Tyler Cross: Angola

Nury and Brüno (Tyler Cross: Black Rock) return to their noirish antihero Tyler Cross in this ongoing European import series. In 1947, professional criminal Cross ends up on the wrong end of a supposedly risk-free job and finds himself a prisoner in Louisiana’s Angola State Farms. The festering hellhole is mercilessly dictated over by sadistic warden Captain Kroeker and his small army of brutal guards, bolstered by a quartet of man-eating attack dogs (“Anyone thinking about running... me and my babies love hunting”). The inmates’ days are a back-breaking tapestry of chain gang slave labor, where the slightest infraction results in torturous beatings and sometimes outright murder. Tough guy Cross stands a better chance than most, but among the inmates are Sicilian mafiosi whose boss has a hit out on him for a mysterious past betrayal. While enduring ongoing trials (and many plot twists, including the prisoners’ sexual exploitation by the warden’s wife) with taciturn grit, Cross begins to plot an escape, made seemingly impossible by the prison’s remote location. Nury and Brüno deliver a taut script and stark, moody artwork rendered in black, blue, and searchlight yellows. As intricately woven as the first installment, this brutal, cool series remains recommended reading for crime thriller enthusiasts. [em](Mar.) [/em]