Customer Reviews

Murder Mysteries

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I must have read Neil Gaiman's short story Murder Mysteries four or five times since I originally encountered it; It's been featured, and rightfully so, in many short story collections. It's one of Gaiman's best, most thought-provoking works, and since Gaiman is one of the best storytellers around, that's really saying something. P. Craig Russell is one of the masters of the comic book art form, and he especially excels at adaptations of fantasy, having previously done Wagner's Ring Cycle, Michael Moorcock's Elric, and numerous Oscar Wilde stories. Gaiman and Russell collaborated on what many consider to be the best issue of Gaiman's DC/Vertigo Sandman book, and Russell has adapted a few other Gaiman short stories (One Life, Furnished In Early Moorcock, and Only The End Of The World Again). Murder Mysteries stands as a high-water mark, in my opinion.

The story-within-a-story, told by a homeless man to a visiting Englishman in L.A., tells of the first murder ever: An Angel killed in "The Shining City"; Our homeless storyteller is in reality the Angel Raguel, the vengeance of "The Name" (God). Raguel becomes, in effect, the first Detective, attempting to discover a motive that can lead to bringing the killer to justice.

Gaiman's story works on many levels, and I have to say that as much as I loved the prose short story, the ending has always left me vaguely puzzled; It's a very involved and thought-provoking piece, and I often find myself thinking about the ending. Russell's adaptation went a long way towards making that ambiguous ending more clear. It turns out I was on the right track, but Russell's visuals make the ending more visceral and powerful.

Murder Mysteries is presented in a gorgeous hardcover format, much the same as Dark Horse's previous Gaiman/ John Bolton book, Harlequin Valentine. This is a must read for all fans of Horror/Fantasy, as well as lovers of beautiful art. It deserves as wide an audience as possible. Give it a try, and spread the word.

Combine Colderidge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" with Raymond Chandler and all the mystery and promise in the spaces between the words, "The world was without form and void," and you have Murder Mystery. An old man tells a story to a younger stranger in Los Angeles. The investigator of heaven is called to the scene of the very first murder, one in heaven long before Cain & Abel.

The story is divinely erotic and eloquently woven with a master's hand. The illustrations complement perfectly and entrance with their powerful delicacy. This is a must have for anyone interested in a theological or simply intriguing graphic novel.

Two of the best things that can happen to a comic are to have Gaiman write it and Russell illustrate it. The combination emerges as a wonderful, haunting story. It imagines Lucifer's fall from heaven - a baffling rebellion, unless some specific needs to be rebelled against. And, with an all-powerful god, even Lucifer's rejection of heaven must itself have been divinely ordained. This story posits wholly sufficient reason, a real theological thorn that irritates many mere mortals, and a Macchiavellian orchestration of Lucifer's departure.

This isn't bible-thumping, though. It's story-telling, the kind where elegant images set off a thoughtful, thought-provoking myth. Along the way, it reminds us that the age of myths isn't over. Our own age needs to understand itself through fiction as much as any other ever did, and Gaiman and Russell contribute to that understanding.

-- wiredweird

This book blew me away. It had all the elements of a great story and the art was spectacular. It gets me thinking, and responding to the characters, even after I put the book down.
Great work!

By the way, Neil is not the illustrator.

Once again, Neil Gaiman has reinvented the thinking man's comic book. Murder Mysteries is the tale of the world's first crime of passion. Gaiman's intelligent prose and keen eye for conversation is perfectly woven with P. Craig Russell's fabulous visual art. This story is simple enough for high school students to read, but compelling (and short) enough to steal an hour of anybody's day.

Mever before have I encountered a work in which a transfer to a different medium has so enriched it (except perhaps the book Fight Club to the movie Fight Club). This has always been one of my favorite Neil Gaiman short stories, I have read and re-read it many times in the seven or eight years since I first read it, I have made innumerable other people read it and I have discussed it repeatedly. However, Russell's illustrations brought out and made evident an entirely new facet of the story that I have never realized, what is in fact the true Murder Mystery of the title! This story has been blown wide open for me, on what must have been the dozenth or so read, and I have since forced others to revisit it and make the same revelation. This translation, this new revelation, makes further testament to Gaiman's gift as a storyteller. Russell is not, in my mind, the ideal person to have done this project, I would have gone with somebody with a darker style. Still, this is a terriffic read, even if, and especially if, like me, you have known the story for a long time. I promise, it will change the way you see it.

This is a graphic adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Murder Mysteries by P. Craig Russell. First of all, you can't go wrong with the story which is an investigation of the first murder(not Earth, the universe). Terrific art by Russell who also collaborated with Gaiman in a Sandman/Morpheus story. I recommend this to everyone, especially to the Sandman fans out there.

In Murder Mysteries, a murderer is granted an unsolicited gift, forgiveness. During a layover in Los Angeles, he visits and kills a former love interest. Upon returning to his living accommodations, the murderer meets a stranger named Raguel who--in exchange for a cigarette--recounts the tale of the first murder, a crime of passion between angels in heaven. This murder necessitated that Raguel--then an angel--be activated as the vengeance of the Lord. Upon solving the crime, he realizes that God engineered the entire debacle in order to test Lucifer, Captain of the Host. Concluding that although God is infallible he is not just, Raguel chooses to retain his memory of this incident and blesses the narrator with a patchy memory of his own crime. The realistic but simplified art of Murder Mysteries, particularly in its frame story, lends credibility to the narrative, even when it shifts into a fantastical setting. While not suitable for most secondary classrooms, it could be a pictorial introduction to the more thematically complex epic poems of John Miltion, Paradise Lost and Regained.

This is a short graphic novel, so I finished it in less than an hour. However, the story is a wondrous tale of a murder in Paradise and Raguel, the angel made to be the Lord's vengeance, is awoken to find the murderer. It involves the construction of the Universe by various angels and Raguel meeting them and Lucifer. Contrary to what people might expect, Lucifer *didn't* commit this murder.

It's wonderfully drawn and written, and told by an old man. A Brit stuck in L.A. from an unexpected stop over visits an old friend of his, then goes for a walk and offers two cigarettes and a matchbook for an old man. When he won't take money, the old man offers this tale as his payment, a tale of *his* past.

It's really short, but so rich. I kind of wished it was longer, just so I had more to read and get absorbed in, but at the same time I wouldn't want it to peter out and kind of lose its greatness.

I definitely recommend this book to Neil Gaiman fans and people who have an open mind about God and his plans.

Well, the artwork in this graphic novel isn't much, but you can depend on Gaiman for a first-rate, thoughtful, intriguing story. The narrator (presumably Gaiman) was in Los Angeles a decade ago, still young, less innocent than now, when he got together very briefly with a woman named Tinkerbell whom he had met in London. After they part, he meets an old man, a semi-bum, on the street who cadges a smoke and pays him back by telling a story, . . . about the Creation and angels and the murder of one of them, and the investigation into the case by Raguel (who is the old man, of course). But it's not as simple as that. If God made everything and controls everything, then He was ultimately responsible for the victim's death, right? And why? The recursive nature of the story is fascinating and the ending is just vague enough to make you rethink the first part of the story. A terrific piece of work.
(10/18/05)