Mystery Crime Books

Im a HUGE Nancy fan and have all her books original & Revised...this book is amazing! Very different from all other Nancy books very surreal... and you are insane if you pass this up. Like I said before, this book uses a different recipe and its great!!!!!!:-)

In this book, Nancy Drew goes to see a circus and feels sorry for a little boy who appears to be abused by his master. Nancy is surprised when he shows up at her home. He wears a mysterious ivory charm in the shape of an elephant that is supposed to protect the wearer from harm. He gives it to Nancy. She will surely need protection soon after, because she must investigate a mysterious hideout and missing jewels. Could it be that the mystery of the room in the cave and the shady circus are related? read to find out! I would also recommed buying the applewood books fascimle edition of this story. It is priced higher but it is the original story from the 30's. Buy both versions for some flavor and to see how the story was changed.

Im a HUGE Nancy fan and have all her books original & Revised...this book is amazing! Very different from all other Nancy books very surreal... and you are insane if you pass this up. Like I said before, this book uses a different recipe and its great!!!!!!:-)

I like how Caroline Keene writes. She gives great detail. Such as: "She wore a white turban, and the wind whipped her flowing robes about wildly." Also in this story, I could relate to Nancy. Some things she did, the actions she made, I would of done too; for instance, telling the police about the mystery she was trying to solve.
This book is about a young boy, named Rishi, who was the maharaja of India. He was kidnapped when an infant. The three people that kidnapped him wanted a different person to rule the land. Nancy's job was to find the culprits and arrest them. But it wasn't easy. Rishi's stepfather was after him, trying to kill him, because he knew too much. He kidnapped Rishi twice, almost killing him. Nancy doesn't know where to look for him. Also someone stole her charm with lifesaving fluids in it, which rishi would need to recover from his injuries. Will Nancy find her charm? Will Rishi ever be found?
I think anyone can read this book. Particularly people who like mysteries. And anyone who likes adventure and suspense.

This review concerns the original 1936 edition and the revised 1974 edition which is slightly different from the original but basically tells the same story. Nancy meets a young Indian boy (named Coya in the original, Rishi in the revised) who lives with a circus. The boy is being mistreated by a man named Rai who claims to be the boy's father, but Nancy doubts this claim. Nancy saves Rai from an elephant and to show his thanks he gives Nancy an ivory, elephant charm which he says can protect the wearer from harm. Coya/Rishi runs away from the circus and Rai and the Drews take him in. Later, Rai changes his mind and wants the charm back and he will do anything to get both the charm and Coya/Rishi. Also figuring into this "mystery" are a strange woman and a bizarre house out in the middle of the woods. The house, apparently, has no floor, but it does have a secret passage and a bunch of swings and trapezes hanging from the ceiling. This book was just plain awful!! The mystery, what there is of one, is stupid and boring. The house serves absolutely no purpose other than to use up pages and it makes no sense. Who would build a house like that out in the middle of nowhere? The strange woman in the book is more annoying than anything and comes off as too scatterbrained and weak-minded to be the great criminal mastermind that the plot requires her to be. The book has little in the way of action or suspence. This book is just bad, bad, bad! Take my advice and don't read it.

A Floating Hydrogen Bomb Adrift Somewhere on the High Seas! Imagine it. This novel basically predicted the Russian Georgian war three months before it happened. Don Brown is the new Clancy. Wow!

In August of 2008, Russia Attacked Georgia. In June of 2008, Don Brown's Treason hit the shelves with a riveting storyline about war in the Black Sea Region and War between Russia and Georgia, with America called on to intervene. Did the Russian's get ideas from the author? Spellbinding and highly recommended.

I'd frankly never heard about places like North or South Ossetia, nor did I know much about places like the nation of Georgia or the region around the Black Sea until I read Don Brown's riveting novel, Black Sea Affair. Then, as the Olympics open on 08-08-08, I read in the newspaper that Russia has invaded part of Georgia, and the countries are battling over a place called South Ossetia, just they type of stuff and in the very same area that the author writes about in this novel, which sheds light on this explosive and dangerous region of the world. It's almost like Don Brown has a prophetic sixth sense on international affairs. Highly recommend Black Sea Affair and I highly recommend this author!

This novel was published in June of 2008, with a riveting storyline involving the conflict between Russia and Georgia and the United States getting in the middle of it. Then in August of 2008, war actually broke out between Georgia and Russia. Amazing. I loved the book and loved it's premise, and it was amazing in helping me understand a part of the world that, until the Georgian war broke out, had been foreign to most Americans.

I'm not a Gresham or Clancy fan so I should have known better. After the first twenty pages of cliches I gave up.

If you hold off buying this book for a couple of months, the "Dollar" Stores should be flooded with this item.

Something about interactive books always gets me! This book is no exception. The clever narrative writing is complemented with "evidence" collected by "Dr. Watson." Read the book, check out the clues and try to solve the case! If, like me, you're too lazy to apply a little brain power to figure it out, there's a handy solution explanation tucked away in the back. Great read!

I purchased The Crimes of Dr. Watson: An Interactive Sherlock Holmes Mystery for my husband who absolutely LOVED it. It was unexpected and he has a great time solving the mystery. His only wish was that he book was longer. Otherwise, he was extremely satisfied. True Sherlock Holmes fans will get a kick out of this book. I think it would be a GREAt stocking stuffer.

The production values of the book try to reflect the time of Dr Watson and Holmes, from the slightly yellowed pages to the Victorian endpapers that look like the wallpaper pattern common at the time.

The mini-story contained within, 'The Final Problem', was a treat. The clues held within were reproduced well and felt that you were holding the actual pieces of evidence.

It's a fascinating book to pass the time by and to try to solve the mystery. I'd recommend it.

If you generally have a suspicious outlook, you may early on get an inkling of who might have done it. Though you may be close, I doubt you will zero in precisely. Forgive yourself, however, for the ending is exciting and perfect, both for the author and for Rutledge himself. The characters are well-developed, the psychological insights excellent.

"A Test of Wills" is the first novel by Charles Todd in the series with Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard. My review of "A Fearsome Doubt," or googling Charles Todd, or reading a back cover paragraph will show that Charles Todd is the mother-son American writing team from the middle eastern coast of the U.S.

They portray Ian Rutledge as not being -- or not believing -- he is his old self. Five years of World War One in the muddy, death-stinking trenches facing the Boche in France, have left him shell-shocked and unsure of himself. Can he do the job anymore? Are his skills and insights gone? He is also haunted by reminders of his wife Jean, who found him so much changed that she was frankly afraid of him and left him for another man.

Adding to Rutledge's mental state was his duty to have a noncommissioned officer, Corporal Hamish MacLeod, executed by firing squad for refusing to advance the men against suicidally heavy fire on the front line. Hamish lives on as a real character throughout the novel, as a voice within Rutledge's own mind, relentlessly chiding, challenging, and, as often as not, contributing sound advice.

In June 1919, Inspector Rutledge's first month back on the job, he is handed an out-of-town assignment by Superintendent Bowles, a man envious of Rutledge's upper-class origins, university success, and cultivated voice and manner, and who would like nothing better than to see Rutledge fail, wishing even that Rutledge had not survived the war.

The local police of an outlying county have requested New Scotland Yard, London's metropolitan police service, to help in a sensitive investigation of a well-respected landowner's murder, perhaps by a national War Hero who is a favorite of the Royal Family. The Yard fears potential political repurcussions.

Viciously murdered was relatively young, retired Colonel Charles Harris, owner of a large estate in the county. While the Colonel was on his morning ride, a point-blank shotgun blast literally blew his head off, and the horse bolted back to the stables. The chief suspect is Captain Mark Wilton, an ace airman who had won the Victoria Cross. Wilton was engaged to the Colonel's attractive young ward, Lettice Wood. The evening before the murder, Harris and Wilton were witnessed heatedly arguing. What about?

Who can help Rutledge uncover why a highly regarded member of the community with no known enemies was so hated by someone? What secrets lay behind Colonel Harris? Why did he go out riding alone that morning? Why did his ward Lettice not accompany him? That same morning Wilton had gone out for a walk.

Did some veteran seek out Harris to avenge a personal grudge during war service? Did Harris's estate manager Laurence Royston have reason to annihilate him? Royston and all the large staff, including Johnston the butler and Mary Satterthwaite the maid, need to be questioned.
Rutledge has many persons to seek out for what they know.

Before the war, Captain Wilton had courted Catherine Tarrant, a local artist with showings in London. Reverend Carfield has had his eye on Lettice Wood since coming to the local church. The Sommers sisters, one outgoing, the other shy and a virtual recluse, live near the meadow where the Colonel's body was found. Did they see anything?

A little girl's doll was dropped in a hedge near where the body was found. Who was the little girl? What did she see? Mavers, a local rabble-rouser and communist sympathizer, constantly rails in public against all persons in authority, and had been a suspect in fires, livestock deaths, and a dog poisoning on the Colonel's estate.

Can Rutledge, the "man from London" get a straight story from Daniel Hickam, a shell-shocked veteran and town drunk, usually roaming the streets? Or from anyone?

Captain Wilton was staying with his cousin, Sally Davenant, a young, attractive widow, fond of both him and the Colonel. She says she could not imagine who would have wanted to kill Charles Harris, "a thoroughly nice man." Sergeant Davies of the local police agrees: "A very nice man. Not at all the sort you'd expect to end up murdered."

Charles Todd tells an intriguing tale of life -- and death -- in the village. Who among them is guilty?

All I need to get me thru airports and business travel is a comfortable paperback, preferably a mystery. This one did the trick! It was not the heavy tome of a P. D. James or Elizabeth George, all of whom I have read, but it did elicit the English dynamic as does Deborah Crombie. Two American writers who give us a fairly short procedural to figure out.

I must admit the solution to this mystery came out of the blue; perhaps I am critical because I just never figured out who it would be - in other words I didnt have a clue!!!! :D

Hamish as a sidekick (conscience) is a different ploy. But I liked Inspector Ian Rutledge and I hope he grows as I continue to read this series. Picked up Charles Todd on these review boards - am so glad I did.
I never even suspected the killer; a plus for me even tho it was a bruise to my ego!!!!

WWI, demons still haunting, and then a typical unremarkable English mystery. I did not unfortunately find this to be the outstanding mystery the reviewers did. I'm afraid I can't quite fathom how it was named one of this century's 100 favorite mysteries. Well-written, but overall not too compelling, and the revelation of the murderer at the end was lackluster and lacked any excitement imho.

By the time the killer was revealed in "A Test of Wills," Charles Todd's debut mystery with shell-shocked Inspector Ian Rutledge in charge, I had pretty much stopped caring "whodunit." The identity is indeed a suprise, and a good one at that, but I found getting there an extremely hard slog. Perhaps it's the polite Edwardian sensibility of the characters, perhaps Todd just isn't that skilled a writer; but the pace is glacial, and the presence of Hamish MacLeod, the ghost in Rutledge's head, while initially a unique plot device, for me quickly became a tiresome intrusion. And Todd doesn't quite, psychologically speaking, blow the lid off of British repression as much as he and his publicity machine would have us believe. More people than not have flipped over this mystery series, however, so you might give it a shot. But it's far from the taut, crackling good yarns of a Ruth Rendell or a P.D. James. I'd even reread an old Agatha Christie before continuing with the Rutledge mysteries.

I have always relied heavily on the recommendations of other readers here at amazon.com, but this book shows me that I must be more careful in the future. Apparently I expect considerably more from mysteries than other reviewers here.

I had high hopes at the outset but very soon the book devolved into a messy muddle with far too many loose ends that were never tied up. I expect that if a question is introduced, it will at some time be answered; either answers were never given or the answers were so implausible, I lost faith in the author and had lost interest in the outcome of the story. Rutledge should be a compelling and fascinating character but instead falls flat for me. Hamish is nothing more than a substitute for a sidekick with a quaint accent. Most of the characters are cardboard cut-outs and all the female characters are indistinguishable and interchangeable. Contrary to what the other reviewers report, I found the background info about the war and the time period to be superficial at best.

My advice? Read Pat Barker for a masterful handling of the period, situations, and people. Read Agatha Christie for airtight plotting and Dorothy Sayers for delightful writing.

I find the fact that so many readers and reviewers rave about Charles Todd's books disturbing. I suspect the publisher's marketing jockey decided this book fit the right profile for some target audience and painted it with such praise as to fool us into mistaking it for good writing. I won't be fooled again.

A ring of auto thieves is busted in Los Angeles. The leader of the ring is a rich man protected by his lawyers so he sits at home awaiting trial. Two of the workers in this ring are brothers who also happen to be Navajo Indians. One disappears and the other comes to Shiprock looking for his grandfather and is shot by yet another petty crook who was apparently dispatched from LA directly to Shiprock. This is what gets Jim Chee involved as both crooks die.

How did crook #2 know that the Indian crook was to be found in Shiprock? Why was crook #2 sent via a chartered flight to do the killing? Who would spend that kind of money on a simple auto thief? and why? The Indian Crook is Albert Gorman. He does find his grandfather, but does not survive his wounds and dies. His grandfather buries him in the traditional Navajo way. However, Chee investigates he keeps coming across troubling items. Certain things are done - but almost right, not 100% correctly. Other things do no seem to make sense and Chee's ordered mind rebels against accepting them at face value.

Chee is also bothered by the latest turn of events in his relationship with Mary Landon. She wants him to get a job with the FBI and raise their children as white children. He is not sure about that.

This novel is all about the voyage of discovery that Chee makes into his soul. Is he a traditional Navajo who will remain a member of his tribe and become a singer? Or, will he take a different path like the two Navajo crooks that he spends a big portion of his time chasing. They were part of a Navajo clan that went to LA and became "white". As part of the investigation, Chee goes to LA and notices the differences between White society and Navajo society (in terms of how each treats their elders; how the different societies intermingle and interact with each other on the road and in person; and how the environment is different between Shiprock and LA)

As the story develops, there is very little real mystery involved and we get drawn more and more into the life-changing decision that Chee is struggling with. The book has a very clear direction - the author wants Chee to remain a traditional Navajo, but the character has to make up his mind. This takes time as Chee is one of those who think things through very carefully.

The mystery is resolved, eventually, as Chee realizes why certain things that are important in the Navajo world were not being done as they should. The ending is rather explosive and violent and seems somewhat contrived - however the resolution is satisfying in the sense that it lines up as we all feel it should.

A very good book and a fun read. I found myself pulling for Chee to make the decision he should have and was happy with the conclusion reached.

I enjoy the Leaphorn, Chee mysteries because they are about Native Indian characters. Being Cherokee myself its wonderful to read books about fellow Native Indians. It is refreshing.

A Shoot out at the Shiprock Wash-O-Mat leads to a puzzle that only Jim Chee with his knowledge of the Ghostway and of death rituals can try to peace together. Related is a disappearance of a school girl (Margaret Sosi) will lead Jim from the New Mexico landscape to the Los Angeles area. There with Hillerman's gift for description we also get a contrasting look of the different worlds. Will He find the girl and what does the puzzle spell out, or will it ever become clear?
This is a close continuation of "People of Darkness" so many of the descriptions and people were previously defined in that book. The reason people read Hillerman is mostly for the descriptions of the places and people his characters encounter. As seen in previous books, in the description of Margaret and other characters, he incorporates his real life experience with World War II and its aftermath.

A Shoot out at the Shiprock Wash-O-Mat leads to a puzzle that only Jim Chee with his knowledge of the Ghostway and of death rituals can try to peace together. Related is a disappearance of a school girl (Margaret Sosi) will lead Jim from the New Mexico landscape to the Los Angeles area. There with Hillerman's gift for description we also get a contrasting look of the different worlds. Will He find the girl and what does the puzzle spell out, or will it ever become clear?

This is a close continuation of "People of Darkness" so many of the descriptions and people were previously defined in that book. The reason people read Hillerman is mostly for the descriptions of the places and people his characters encounter. As seen in previous books, in the description of Margaret and other characters, he incorporates his real life experience with World War II and its aftermath.

Tony Hillerman's Navajoland: Hideouts, Haunts, and Havens in the Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Mysteries

I've read all of the Hillerman mysteries, but its been several years so now I'm listening to a few on tape as I drive to work. The "on tape" version is quite excellent. It is read (really it would be better to say 'performed') by Gil Silverbird, a Navajo actor and singer. He does an excellent job - the differences between Chee's conversations and interviews with Whites and Navajos become very obvious as Silverbird performs them. It adds yet another layer of cultural experience to the Hillerman books.

Meet Cameryn Mahoney. She's not your average high school senior. She's the assistant to the county coroner in Silverton, Colorado. Most kids her age find her fascination with all things forensic rather bizarre, if not macabre. But Cameryn is intrigued and has gained the (reluctant) respect of local law enforcement and medical personnel alike.

The story starts off with Cameryn and her father handling a fatal car accident. The victim affects Cameryn and her father in the fact that it's a young man. Nothing is worse than a senseless death. But Cameryn is ever the professional and they get the job done.

Later that day, Cameryn encounters her long lost mother, Hannah. Hannah has a young girl in the car with her. The girl seems agitated and Hannah doesn't give Cameryn a straight answer. But there is little Cameryn can do, and her mother drives off with the sad girl, Mariah, in the passenger seat.

Only later does the encounter come back to haunt Cameryn. Her father is out of town when the call comes in. There's another dead body. Cameryn is asked to attend to the scene until her father can be present. Upon seeing the body, Cameryn realizes that it's the girl, Mariah. If she lets on that she recognizes the girl, then her mother could be implicated.

What starts as an omission soon blossoms into a complete mystery that entwines everything that Cameryn does. Her mother eventually gets arrested for a murder that she swears she didn't commit. No one is there to help Hannah. Cameryn has since learned the truth of her childhood, and still finds it in her heart to forgive Hannah for everything she's done and comes to her aid. Against the odds and against the advice of everyone she knows, Cameryn takes it upon herself to clear her mother's name.

For anyone who's a fan of C.S.I. or Bones, THE CIRCLE OF BLOOD is a real page-turner. It's a bit graphic in the descriptions of dead bodies and autopsies, but done so in a fascinating and scientific manner. This isn't the first story featuring Cameryn Mahoney, but one doesn't have to have read the previous stories to enjoy this one. The story is easy to follow with little to cloud the main plot. I enjoyed it quite a bit and will now look for the previous Cameryn Mahoney books myself.

Reviewed by: Jaglvr

This is the best of the three forensic mysteries, I think. With each new book, Ferguson, becomes better at hiding the solution to the mystery. I had a little inside chuckle concerning the head rolling down the side of the mountain (sick, I know).
Learning new things like the story behind "Keep Sweet" and how the path of the bullet was determined by using the "brain bucket" is great information. You just never know when that information might come in handy at a party. LOL No really, I love it!
Justin has been staying at a safe distance. Maybe he has been just waiting for Kyle to surface.

First Sentence: `Signora Giusti!' protested Lorenzini, holding the receiver away from his ear and throwing open his free hand in despair.

An elderly woman is known for calling the carabiniere station to complain. This time Marshall Salva Guarnaccia agrees to go in person. She heard an argument in the next door apartment, then silence. After talking with her for awhile, and learning she has keys to the apartment in question, he agrees to investigate, only to find a young man at the point of death, whose dying whisper is "It wasn't her."

Nabb doesn't provide as strong a sense of place as some writers; her style reminds me more of someone so familiar with a place, they forget its significance.

Where she does excel is with her characters and observations of people--the elderly woman afraid of dying alone, the blind man who can "see" through his other senses, the other policemen who work with the Marshall--these are all brought vividly to life.

Marshall Guarnaccia is a wonderful character. He is a Sicilian stationed in Florence living without his wife and sons, as they are caring for his incapacitated mother. Because of that, he lives at the station barracks. He is dedicated, empathetic and caring, with subtle humor.

Although this is only the second book in the series, as well as the second I've read, I've learned a bit more about the character with each book, and it makes me want to continue to learn more still.

My criticisms are that there was an incidence of foreshadowing, which was irritating and unnecessary, and the conclusion was definitely unusual and a bit odd.

I only recently discovered Nabb's Guarnaccia series, am loving it and delighted to know I've many more books in the series ahead of me.

In an apartment next door to his own flat in Piazza Santo Spirito, Florentine carabinieri Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia finds his jeweler neighbor dying in what looks like a suicide due to his slashed hands. However, Salvatore listening to the Dutchman's last words and becomes confused when he whispers "It wasn't her". Besides wondering who is her, Salvatore knows there is not slightest evidence of foul play; not even a bruise on the dead goldsmith except for what seems like self induced cuts. Yet his gut tells him a homicide occurred.

The Florence Marshal learns that the autopsy revealed the deceased died from a barbiturate overdose, which along with the slashed hands supports the suicide belief. As his superiors tell him to drop the case, Salvatore refuses although so far he has found no proof to hint at murder except the words of a nonagenarian with no credibility and a blind person.

The second of the Marshal Guarnaccia Italian police procedural (see Death of an Englishman) is a terrific tale as the obstinate Marshal refuses to quit a case that seems to be going nowhere. Readers will feel they accompany the sleuth as he seeks clues in hot touristy Florence. A few twists enhance a fine investigative tale in which it appears the protagonist has no reason to suspect murder except the growl of his stomach insisting a homicide happened next door.

Harriet Klausner

I love the Swedish mystery writers, ie: Henning Mankell, Åsa Larson, Hakan Nesser. etc...I don't speak Swedish so I depend on really good translation to keep the story flowing with a definable rhythm. I've found this book to have a great premise and a good story but I had a difficult time with the narrative flow.

Uppsala, Sweden Police Detective Ann Lindell works a difficult homicide case as she struggles to identify the victim found floating in a river. The corpse is eventually identified as Armas, a co-owner of the upscale restaurant Dakar. Ann visits the other partner, Slobodan Andersson who also owns Alhambra and has questionable financing connections and plenty of enemies.

However the suspect list remains long besides Slobodan and his adversaries. Ann considers recently hired waitress Eva Willman and her two teen boys, chef Johnny Kvarnheden, homeless Konrad Rosenberg and Mexican peasant Manuel Alavez seeking to free his incarcerated brother.

The fascination with this superior third Swedish police procedural (see THE CRUEL STARS OF THE NIGHT and THE PRINCESS OF BURUNDI) is the cast as perspective is told from various participants so that the same incident is seen differently and their political viewpoints especially anti Bush runs strong. The investigation led by Ann is wonderful to follow as she, like the readers, meet the restaurant's players who all have motive to kill the victim. A slight adjustment is needed to Swedish nomenclature as delineating the names of people and places require full concentration, but THE DEMON OF DAKAR is worth the time.

Harriet Klausner

The Princess of Burundi was a rather dull and plodding police procedural.
None of the characters were particularly compelling or well drawn. The detectives seemed pale imitations of other Swedish police characters and all possessed a "sameness" that made it hard to distinguish one from the other. As for the plot, plodding: no real mystery at all.

The Princess of Burundi ranks up with the best of the Scandinavian mysteries I've read--including Henning Mankell's. It's almost in the same category as the magnificent classics of Sjowall and Wahloo.
I particularly liked the treatment of the family of the primary murder victim. It showed a group of flawed characters but with realism and empathy. Eriksson also skillfully captures the interplay among the police investigating a series of vicious killings. Although the subject is somber and quite dark, he leavens it with some humor and some pointed commentary on contemporary Swedish politics and society.
Finally, an extra shout out for the title--clever, mystifying but also relevant to the story.

A top-notch crime/police procedural in the order of Menkell, in that, characters you can feel and touch.

I took a chance on this author and book, having read all of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallender series, and all of Karin Fossum's books. This book kept me turning the page and was hard to put down. It is definitely a fine piece of work, and I recommend it highly to those who love dark and psychological mysteries.

I ordered this book because I saw the 2nd book (Cruel Stars of the Night) in Borders and thought it would be best to read the first; Princess of Burundi.

I highly reccommend this book to anyone who enjoys crime novels. Eriksson's writing is very addicting; he really is able to draw you into each of the character's lives as well as the overall plot. Once I started, I had a hard time putting it down. I look forward to reading more novels from Eriksson.

Casino Boogie collects Scalped issues #6-11 and serves as the volume two trade paperback. The much talked about casino opening from volume one (Indian Country) is the larger focus of this volume as each story part takes place on opening night of the Crazy Horse Casino on The Prairie Rose Reservation. Jason Aaron handles the scripts with a deft hand as he uses this event as the backdrop for supplying the reader with back-story for a number of characters including Dash, Lincoln Red Crow, Diesel, Catcher, Gina Bad Horse, Lawrence Belcourt and Dino Poor Bear.

Originally six issues, the story is divided into six parts. Aaron devotes many of the chapter's opening pages to flashback sequences which setup the focus of each part on a particular character. The reader is treated to scenes from Dash, Red Crow, and Diesel's childhood, for instance, before being brought back into present time to see where each character is on opening night. Red Crow's grim and murderous determination is really the center piece in my opinion, as his actions have a grand, sweeping effect on all the other characters to say nothing of the fact that it's HIS casino that's opening. That isn't to say that each of these other characters are necessarily caught blind in his wake though. Each chapter is written from the perspective of the focus character so the reader is granted a better understanding of their personal dilemmas and motivations. More is revealed on the murders of the two FBI agents from some twenty years back; Scalped's watershed moment and impetus to many of the book's current events. Read in their original, single issue format, each of the chapters succeed as stand alone stories.

The larger tapestry of the ongoing story is fleshed out as well with a few new wrinkles added to complicate matters for the residents of The Prairie Rose Reservation. Is Dash the only undercover FBI agent operating on The Rez? What is Red Crow's involvement with Hmong ganglords hailing from St. Paul, Minnesota and who is this "Mr. Brass" they've sent out to "help" him with his local troubles? What does Catcher's vision mean and what can we possibly expect from such bizarre individual as he? In the young Dino Poor Bear, do we dare admit to the similiarities between his and a young Dash's yearnings? All these personal stories are interwoven skillfully and the variety of characters and settings within really give R.M. Guéra an opportunity to shine as an artist and really define the look of the world he and Jason Aaron are masterfully depicting. The conclusion of this volume is nothing less than a visual, emotional gut punch it's so cold-blooded and callous; leaving so many character issues fatally unresolved while at the same time, serving as the lightning rod to drive the story foward to the dark days ahead.

No doubt about it. Jason Aaron is the one to watch.

I read Scalped Volume 1 and liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it enough to purchase Volume 2. I am so glad I did because this is "Grade A" writing and beautifully "gritty" illustrations that help tell this perfect story.

Jason Aaron holds nothing back while giving us new perspectives on the characters he introduced us to in Volume 1. Written in the same fashion as "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction", the reader is lead through the story from all viewpoints and through a time line line that bounces around, but is in no way hard to follow.

This is the perfect comic book.

SC