Britten and Brülightly
Starred Review. Berry's impressive graphic novel debut—published to much praise last year in Great Britain—mixes classic noir, a timeless story of love and loss and a shot of black humor with gloomy 1940s London as the perfect backdrop. PI Fernández Britten is known as the Heartbreaker: he's the one who follows cheating spouses and delivers news that ruins marriages. When glamorous Charlotte Maughton, the daughter of children's publishing magnate Maurice Maughton, hires him to look into the alleged suicide of her fiancé, Berni Kudos, Britten glumly takes the case. With his trusty sidekick, Stewart Brülightly—who just happens to be a teabag—Britten begins sniffing around Kudos's job at Maughton Publishing, keeping in mind Charlotte's suspicion that her fiancé's death could be tied to a blackmailing scheme aimed at her powerful father. The deeper Britten digs, the more mired he becomes in a pit of long-festering family secrets. For a man who's made his living telling the truth, Britten begins to realize that there are some instances when it's best to stay quiet. Gorgeously illustrated with a cartoony but expressive style, with a richly detailed story and empathetically conflicted hero, Berry's debut should be a hit.(Apr.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.