Slippin' into Darkness
His style is unique, to be sure, but Partridge is in the same ballpark as Joe Lansdale and Ed Gorman -- bright-colored comic book imagery, embattled and flawed protagonists, and a melancholy tone that seeps in around the edges. This story is reminiscent of "Twin Peaks": a sweet, lovely high-school girl stars in a scene of sex and violence that continues to haunt her male classmates long after her death. This time, though, "Laura Palmer" gets her revenge. The prose is vivid and satisfyingly detailed, the characters are crisply delineated, and the mood is like a sad rock-n-roll song with a good backbeat.