Review by Ian Keogh

No-one Joe Keatinge has been following over the course of Ringside ended the previous volume in a good way. Work’s bleak final pages are echoed by the even bleaker opening pages of Shoot. The early chapters open a while after what was shown as the present day in previous volumes, Davis’ depressed recollections hanging a suspense over what follows. He’s a generic wrestling type, big in his day, and he kept the secrets hidden and his mouth shut, so lasted longer than most. He’s been a friend to hungry young wrestler Reynolds, and their participation has seemed a little distanced from the main plot, but crashes into it phenomenally well here.

Keatinge has run several themes through Ringside, one being how the present can reflect the past, and that’s again emphasised in what’s an inevitably downbeat ending to a brilliantly downbeat series. The final chapter fully embraces the future, and it’s the only step Keatinge’s put wrong the entire series, but it’s not just wrong, it’s a chasm of indifference. Perhaps Ringside had to end sooner than intended and the final chapter was the best Keatinge could come up with at short notice, but few people who’ve followed the series through are going to be satisfied.

The neat cartooning of Nick Barber has defined Ringside from the start, and he’s improved as it’s continued. To begin with the lack of backgrounds was very noticeable, but now he’s refined the style to an appealing shadowy simplicity and less has become more. Keatinge enjoys parallels, and Barber has a connection with lead character Dan Knossos for the talent being there, but lessons needing to be learned. Taking forward this art to his next series, though, Barber is very much on the right path.

A poor resolution doesn’t wipe out the enjoyment Ringside has provided overall, and four good chapters roll out efficiently before the problems begin, so this is still very good crime drama, just lacking an ending to match.