This mini-series from Dark Horse has the tag: "From The World of Hellboy." I've never read a Hellboy comic, I've never watched a Hellboy movie, and I've never had any interest in the character whatsoever. However, when a comic series touts itself as a mystery with a female detective as the lead character, then it's a pretty sure bet I'm going to pick it up and give it a try. The supernatural element to the mystery is simply icing on the cake! Now, I am not really familiar with the writer (Chris Roberson) or the artists (Leila Del Duca and Michelle Madsen), but I will say they really knocked this one out of the ballpark as far as storytelling and visuals go.
The House of Lost Horizons mixes a couple of standard mystery tropes - a group of people stranded on a remote island in a spooky house and a murder that takes place in a locked room at a time when everyone else was accounted for. The year is 1926, and our protagonist, Sarah Jewell, has been called to the small San Juan Island off the coast of Washington state at the bequest of her friend, Lilian Makepeace Whelstone's lawyer. Sarah and her friend, Marie-Therese LaFleur, find themselves smack dab in the middle of a murder mystery upon their arrival. It seems that upon the death of Lilian's husband, she set about to auction off all of the occult items her husband had collected over the years. A number of guests had come to the island to bid on the items, and the previous night, the lawyer, Mr. Severin, had locked himself in his room to continue going over the catalogue of items. That morning, he was found dead in his room, and no one can figure out what happened. Sarah and Marie-Therese immediately set about to find out just who killed the lawyer and why.
Roberson provides a number of suspects: (1) Madam Saito, the relatively quiet woman from Japan; (2) Herr Konrad Eckart, a secretive man from Germany; (3) Reginald MacKerrell, a proxy for Rupert Zinco; (4) Marion Loveland, a self-proclaimed spiritualist there to bid on behalf of Alden Albert Kern; (5) Mr. Huang, a respectful businessman from San Francisco; and (6) Dr. John Caliban, a man who is not a typical doctor at all. There's also Mrs. Li, who is the Whelstone's housekeeper and companion for the widow, Lilian Whelstone. And, of course, there is Lilian herself, who has never been comfortable in that great house, with all the occult items that her husband has placed so carefully throughout the house. By the end of the first issue, though, one of the suspects is scratched off the list when Sarah and Marie-Therese discover the body of Herr Eckart in his room - drained of all life, with just a husk left lying on the floor!
The next four issues follow Sarah and Marie-Therese as they question the house guests and try to uncover the truth about what is going on. Of course, when another dead body turns up, the two female sleuths realize they must hurry before the killer strikes again! But it seems each of the guests harbors a secret or two, and they all appear to be at the house for reasons other than just the auction of the occult items. I thoroughly enjoyed reading as Sarah and Marie-Therese followed their own instincts and followed various suspects, interrogating them, and ultimately discovering that only two people in the whole cast are actually who they claim to be! And, of course, the ultimate discover of the hidden passages in the walls and the surprising secret of who was really behind the murders was just as thrilling, if not more so! Up until the last issue, the reader is left wondering whether it truly is something supernatural behind the murders, or if it is someone wanting to make it appear supernatural - well, that last issue unleashes all the horrors that come with discovering the truth, and it's a mad dash for safety for our two intrepid sleuths as the walls literally come crashing down around them.
The art by Del Duca and Madsen reminds me very much of Guy Davis' art from DC's old Sandman Mystery Theater series published under their Vertigo imprint. The style very much fits the story and the time period (1926), and the colors certainly set the mood. I also enjoyed the fact that neither Sarah nor Marie-Therese are your standard female leads in comics - neither of them are overly-proportioned (as many male artists tend to do with their females), and there are no unnecessary and gratuitous panels showcasing either woman's "assets." They are drawn as normal women (one slightly overweight, the other tall and thin), which allows the readers to appreciate the women for their knowledge, skills, and talents rather than looking at them as simply sex objects.
I do hope Dark Horse will allow Roberson, Del Duca and Madsen to tell more stories from Sarah Jewell's treasure-trove of mysteries, as I absolutely enjoyed this one and want to see more!
RATING: 10 golden crane tattoos out of 10 for a well-written, superbly drawn mystery comic with two superb female detectives that deserve many more stories to be told!
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