Blurb
Two hundred years ago, Britain lost the Napoleonic War and fell under the thumb of French domination. Gaining independence after decades of civil disobedience and anarchist bombings, the Socialist Republic of Britain is now a small, unimportant backwater connected by a railway bridge, steam-powered dirigible, and mutual suspicion to France. When a British diplomat is murdered to look like suicide, ferocious Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard stalks a ruthless murder squad through the heart of a Belle Epoque Paris, the center of the greatest empire in a world of steam-driven hansom cabs, automatons, and flying machines. LeBrock’s relentless quest can lead only to death, truth… or war.
My Review
Firstly, let me make clear that this is a comic not a novel. But if you read my blog, you’ll know that I like things that are a bit of the side of the norm.
We start with a high-speed chase across Paris. Then we’re transported to the English countryside and the apparent suicide of Leigh-Otter. The uniformed officers have been told to wait for Detective Inspector LeBrock to arrive. The Inspector arrives with Detective Ratzi, and they pick up all the clues. It is as they are leaving, waiting for a train back to London, when it’s rammed home to the reader that while we are reading English, the characters are speaking French.
LeBrock and Ratzi travel to Grandville (which is really Paris) to hunt down the details of Leigh-Otter’s last day.
This is all set to a background of Anglophobia in France, with reference to British Anarchists attacking the French establishment. But where is the real threat behind this plot. Of course, LeBrock works it all out and that leads to a thrilling adventurous ending.
As far as the crime story is concerned – it’s very well done. There’s no holding back on the violence, but it’s not that graphic (for a graphic novel). The anthropomorphising of the characters is mostly well done, though somehow when they take their clothes off, it feels a bit off, but that doesn’t happen often thankfully.
I was recommended this book by the gent who runs the local comic shop, and I’m so glad I did give it a try and I will be reading more. Highly recommend this series.
GB Williams Crime Blog 