Review by Ian Keogh

The latest case for InvestiGators Mango and Brash begins when the captain of a cruise liner is found floating alone at sea in a life raft. He’s immediately taken into the care of his employers, and a day later the cruise company owner Bill N. Dollaz holds a press conference denying a cruise liner is missing. Through various investigative shenanigans Mango and Brash ensure they’re aboard the next Dollaz cruise, and as seen on the sample art, it’s not long before John Patrick Green suggests that Brash’s former partner Daryl, now turned into a giant cracker (don’t ask!) might be responsible. Is he?

First Second publicise every InvestiGATORS story as ‘laugh out loud funny’. So often the phrase is enormous exaggeration, applied to something liable to raise an occasional forced smile at best, yet this is the real deal. It actually is laugh out loud funny. Green’s contrived situations are brilliantly ridiculous, the assortment of characters even more so, and he loves a pun and a selection of jokes following a theme. When Mango and Brash first encounter Sven’s cousin Bjorn, the marine life jokes are a positive flood, and pirates being another theme prompts the absolute best joke. As many of them have eyepatches what’s the best way to disguise floating eye C-ORB? Why, with a patch that doesn’t cover his actual eye and a fake peg leg! Genius. And as it’s real pirates, with pedigree and all, you’ll learn the true meaning of ‘Avast’. However, a Tasha Yarr joke certainly dates Green.

The rule of thumb with InvestiGATORS is that everyone is an idiot, and what has to be determined is whether they’re well-intentioned idiots, such as Mango and Brash, or someone with something to hide. Green generally makes it clear who the latter are, as although there are mysteries and investigations, they’re very much secondary to the comedy mishaps.

Really all this review needed to do was point out All Tide Up follows Heist and Seek, and is another delight. This is the point at which the Agents of S.U.I.T. series spins off, and Class Action is the next InvestiGATORS.