Customer Reviews

Cal McDonald Casebook: Savage Membrane (Cal McDonald Mystery)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ashley Wood this book is AMAZING... I have enjoyed the comics, but the graphic novels are absolutely to die for!! Why??

The atmosphere he creates is gritty, dirty, and real - you can feel these characters, you can see the locations, and you can sense the danger, as you giggle at the dark humor sprinkled through out.

The storytelling is perfectly paced and keeps your attention right to the end - smooth, lots of action, great dialogue... genius! Short chapters suck you in until the wee morning hours as you tell yourself, 'well, they're short, i'll just read ONE more'...

IDW Publishing carries a 'Warning: Mature Reading' tag for the book, but honestly it's barely outside of pg13. There is drug/alcohol use by our star witness, er loveable character Cal, but honestly... if YOU could see what he sees you'd stay drunk too!

Did I like it?? Loved it! Definately a five star rating Cal and his 'ghoul' sidekick Mo'Lock are definately worth your time and money - find this now!!

-Horrorwench

This cross of pulp comedy, film noir detective work, and Lovecraftian horror works on so many levels! It's an excellent book in all senses and should be reccomended to everyone.

Like a cross between Kurt Russel's character in Big Trouble in Little China and F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack, Cal more or less stumbles on solving cases than actually figuring anything out himself. Both humorous and scary, Cal McDonald is a character for the times, not to be missed.

Reading this book was like watching a sitcom on TV: short, sweet, and quickly faded from memory.
There was potential here, and I wanted to like 'Savage Membrane', but the story was way under developed. I am a slow reader, and it only took me about 2 hours to read this book. At 208 pages with wide spaced, large type, there was very little substance to this book, and next to no character development.
A decent short story, not a good novel.

I didn't expect much from this book and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a film noir in writing that resulted in a somewhat stunted writing style but Niles pulls it off in great fashion. Poor character development, except the protagonist Cal McDonald, stunts the book as does the rather short length. Cal McDonald should have his own series as his character is rather interesting to follow and one cannot help but love him. Even if he is a junkie and an ex-cop.

I first read "Savage Membrane," back when it first came out, i'am not sure wether or not i was a sophmore or junior in high-school; regardless thats neither here nor there. Savage Membrane captivated me from the minute I started reading and even afterwards. Steve Niles has managed to create the horror genre's own Indiana Jones, Cal Mcodnald is probably my favorite character to come out in anything be it comics or books in a long time. So without giving anything away this book picks up from the start and never lets down, the only let down was finishing it and putting it on the shelf. However i encourage anyone who like this to check out all of Steve Nile's other Cal Mcdonald Mysteries.

I picked up this book because the cover image caught my eye; I bought it because the back cover described my kind of book. I wasn't dissapointed. In Savage Membrane, Niles introduces anithero Cal McDonald and sidekick Mo Lock. Cal is a poly-addict who drinks from morning to morning and induldges in pretty much any drug he can get his hands on, except heroin, he had a problem with heroin. Mo Lock, who is a Ghoul, is his faithful partner. Cal is a private investegator who has always had a knack for seeing the evil in the world. If you enjoy Anita Blake or Harry Dresden novels, you'll love this; Savage Membrane is an action packed, humorous, quick read packed full of monstors, magic, and substance (abuse).

Cal McDonald was once a cop. He has seen the dark that inhabits our world. His best friend is a ghoul. But still, most of the world refuses to believe in the creatures that walk among them. Now Cal has been called by an old cop buddy to look into some very strange happenings. Bodies are starting to turn up. Bodies where the brain is completely missing with no signs as to how they were removed.

The case reminds Cal of an old case that should be closed. Could something similar be happening again all these years later? The search for the answers will take Cal to the scene of the previous case and ultimately to the sewers and other tunnels under the city. There he will have his final confrontation with this new horror.

Cal McDonald is an interesting character. He is rare in that he believes the evidence of his own senses. At the start of the book the tone is similar to a classic hard-boiled detective tale but it quickly develops its own flavor and style. I had fun reading this one and look forward to the next one.

Cal gets called in to help, when, for the second time, dead bodies are found with the brain completely missing, taken out clean.

To him, this is very familiar. So he and Mo'lock have to investigate, and he has to fortify himself with enough substance abuse to prevent his own brain from being removed.

Cal McDonald is Humphrey Bogart's classic noir detectives without the sense of decency. He's a hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, anti-authority dick... private dick, that is. Oh, and he also has the ability to see the supernatural for what it truly is.

Equal parts Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Maltese Falcon, "Savage Membrane" is an odd case with a memorable cast of characters, including Moloch, Cal's faithful ghoul sidekick. This isn't for the Goosebumps crowd, however, as much of the material contains drug use, foul language, and just sick nastiness (pedophiles ordering custom-made Frankenchildren, for example).

Not being particularly squeamish, I loved it, and would highly recommend it to fans of Garth Ennis, Robert Kirkman, or Chuck Palahniuk.

My only complaint, and it's somewhat of a big one, is that this book is poorly edited with a capital POOR. There's seemingly at least one typo on every page and it can sometimes pull you out of the story, which is a bummer. Someone should've cleaned this thing up before it hit the printer, but for all I know, it's the printer who's at fault. Whoever it is that's to blame, Moloch should pull out his kidneys.