The Silent Partner

Enter the Detective (the collection of the first six issues of the "Ruse" series) sucked me in, and so I had to continue the adventure in this volume. Again, the setting is very similar to gaslight Victorian England and the book opens with super-genius detective Simon Archard and his assistant/partner Emma on a train, bound for the countryside. The first two chapters follow them as they try and track down Simon's archnemesis by finding some tribe of gypsies. This takes them to a strange town that is uninhabited by day, full of townspeople at night, and seething with evil. The mystery here is quite a good one, creepy and effective.The third chapter is a murder mystery which puts Archard fully on the trail of his archnemesis. The final three chapters play out their subterranean mano-a-mano battle amidst fantastically elaborate clockwork constructions, with Emma making the occaisional valuable contribution. Their struggle is interspersed with flashbacks explaining their history together, and how they came to be enemies. It's a titanic struggle that ends up unresolved, with further adventures to follow which tie back into the evil magical baroness of Enter the Detective . The story is laced with humor and plenty of witty banter between Simon and Emma.As in the first volume, the artwork is unbelievably rich and detailed, every panel is excellent, and many times unusual perspectives are given to the most mundane scene to make it interesting. The panel flow can be a bit confusing at times (a couple times I had to break stride to figure out if I was supposed to read across the both pages, or continue down the left-hand page), but it's a small price to pay for the inventive paneling. The level of detail on clothing, architecture, and interiors is just amazing, and the colors work perfectly in conjunction. Great artwork with a compelling storyline that hearkens back to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Moriarity.