Bog Bodies

June 8, 2020
Set in the Irish countryside during a broodily drawn night, this fast-paced, cheekily cynical crime thriller suggests a Guy Richie movie with a heavy brogue. Killian, a small-time Dublin crook, is hired for a job by his slippery contact Keano, only to discover too late that he’s the real target. Stumbling through the woods with killers on his tail, he runs into a teenage girl called Neev and gets her entangled. The fast-paced action plot bubbles over with bloody violence, rapid-fire dialogue, and black comedy, with just enough character development to make it more than edgy posturing. The art is blocked out in thick lines, deep shadows, and bold washes of color. The characters’ faces, nearly always twisted by smirks, gasps, or grimaces, are nicely observed. Shalvey and Fullerton evoke a seedy noir vision of modern Ireland, where the cities are nests of crime, peat country is where the bodies are buried, and everyone speaks in filthy rat-tat-tat slang. When a character calls a particularly brutal slip-up “the most Irish thing I’ve ever seen,” the reader will be sufficiently drawn into Shalvey and Fullerton’s world to agree. That same reader may be disappointed by the brevity of the volume and its abrupt ending. Until it skids to a halt, though, this is an endearingly bumpy ride.

April 3, 2020

Illustrator Shalvey (Injection Deluxe Edition. Vol. 1) proves himself an equally talented author in this noir mystery set in the mountains outside Dublin. After bungling a job for a crime boss, Killian wanders through an ancient bog with a pair of aging assassins in close pursuit. When Killian happens across a woman named Neev, who's covered in blood and claims to have no idea how she ended up so far outside the city, the two become unlikely companions. Shalvey has an incredible knack for dialog that crackles with energy tuned to the emotional pitch of a given scene--Killian and Neev bicker nervously as they seek refuge; the conversation between the assassins is made even more chilling by the matter-of-fact tone they take while debating how best to capture their quarry. A climax that takes place outside a small farmhouse on the edge of a graveyard forces all involved to come face-to-face with the repercussions of living outside the law, and questions whether it's possible to commit a sin so great there can be no chance of redemption. VERDICT A fast-paced, thrilling noir perfect for fans of the Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips's Criminal and David Lapham's Stray Bullets.--Tom Batten, Grafton, VA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.