Review by Frank Plowright
“Mind the gap” was the phrase announced for decades on London’s Underground system as trains opened their doors at stations, referring to the slight gap between platform and train entrance/exit. Here it refers to the gap between life and death, and while the distinctive London Underground logo is used between chapters, Mind the Gap is set in New York.
Ellis Petersen is found unconscious at 50th St station, and remains in a coma after being brought to hospital, where her presence alone causes a stir as she’s the daughter of a rich benefactor. As people in New York gather around her bed attempting to figure out what happened and waiting for her to return to consciousness, Ellis is in some netherland known as the Garden. She’s been able to view herself in hospital and can change her surroundings as her mind tries to make sense of her circumstances. As that’s going on, we’re also shown disagreements between hospital staff, and a threatening individual going about their murky business.
Jim McCann sets a fair amount of complications around whatever’s shown, and plots clever segues between scenes, which are naturalistically drawn by Rodin Esquejo (with Adrian Alphona filling in for a particular sequence near the end). Everything is strange, but Esquejo keeps it looking real and grounded while McCann has people drop lines of portentous dialogue that drip with a meaning not revealed to readers at the time.
It’s deliberately designed to frustrate, and does its job, reflecting the bafflement Ellis experiences as she tries to contact others if she can’t return to her body. On top of everything else she has a certainty that someone tried to kill her, and that they’ll try again. McCann provides no end of fractured family dynamics and sinister people behaving suspiciously in order to validate the feeling.
At this stage there’s no figuring out Mind the Gap, which continues in Wish You Were Here, although a suspect does manifest before the end. Seasoned mystery readers, though, will know that’s surely far too early to tie everything up in a three volume series. Go with the flow and there’s a lot to enjoy.
