image is given context. There is an action sequence that builds up to, and shows the aftermath of, the cover image but doesn't include that image in the text. So you have to recall the cover image as a kind of call back to complete the sequence. It's a neat little trick.
Synopsis: Karmela Krimm was the most promising young detective on the Marseille police force until she volunteered to take the fall for an operation that went sideways. When Karmela lost her job and became a private investigator, her ideals went up in smoke along with her badge. Perhaps for the better: in the troubled waters she now navigates, ideals are a dangerous luxury.
Review: We meet Karmela sitting in a car, on a stakeout, camera in hand. Her God daughter Manon is in the car with her. She’s asking Karmela questions about her job for a supposed school project. Not only do we get to see some of their dynamic play out but it also provides an easy vehicle for a quick bit of back story. Her backstory is related in a single page, with four panels using a different stylized approach for the flashback. It’s a little pulpy, it gets right to some action, and hooks the reader into wanting more.
American Caper Volume 1: Red-Pilled Blues by Dan Houser and Lazlow, Illustrated by David Lapham and Chris Anderson (Dark Horse Books)
A new crime-fiction saga created and written by Rockstar Games co-founder DAN HOUSER (Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption) with additional writing by LAZLOW, with art by Eisner Award-winner DAVID LAPHAM (Stray Bullets).
A Mormon hitman. A gambling-addict lawyer. Two neighbors intertwined in a real estate deal gone wrong. Mix in a Mexican beauty queen on the run from her past, a red-pilled housewife, two escaped convicts in love, a Wall Street billionaire who has become a cowboy, and a maniac hell-bent on revenge. The manicured wilderness of Verona, Wyoming is the perfect cocktail of American culture: real estate development, violence and snake oil.
From the tax-avoiders in the Rockies, to the thought police of liberal Brooklyn, to the confused political and environmental battlegrounds of Florida, one thing is certain: This tragedy is someone else’s fault.
AMERICAN CAPER: RED-PILLED BLUES collects the first four issues of the new crime-fiction saga and is created and written by Rockstar Games co-founder DAN HOUSER (Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption) with additional writing by LAZLOW, art by Eisner Award-winner DAVID LAPHAM (Stray Bullets) and CHRIS ANDERSON with covers by TYLER BOSS (4 Kids Walk into a Bank).
Plot Summary:Ginger Lewis’ mother has passed away after a long illness. When Ginger was only a baby, she and her mother were abandoned by her father, a low-life thug called Dennis Russell. Russell is now a successful crime lord and he is married again, but he never helped his former family. And Ginger blames him for her mom’s death. Dennis Russell is going to discover that nothing is more dangerous than the rage of a teenage girl.
Review: At 46 pages, Victor Santos’ Ginger’s Revenge just flat out moves. The inciting incident is front loaded into the first couple of pages and by page 3 Ginger is at a strip club with a broken bottle in hand fighting motherfuckers left and right like a revenge fueled demon. This energy never lets up in its full on sprint to the end.
In addition to the central revenge plot we also get more of this world, its characters, and their relationships/connections fleshed out. The ending of the story even winds up in surprising territory as it confronts generational trauma and violence head on. The final page is a single page epilogue that wraps the whole thing up with a nice satisfying bow on top.
Plot Summary:Hoping to secure a future for his children, an aging Alaskan crime boss looks to retire and divide his empire amongst his three heirs. But when his idealistic son refuses the inheritance, the old man disowns him. This turns out to be a fatal mistake when he sees his cold-blooded daughters use their new-found power and influence against him.
Review: An aging patriarch at the head of a powerful enterprise wants to step aside, or will be forced to, and a power struggle among his children ensues. Not only is this a classic framework that goes back to King Lear, it’s also been explored before in crime fiction. After all, the classic story structures are always being used. They’re classics for a reason. From the movie The Godfather to the TV show The Straits to season 2 of Fargo we’ve even seen King Lear in crime fiction before. Family Ties steps into this space.
The aging patriarch of the family has dementia. This obviously poses a problem for a criminal organization This character is presented in a nuanced way with different parts of his personality emerging at different times and often changing up even mid scene. You can see the complex array of emotions that he goes through, often cycling through them quite quickly, but also the frustration in those around him.
Plot Summary: If Nick Barrow can stay alive for 21 days he'll die happy. Everyone Nick knows wants him dead; Mob bosses, contract killers, and dirty cops. Performing the last act of a desperate man, Nick takes out a million dollar insurance policy on himself, payable to his estranged daughter. The problem? The policy doesn't take effect for 21 days. Nick knows they'll be lucky to be alive for twenty-one hours.
Review: Nick Barrow has an estranged daughter. His underworld dealings have backed him into a corner and everyone is trying to kill him. He wants to leave something for his daughter, so he takes out an insurance policy worth one million dollars. But he has to stay alive for 21 days before the policy is activated.
Plot Summary: Cesar Ruiz is a hardened enforcer for a powerful drug cartel, and his young daughter isn’t just along for the ride. Angela is a little girl growing to be a young woman in the long shadow of her criminal father, Cesar. What will a child do to win the respect of the most brutal enforcer in the Cali cartel? And how many people will Angela have to kill to get what she wants most?
Review: This is a quick and dirty crime story at only 88 pages. We get tossed right into the action with a young woman shooting her way out of a tight spot while musing on her fate and life choices so far. Bloodied and beaten, she makes it to a payphone and calls her father. Who is her father? A killer to be feared.
We then move to a larger chunk of the book which provides us with backstory and context. We learn who her father is and how he started teaching her the job when she was way too young to be participating in this cartel version of take your daughter to work day. We’ll eventually get to the events that took place before the book's opening.
[Quick programming note. I have a few of these themed posts I’m working on and I am undecided on whether to group all of the themed titles together in one post or to spread them out over a designated period of time. For the Dads & Daughters theme I’ve decided on daily posts all this week. That could change for other themed posts. If anyone has strong opinions on this let me know]
Plot Summary: At the height of the roaring twenties, the daughter of a mafia boss is determined to rise to prominence in her family's business.
Nicoletta has aspirations to join her brothers in the family business--an organized crime syndicate running the streets of Brooklyn. Though her father objects and a crisis ensues, Nicoletta takes it upon herself to prove she has what it takes, moving steadfastly into a world of brutality. New York has a new player in town, and they ain't seen nothing yet!
This is, essentially, a gimmick crime comic. Gimmick here is not necessarily a pejorative but instead acknowledges that it either has a specific approach to the story being told or is filtered through a specific lens. The specific approach to the story is so integral that it can’t be ignored and has to be considered. Your interest level in this book, and how you engage with it, will depend on how much the gimmick appeals to you.
Simply put, Knockturn County by James E Roche and Axur Eneas is a collection of short noirish inspired tales that are both written and drawn in the style of Dr. Seuss. For example, in the first story when the femme fatale appears, we get the following narrative/dialogue: “And THAT’s when it happened. An angel appeared! She’s like no other. And his heart had been speared!”
Synopsis: After World War II, tensions rise in a Southern city ruled by organized crime, touching countless residents as they struggle to make sense of the new world. A sudden act of violence sets off a series of bloody events between the police and mafia as they lash out against one another. As the violence worsens, desperation grows to stop it, by any means necessary.
Review: Two Dead is a historical crime fiction by Van Jensen and Nate Powell published by Gallery 13 in 2019. It takes multiple elements rooted in fact and blends them together in a pressure cooker story.
Gideon Kemp is returning home at the behest of his politician uncle. Gideon is a war hero (though he rejects the honorific), an FBI academy graduate, and he’s studied law. He seems like the perfectly straight arrow John Q Law type brought to town to bring down the mob. Kevin Costner’s Elliot Ness in The Untouchables (1987) comes to mind. Except this introduction is the second scene in the book. The first scene in the book shows the reader his war experiences and why he rejects the war hero title. He’s done some bad shit and is haunted by it.
A high-stakes murder mystery perfect for fans of True Detective, Whiteout, and Insomnia.
Diomede Islands.
For three months each year, you can walk from the USA to Russia across an ice bridge—a frozen path known as the Ice Curtain.
In 1963, when the body of a young woman is discovered on this icy no-man’s land, the already fragile relationship between the superpowers threatens to collapse. With nuclear tensions rising, an FBI agent and a KGB operative must solve the murder—before the ice melts…and war ignites.
From SOMETHING EPIC and BLOOD COMMANDMENT creator SZYMON KUDRANSKI comes the must-read thriller of the year.
