Mind the Gap #4 – Review

By: Jim McCann (story), Rodin Esquejo (art), Sonia Oback & Arif Prianto (colors)

The Story: Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf?

The Review: I can’t remember the last time a “Whodunnit?” managed to actually surprise me at the end.  I can’t even remember when one successfully kept me in the dark halfway through the story.  Most mysteries wind up being anything but because they make it so obvious who the culprit is early on.  Don’t even bother pulling the “person you least suspect” trick, because folks are so savvy nowadays, that’s the first person they suspect—and they’re usually right.

McCann cleverly turned that trick on its head by making it clear the person you least suspect deserves the status.  With Jo established as a character of confidence, McCann has the freedom to make everyone else as shady as possible, to have every opportunity to mislead and deceive you.  Astonishingly, he’s managed to do what so many mystery writers fail to do: make you suspect everyone.  No matter how hard you try, you can’t really make a snap judgment on anybody; you have dirt on all of them.