What I’ve Been Reading: Britten and Brülightly

British creator Hannah Berry’s debut graphic novel is a sharply-written, downboat detective story well-served by her lush, painterly art, and while I’m normally suspicious of jacket quotes that smack of overenthusiastic preening from authors desperate to get cover copy, the comparisons to Chandler and Hammett are not far from the mark. Berry manages to use genre tropes such as narration and plot convolutions in a way that feels fresh because of her strong storytelling instincts and willingness to make the material as visually interesting as possible.

One of the things that makes Britten and Brülightly stand out is the obvious care and thought that’s been put into the project. Berry never takes the easy road when it comes to depicting mood and having characters relate information, something that too frequently leads to boring talking head shots in mystery and detective pices like this. Each panel features assured use of the comics playbook and the oversized format means that the reader gets to savor the material properly.

If you can’t tell, I thought this book was downright terrific and deserving of much more attention than it’s gotten so far on this side of the pond. Amazon has this dense, smart read for less than the cost of buying four individual Marvel comics that you’ll likely forget an hour after you’ve stuck them in your longbox.