Bad Medicine, Vol. 1

This thriller mixes medical procedural investigations with the paranormal, but is so packed with characters and details both scientific and supernatural that there's little space to let the tension breathe and build. Det. Joely Huffman of the NYPD is presented with a strange murder victim: a dead man with an invisible head. She needs the help of Randal Horne, an eccentric doctor who left the medical profession under haunting, dubious circumstances, as well as a support team of CDC scientists to solve the case. When Horne's recruited by the CDC to specialize in bizarre cases, he turns to Huffman for help with a death tinged with suspicions of lycanthropy in Portland, Maine. The narrative is crowded, and creates fast-moving mysteries with few twists and turns along the way and surprises that are too clearly telegraphed. The art is suitably moody and the characters rendered expressively, but it won't leave anyone sleeping with the lights on. (Jan.)