Review by Ian Keogh
Being a werewolf is handy fallback for a Los Angeles private detective, yet Janie ‘Strummer’ Mercado’s pretty good at her job without that back-up. Since last seen her life has taken an upturn. Girlfriend Carly has moved in, she’s getting new cases, and she doesn’t seem to have angered any powerful supernatural types.
Eric Palicki and Wendell Cavalcanti delivered a real treat with Vol. 1, a down to earth, personality based mystical thriller both imaginative and surprising, and what do you know? They manage it again with The Keys to His Heart.
There’s no reason to change a creatively successful formula, so after the arrival of a surprise package it’s back to the downbeat reality of knocking on doors until something shakes loose. That would be a dullsville recipe were it not for the Palicki creating a cast to love. Anyone we’d want to see back from the first volume is duly returned, and new addition Claire is a brilliant complication.
Cavalcanti’s black and white art is shaded for depth and darkness to reflect the reality of Strummer’s life. He differentiates the cast well as humans, giving thought as to how they’re posed, and when it comes to the horrors he excels in defining them cinematically, never entirely fully seen, but visible enough to conjure up danger. What is fully seen, though, in gruesome detail, is the effect of the horrors, which is adult levels of violence.
A joy of the plot is that if most of the supernatural was removed what’s left would still be a very readable detective procedural drama, with characters who transmit and who have credible motivations, and a strong emotional core. Strummer is very much from the act first and cope with the consequences later school, but she’s not the only one, and the final treat is the wrapping up the main plot with enough space left for a couple of meaningful complications and one closing surprise.
Anyone who likes the idea of their crime drama with supernatural intrusions will find Black’s Myth a world they’ll want to enter, and they’ll depart satisfied.
