Where the Body Was

[cornerofmadness]

Where the Body Was by Ed Brubaker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I dithered as to what to do with this 3.5 read and when in just a day I had to go to the list of characters to remember their names I rounded down. This isn't one that is going to stick with me. That's not to say it isn't good. It was but on the other hand it wasn't too memorable either. And if you hadn't told me this was the 1980s I would never have guessed that by the art so that was a miss (the lack of cell phones would have been the only clue. There was zero 80s feel to this).

The titular body doesn't make an appearance until after the halfway mark and since this is told in both the past and X number of years down the road as an interview, you know who the body isn't. The cast of characters aren't particularly likeable or memorable but they are real (in the sense I watch a lot of true crime and you can find these scenarios in most of those stories)

We have Palmer, a man with a badge and a temper, Tom and Karina, two drug addicted teens living in a flop house, Dr. Ted Melville, psychiatrist, and his neglected wife Toni whose only purpose is to be having sex on every panel we see her in. No seriously she's barely ever dressed and there is PLENTY of sex in this thing (if that bugs you) Ranko the homeless PTSD ridden Viet Nam vet (and easy patsy) and Lila Ngyuen, the only character I actually liked, a young Vietnamese girl roller skating around the subdivision in a super hero costume hoping to stop a crime, and Jack Foster, PI.

Most of the story is not about the body and how it got dead. Most of it is just what happens in suburban life. Will Tom win Karina? Will Palmer and Toni get caught? Will Lila solve a crime?

THe artwork was good and the story is too. It's worth picking up from your library.



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