Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Resident Alien: The Sam Hain Mystery by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse

 

(pb; 2015: graphic novel, collecting issues 0-3 of Resident Alien Volume 3 of the six-volume Resident Alien graphic novel series, published by Dark Horse Comics.)

From the back cover

“Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle is actually a stranded alien explorer hiding out in a sleepy town in the Pacific Northwest. His short time as a doctor in Patience, Washington, has kept him busy solving mysteries, though. With a few successes under his belt. Harry tackles another one after the contents of an old briefcase hint that a murderer could be hiding in town in plain sight-using an alias!”

 

Review

The intriguing, fun, character-interesting charm of the two previous Resident Alien graphic novels is in evidence in the third volume, where Vanderspiegle’s black-suited pursuers─thus far unknown to him─get closer to locating him, and his interest in a local 1960s men’s-adventure action writer (the cleverly named Rex Monday) leads him to dig into a possible long-ago murder mystery when an unpublished manuscript lands in his possession. This is a nice, well-foreshadowed continuation of The Suicide Blonde (when he discovered the writer’s books), with a finish that promises more relatively quiet excitement to come. Followed by Resident Alien: The Man with No Name.

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