Review by Frank Plowright

Until one really bad day April Walters is an ordinary suburban mother in an ordinary suburban town. Her trauma begins when witnessing a supermarket robbery ended when a hapless crook is summarily executed by the police with very borderline justifiability. April’s husband is away on business, and it’s extremely late at night when her daughter Taylor comes home bruised and sobbing. While April storms off to confront her daughter’s boyfriend, Taylor disappears.

Bad Mother is Christa Faust’s variation on Taken, with April not having the very special skill set of Liam Neeson, but equalling his persistence and durability. However, April isn’t the bad mother of the title, that’s the person behind pretty well all criminal activity in the town. She has all kinds going on, with her teenage sons involved in family business, and readers are led to believe the police may be either turning a blind eye or equally complicit.

Marking this as a resolutely modern story is Faust making excellent use of mobile phones. Their possibilities and capabilities are key to many sequences from the Taylor’s past to April instantly being able to connect the dots outside a seedy warehouse. Beyond that the traditional virtues of persistence, observation and research pay off.

Any crime script having the benefit of Mike Deodato Jr’s art is going to have a polished graphic realism, but despite that awareness Deodato impresses with the cinematic way he breaks down the plot. Even ordinary scenes such as April sitting in her car watching are superbly composed to be interesting, Deodato’s responsible for the shadows and Lee Loughridge’s colours are sympathetically applied. Deodato has been known as the consummate storyteller for years, but it’s still worth pointing out how good he is at both drawing the attention where needed, such as the acquisition of a gun late on, and at making sure something else is going on in panels where something needs hidden.

This is gripping from start to finish and never predictable. Faust incorporates the ridiculous credibly, and diffuses a threat excellently. A slight downside is April being so capable that there’s less tension than there might otherwise be, but more than enough crime novels only cast women as victims, so this move toward parity is welcome. A gem.