{"id":555,"date":"2010-11-28T14:48:46","date_gmt":"2010-11-28T14:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/theculture\/2010\/11\/28\/a-sickness-in-the-family-2010\/"},"modified":"2012-10-03T01:58:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T01:58:36","slug":"a-sickness-in-the-family-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/theculture\/2010\/11\/28\/a-sickness-in-the-family-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sickness in the Family (2010)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This book is the latest in the Vertigo Crime line \u2013 a series of small format, black and white, original hardback books. It was written by Scottish crime fiction author Denise Mina<\/a> who previously wrote Hellblazer for a year (collected in Empathy is the Enemy<\/span><\/a> and The Red Right Hand<\/span><\/a>). There are about 10 of these now \u2013 some by established comic book writers but others, like this one, that are by writers new to comics.<\/p>\n

Set in Glasgow, a Polish immigrant is murdered at Christmas by her abusive partner in the flat below the Usher family. Ted Usher decides to buy the flat below and combine it with the upper flat to recreate the town house of old. When the floor is taken up to allow for the installation of a staircase, the grandmother, Martha, has a stroke and falls down the hole leaving her bedridden and unable to speak. Abandoned in the lower flat by everyone except Ted\u2019s adopted son, Sam, tensions rise within the Usher family which is falling apart due to the secrets and lies within it. When the members of the family start to die they each blame the other but could, as Sam believes, a curse have been released from a witch burned on that spot in the 16th century.<\/p>\n

This is only the second Vertigo Crime book that I have read \u2013 the first was also coincidentally by a Scottish crime writer (Ian Rankin) and featured John Constantine. Mina sticks to the classic murder mystery formula with plenty of slow reveals of characters and twists in their fate but also throwing in a possible supernatural element. So there are plenty of red herrings and motives around for the deaths and unexplained happenings when they start to occur. The story is good without being exceptional and the art by Antonio Fuso<\/a> is very nice indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book is the latest in the Vertigo Crime line \u2013 a series of small format, black and white, original hardback books. It was written by Scottish crime fiction author Denise Mina who previously wrote Hellblazer for a year (collected in Empathy is the Enemy and The Red Right Hand)…. Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[141,140,139,138],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comics","tag-a-sickness-in-the-family","tag-antonio-fuso","tag-denise-mina","tag-vertigo-crime"],"yoast_head":"\nA Sickness in the Family (2010) - The Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/theculture\/2010\/11\/28\/a-sickness-in-the-family-2010\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Sickness in the Family (2010) - The Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This book is the latest in the Vertigo Crime line \u2013 a series of small format, black and white, original hardback books. It was written by Scottish crime fiction author Denise Mina who previously wrote Hellblazer for a year (collected in Empathy is the Enemy and The Red Right Hand).... 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