Dark Horse Comics 2016
On Sale Dec 21st 2016
Written by John Arcudi
Illustrated by Toni Fejzula
Coloured by Andre May
Lettered by Joe Sabino
The Jail Crimes Division of the Sheriff’s Office in Mariposa County investigates crimes committed inside county jails. With a limited number of suspects who can’t escape, these are usually easy cases to solve—but not this one. As Detective Linda Caruso gets closer to the heart of the case, she discovers uncomfortable truths about her friends, her job, and herself.
Sometimes thinking outside the box is beneficial, okay it’s almost always beneficial, and in this case that’s definitely true. With this issue we meet Linda who has some baggage in her past that is hinted at but not fully revealed. So we’ve got a detective who is damaged and is sent to a prison to investigate a murder-suicide. From the start she’s stonewalled and kept from doing the job the way she’s supposed to which raises questions, not just the ones she’s asking either but ones that as a reader make things murkier and more interesting.
I like the way that John has brought this story to us. There’s a nice set of mysteries that are going on here the weave in and out of what’s presented here. From the deal surrounding the stonewalling or runaround that Det Caruso gets to the fact that a violent death in a prison is seen as open and shut to the way we are given small doses of her past it all has this weird conspiracy theory to it. She’s obviously there to do a job but not the one she thinks and we see her as somewhat compromised. This makes me as a reader question the motives of those around her as she does what she thinks is the right thing to do, the job to the best of her ability.
The interiors here are nice. There’s a great sense of style going on here with the way the characters are brought to life. The use of page layouts through angles, perspective and backgrounds bring a great sense of storytelling to the words. There’s some nice emotion and feeling that we get from the work here that really help us get into this. Facial expressions and body language are used effectively to give us more characterisation and further the drama we see.
With a nice supporting cast beginning to take shape there’s an extremely nice tale unfolding before us. With different aspects coming to life there’s a sense of whatever is going on here has a major coverup and Detective Caruso is determined to figure out what’s really going on here. It’s a very unique take and look at something we don’t see that often a look inside the life of a prison and why in such a low ranking prison that this kind of murder can take place, not to mention why it happened it all.
This will be one that you’ll want to make sure your local shoppe or subscription service is going to have on hand.