Grandville Bete Noire
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
The third volume of the Grandville series - Anthropomorphic steampunk detective fiction from graphic novel master Bryan Talbot
The Badger is back! Follow the Badger!
At Toad Hall, lair of multibillionaire Baron Aristotle Krapaud, a cabal of industrialists and fat cats plot the violent overthrow of the French state. Meanwhile, the brutal murder of a famous Parisian artist is subject to the investigations of the tenacious Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard, placing him and his faithful adjunct, Detective Sergeant Roderick Ratzi, in pursuit of the mysterious masked assassin stalking the cut-throat commercial world of the Grandville art scene.
As the body count mounts and events spiral exponentially out of control, aided by his brilliant deductive abilities and innate ferocity, LeBrock battles against outrageous odds in this funny, high octane thriller, an adventure shot through with both high art and comic book references, a glorious illegitimate offspring of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming - with animals!
'The bastard child of Conan Doyle and Beatrix Potter, it’s a gripping feast for the eyes' Observer
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Talbot (Dotter of Her Father's Eyes) returns to anthropomorphic intrigue in his third tale of steampunk murders and the British badger who solves them. The nefarious toad Krapaud, a rich industrialist threatened by the socialist government of the former French Empire, is scheming with other members of the wealthy elite to take over Paris through the use of violent automatons. Luckily for Paris, Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard has been asked to consult on a related murder case. With his uncouth manners and his tendency to solve problems with violence, LeBrock is an unsophisticated but dependable hero who surrounds himself with an equally capable love interest. Subplots involving a human rights campaign seem like a tongue-in-cheek way to keep the anthropomorphic animal heroes from being taken too seriously, and Talbot's stylized illustrations feature lampoons on familiar children's book characters (the villain is a post Hell Mr. Toad). While the element of humor is woven throughout, the characters have deep concerns, particularly LeBrock, whose soul-searching about how he can protect the people he cares about gives a soft side to an otherwise rough-and-tumble sort of hero.
