THE CON ARTIST

RELEASED OUT NOW! 288 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Fred Van lente Publisher Quirk Books

This comedy murder mystery isn’t actually SF or fantasy at all, but we’re reviewing it for the very good reason that it’s set at San Diego Comic-Con. Ever since his marriage broke up, comics artist Mike Miller has been on a never-ending tour of conventions, moving from one hotel to the next. But on the Thursday night at San Diego, the editor who Mike’s wife left him for is found murdered – and Mike has no alibi.

What’s great about The Con Artist is how it doesn’t simply use Comic-Con as a colourful backdrop: yes, it’s full of nerd culture in-jokes, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Fred Van Lente (who’s written numerous comics himself ) builds the whole murder mystery out of the shady side of the comics business: creator rights, sexual harassment, the trade in original art, pros who can’t afford their own healthcare while others profit from their past work. Anyone who keenly follows these kinds of real-life sagas on the website Bleeding Cool will love it.

The intense atmosphere of being set at Comic-Con makes everything more pressurised and pushes the characters together, with Van Lente deftly moving from one suspect to the next and giving you just enough information to guess the solution. It does strain credulity in places, but, y’know, it’s nothing beyond what you might read in a comic book.