by Jason McNamara
(Author), Greg Hinkle (Artist)
This graphic novel is a little like The Vanishing - the Danish original from 1988 - mixed with John Walsh’s story, with the added spice of a supernatural element sprinkled in. A man and his girlfriend break down on the side of the road in a rural area - which one is unspecific - and a woman drives by with a pickup. Long story short, she drives off with the man’s girlfriend, never to be seen again. Flash-forward ten years later, the man has built his entire business around finding missing people and tracking convicted felons. The game becomes afoot when, after a paroled felon attacks him at his home and he is forced to kill the criminal, the man hears his former girlfriends leaking from the dead man’s mouth, telling him where she is.
The story is a fast
paced thriller, filled with weird backstabs, fake-outs, red herrings and some
brutal violence. The choice to color everything in grayscale except for the
blood was a very stylish choice adding to the grim nature of the topic and the
shades of un-likability each character displays. The protagonist, Stephen, even
though he acts for a righteous cause which ultimately acts for the good of
society is an impossible character to feel for. He is too rigid, allowing his
tragedy to make him a bitter human being, incapable of love or being loved. The
rest of the characters are any better, but Stephen is by far the most
interesting one and the psychological core of the novel. This is a nasty work,
with an unhappy ending, but it is also a book I couldn’t put down and ended up
devouring it in one sitting.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst
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