Where The Body Was
Ed Brubaker, writer; Sean Phillips, artist; Jacob Phillips, colorist
Image Comics, 2023

As the title implies, this is a murder mystery. Or is it? Spoiler alert: the question is not fully resolved until the end. The story begins in 1984 in a boarding house, which by then had become a neighborhood eyesore, with a revolving collection of lowlifes as tenants. Mrs. Wilson of the Neighborhood Watch says that no one has done anything about the situation. But then neighbor Palmer Sneed showed up with a badge to break up a violent dispute, even ordering one of the residents to move out immediately. Neglected wife Toni Melville saw Palmer in action and decided he was the man she was going to have an affair with.

Their relationship is one major plot point; the relationship between teenage runaway Karina Lane and Tommy Brandt is another. Tommy is hiding Karina in the boarding house when private investigator Jack Foster comes looking for her. The other major players are ten-year-old Lila Nguyen (aka The Roller Derby Kid), who patrols the neighborhood on roller skates wearing a cape and mask, looking for crime; homeless veteran Ranko, whom she befriends; and Toni’s psychiatrist husband Dr. Ted Melville.

The action takes place in the Pelican Road neighborhood, which only covers a few blocks (there’s a helpful map at the front of the book). So it should not be surprising that these characters interact in various ways. But the big climax involves almost all of them, improbably brought together as the doctor confronts his wife and the cop (who is actually just flashing his late father’s badge) with a gun as they are having sex. Several chapters briefly give closure to all of the characters’ stories, including the mystery of the body in the title. So it is a self-contained story that feels complete. The art team’s work is so perfectly in tune (as always) that it almost seems unnecessary to mention it.