Through Lya’s Eyes v2: “In Pursuit of Justice”

Lya is so close to finding the identity of the driver whose hit and run left her in a wheelchair. But sneaking into offices is the least of her adventures in this book. She’s going full Nancy Drew with a side of spy gear. (Does that make her Veronica Mars, maybe?)

We’ll have car “chases,” breaking and entering, and stalking before this book is done.

Every turn has its twist. Read on:

Nancy Drew’s Credits

What’s Going On?

For some reason, I thought this was the concluding chapter.

It’s not.

I just wanted to set your expectations there.

When last we left Lya and friends, she had just opened up the file she interned at the law firm to get her hands on. It’s the file that, she believes, will give her the name of the man who hit her with his car and then drove away instead of helping.

Nothing’s ever that simple, though. This second volume is a series of growing complications for Lya. One thing leads to another. More sneaking around needs to be done. More mysteries pile up. Just when she thinks she’s close, she’s further away and more confused.

But she’s not one to give up easily. She’s not taking no for an answer, and she’s surrounded herself with people who can help. That keeps the plot driving forward, with no moment to rest.

The thing that surprised me the most when I finished reading this book is how tense I was. I hadn’t realized it, but Carbone and Cunha did an excellent job across more than 60 pages of story of keeping Lya in consistently precarious positions. Every page turn was an invitation to getting caught, or being surprised by someone unannounced, or some other turn in the plot that might change everything radically, or put Lya in danger.

There’s lurking around the office. There’s attempts to liberate a file from an office, and then multiple attempt to get it back that becomes so difficult that it turns into a full page gag of failed attempts.

It’s a very modern tale. If you were trying to track someone down these days, you’d use Facebook and Google and whatever Internet searches you could get. And while there’s a bit of a Facebook-like generically-named social network used in the book, Google does, indeed, get name checked. There’s one nice bit where they bait a suspect with a “sexy” friend request that’s particularly believable and smartly done.

Yet, there’s still plenty of digging through files and paperwork, where necessary. Carbone’s script accesses both the new school and old school worlds in crafting her tale, and doing so in a believable way. There’s still plenty of cell phone usage in this book, after all…

The Lineless Art of Justine Cunha

Cunha’s art, in case you haven’t noticed yet, is the kind of style we see gaining more steam these days. It’s a mix of manga and lineless Illustrator work. No black lines, just colors with the occasional outline in a slightly darker color. The panels don’t have black outlines, either, nor do the word balloons and tails. It’s consistent that way, if nothing else.

I’m curious about the process behind this style. Judging by her Instagram feed, I’d guess there’s a mix of paper sketches and digital sketches followed by some painting with a Wacom Cintiq. This is the kind of work Illustrator is made for, but it could just as easily be Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint, too.

Also, check out her character design collection on ArtStation. Cunha was discovered on-line by the book’s writer, Carbone. This is a good first effort as a comic book artist.

If you have an allergy towards manga eyes, you might want to stay away from this one. It’s a style perfectly suited for this book, though, or any Young Adult book, like something DC is putting out these days… It’s not bad, at all, though I recognize it won’t be to everyone’s taste.

Cunha tells the story well, though, and creates expressive and emotive faces. That’s all I need…

This volume still has some of the same issues as the first. The lettering loses me on multiple occasions. When there’s a verbal back-and-forth, the dialogue balloons are on opposite sides of the panel with no immediate indication of how they overlap or who speaks when.

Some tails get lost in the blown-out backgrounds. There are no black outlines on them, so there’s no way for them to stand out.

Nothing’s perfect, though, so you learn to take the good with the bad….

Predictions and Questions

Don’t read this until after you’ve read the book:

The person they’re convinced it is at the end of the book is likely not the guilty party. (Is the guy with the 5 o’clock shadow his son, and that’s who the old man is covering for? Nah…)

That mother and child in the stairway when Antoine is stealing mail are going to come back. They’re too awkwardly thrown into the scene to be nothing.

I’m still not convinced that Adele isn’t hiding something, and I have to think De Villegan isn’t entirely the evil lawyer we think he is. Something will happen to soften him up in the third book.

Or perhaps this is an even cozier mystery than I gave it credit for and the bad guy really is just plain bad, the good friend really is just good, and nobody will get hurt. That dream sequence with the gun sure stuck out like a sore thumb to me when it started in this book. This series doesn’t strike me as the gunplay and knife play sort of thing.

Also, it’s a dream sequence, so it was annoying by definition. Ugh.

Recommended?

Yes? It depends on if you’re the audience for this. I enjoyed it and will continue to read it and believe it’s an entertaining story in its own right.

I’m not exactly the target audience for it, though. If you’re 13 – 22, female, and grew up on Harry Potter and some anime series I wouldn’t recognize if you told me, you’ll probably be the target market for this book. You should definitely pick up this book if you’ve come this far with those credentials.

The book is available through Amazon (affiliate link above), Comixology, and Izneo.