Frank Miller reviews are the easiest thing in the world to write. You either love him or you hate him, and nothing anybody says is going to change that. I happen to think the guy’s a genius. If you know the names Cain, Chandler and Jim Thompson, you’ll love this series. Comic noir at its best. This is the first one in the series and is the story of Marv, a pathetic character who falls in love with a woman who is trying to get him to protect her. He gets too drunk and she is killed while she’s sleeping next to him before he even knows he’s supposed to protect her and is framed for the murder, and that’s where the fun begins. The rest of the book is him trying to find the killer and the men responsible for it. One thing I don’t get, and I didn’t notice this the first time I read it: why was the girl, Goldie, killed? Was it just a matter of getting mixed up with the wrong crowd? Maybe I missed it, and I guess it isn’t a crucial element, but it seems like a plot point that should have been mentioned somewhere along the way. One possible knock on this series is that the main characters in a lot of the books are really similar. They’re all strong, imposing types who kick everybody’s ass while they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing in the series. I don’t think that’s true of the guy from A Dame To Kill For, but I’ll have to read them all again to let you know.
So do I think you should buy this book? If you like Frank Miller, yes. He’s at his best when he’s writing and drawing, and that’s what he’s doing on this series. I don’t know if he’s just taking a break from this to do the Batman book or if he’s done with this series. There’s only so many stories he can tell about this city before it gets boring, so I kind of hope that he moves on. I should also mention, without giving anything away, that this book has one of the best finales ever.
