Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees #2 [Advance Review]
Patrick Horvath continues to guide readers down his twisted rabbit hole in the latest issue of Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, as the town of Woodbrook wrestles with a brutal murder, revealed to hundreds in a macabre display. The town is on edge, as the book opens with a town hall of sorts with the sheriff, who announces there will be a curfew and encourages caution among the citizens. He is rudely interrupted by Cherry Gherkins (her informal middle name I will leave for you to discover), who is quickly established as the town bully, and a largely unsympathetic character through and through.
Sam also spends the issue doing a bit of detective work herself: namely by chatting with Bertie - the unfortunate owner of the float where the murder victim was found. He’s sporting a black eye, a gift from a certain resident that he wasn’t planning to name. Still, he shares some details with Sam about the night before the body was found - which begins to lay out some clues for attentive readers.
I enjoyed my return trip to Woodbrook, particularly because now that we’re headed into the mystery properly, I’m beginning to notice opportunities for the artist/author to drop context clues throughout the narrative. I fully expect that by the time we get to the revelation and/or plot twist, the fingerprints will be able to be seen all over these pages in hindsight.
In any case, the art continues to deliver - from the nuance in the residents faces and body language coming to terms with a gruesome murder in their small town, to the environmental details of Sam’s hardware shop, or Bertie’s backyard.
Time will tell where this unorthodox murder-mystery will take us. For now, I’m just happy to be along for the ride.
