Howard Norman’s Detective Levy Lauded in Kirkus Review!
Vermont private eye Jonathan Levy investigates the disappearance of a mysterious woman’s daughter in Howard Norman’s third graphic novel in a series, illustrated by Annie Bakst.
Levy begins this episode by visiting his partner Alexa Sands’ gallery collection of 22 photographs, all taken on the same day and featuring the same elegant, older woman sitting in the background; Sands has no idea who she is. By the show’s end, all the photos have sold but one of war brides arriving on a steamship in Halifax in 1938, which Sands claims isn’t her own. Levy and Sands decide to call the number on the photo and are surprisingly connected to the aforementioned older woman: “I am at the inn at Montpelier, Room 105. My name is Bettina Eldersveld. I am Dutch by birth.” It turns out that she has a case for Levy, who’s a Montpelier-based private detective: She wants to know what happened to her daughter, with whom she hasn’t had any contact in 45 years; the only clue she has is a postcard. Alongside this central mystery is the story of the developing relationship between Levy and Sands, who are engaged to be married. In this volume, Sands introduces him to another aspect of her life: séances. She won’t get married, she says, until she has approval from the spirit world. Somewhat oddly inserted into all of this is the abrupt appearance of scenes from Veronica Lake movies; it’s eventually revealed that there’s a film festival in town, and Sands feels some sort of spiritual connection with the actor. This aspect of Norman’s series entry never fully coheres with the rest of the work, and the actual detective work on display is brief to the point of lacking adequate suspense. However, there’s a soft, gentle, and playful tone to the work that will appeal to readers looking for a nontraditional detective story. Bakst’s painterly grayscale artwork is likewise low-key, with smudged edges that give most pages an expressionistic look.
A light, breezy mystery that will leave readers looking forward to the next episode.