In two issues, the Lapham’s have established characters, motivations, conflict, family drama, setting, a crime to solve and a ticking clock that all adds to the tension that continues to build with each page. Nobody does crime noir like this pair.
The characters each have their own motivations, overtly and covertly. They often go against each other in the book and are all imperfect. What makes the Lapham’s so unique is their ability to create each character so vividly you know them with limited page time. All of the secrets they have grow into bigger problems for themselves and other characters, and they still somehow manage to make things worse for everyone. They juggle a cast of characters masterfully, and it almost seems at times the more characters they have to play with, the better.
The art and writing are what you’d expect if you’ve read something like Stray Bullets. (If you haven’t read it, what are you waiting for?) The story construction and pacing is perfect, I’d be curious to know how they manage to handle to many characters and still manage to move the main plot along, while introducing new sub plots that are all connected. You know this probably won’t be a happy ending, but also builds the anticipation of what will happen next.
I won’t spoil what the ticking time clock is, but when a man sets himself on fire and the race begins to solve that crime, we now have an hour glass turned upside down and limited time to solve the mystery. Adding in many moving parts and a town’s past dynamics, the tension does not let up.
I’ve read some readers find the plot difficult to follow, but if you follow each character and understand not everything is known or will be spelled out for you, you’ll have a much better time with this title. I’ve also heard the price tag is higher than normal, but when you consider the size of the book is larger it makes sense. It’s curious that the same people who have no problems paying the same price for 25 page Marvel books have a problem when other books do it. With the amount of book received here, I don’t have an issue with the price tag.
There are some titles you read while they’re being published that you know you’ll read over and over again for years to come. This is one of those titles. If you’re a fan of crime stories, imperfect characters, mysteries or grounded stories this series is something I’d recommend checking out. If you are a fan of the Lapham’s previous work, this is a can’t miss book.
To hear more about this book and other books we pulled this week, check out our latest episode of Panel Chewing here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1793148/episodes/18101731
