Comic Book Resources

Week of NBM Reviews - A Treasury of 20th Century Murder: Famous Players

This week-long look at NBM books finishes today with a look at Rick Geary's latest book in his Treasury of Murder series.

This time around, it is the mysterious death of Hollywood film director William Desmond Taylor in 1922.

If you've ever read one of Geary's books in this series before, you know exactly what to expect in this volume, and you'd be absolutely correct, as it is exactly like all his other works in this vein - intricate looks at horrible events of the past, done with excellent attention to research but also with a straightforward, yet compelling narrative.

Here is the cover and some sample pages...

Honestly, I really don't know what else I can say about it.

I pretty much can just say what I did in my last review of Geary's previous (also excellent) book about the Lindbergh baby...

Geary tells the story in his trademark simple style (along with his hand-lettering), although of course, he is quite attuned to depicting the dress of the day accurately, and he does wonderful work with people's facial expressions.

Geary is meticulous in his attention to the details of the case, and though it is quite complicated, he makes it fairly easy to follow.

I will allow that this case is a bit less intriguing than, say, the Lindbergh case, if only because of the relative lack of twists and turns in the case. So Geary has to look a bit more towards the overall background of the victim and the Hollywood scene at the time. Still, it's quite well done.

This is an extremely well put together historical graphic novel, and I highly recommend it.