World Famous Comics: Deadly Beloved (Hard Case Crime)
Deadly Beloved (Hard Case Crime)
By: Max Allan Collins Publisher: Hard Case Crime Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Hard Case Crime Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 203 Publication Date: November 27, 2007
Product Description: TILL DEATH DO US PART... Marcy Addwatter killed her husband-there's no question about that. Shot him dead in the motel room where he was trysting with a blonde hooker. Shot the hooker, too. But where the cops might see an open-and-shut case, private eye Michael Tree-Ms. Michael Tree-sees a conspiracy. For Ms. Tree, digging into it could mean digging her own grave...and digging up her own murdered husband's. Based on the longest-running private-eye comic book series of all time, DEADLY BELOVED brings you an all-new adventure of the legendary Ms. Tree-the groundbreaking female P.I. who put the 'graphic' into graphic novel...
I love a MsTree It good to see Ms Tree again. Collins updated the Character for the present day. The story is from the old Ms Tree comics back in the early 80's. If You read those stories (I have) it be all too familar to have any effect for the surpise ending with her shrink. Those who have not are in for a treat. I heard rumors of putting Ms Tree comics in trade paperbacks. If so, get them, I only hope they reprint the letters pages from those issues. A quote at the time said those who love or hate the comic, all agree Ms Tree has the most lively letters pages. I only give this 3 stars since I'm familar with the source material.
Awesome Modern Pulp Still reeling from the honeymoon death of her husband, tough female PI Michael Tree is holding the Tree Agency together. It was coincidence she and her husband shared the same first name, and her latest case has her thinking too many things of late seem to be coincidences. When an attorney friend asks her to look into the circumstances surrounding his new client's reasons for murdering her husband and a hooker in a hotel room, Ms. Tree unearths an intricate scheme controlled by a mastermind. She is especially avid in her pursuit of the truth since she believes this same person orchestrated her husband's death.
This is true, modern pulp fiction, so well done I kept forgetting it was set in the present. Michael Tree is also a delightful character, a wise-cracking, tough-talking, gun-toting dame who wears a trench coat. She remorselessly finds many reasons to unload her gun on several bad guys, and seems able to bound back from all forms of adversity. I hope Collins pens more Ms. Tree mysteries soon because I'll be sure to read them.
Super Reader Ms. Tree, revisited.
To start with the end material, Collins gives an overview of how the character came into being via comic serials and issues, in a bit of a surprise - and also a tv series being declined for NYPD Blue. He mentions this is an updated take on the origin story with a few changes. The original idea for the character was apparently a bit of a gender reversal of the Mike Hammer and secretary tale.
Here, in a story told via flashbacks in a visit to her shrink, Ms. Tree details the death of her husband and partner, and an investigation a year or so later that ties into this murder.
Hard Case Crime series consistently good Max Allan Collins turns a great graphic novel into a great novel. This imprtiont is consistently publishing the best noir around.
Hard-Bitten Heroine with a Softer Side Ms. Michael Tree is a tough, yet believable heroine base on Mikey Spillane's Velda. This is an outstanding example of a mistakenly derided genre. The characters aren't as one-dimensional as some other reviewers have claimed; this is a modernized crime noir novel, not War and Peace. The language is also what readers expect from Hard Case Crime. This novel delivers the goods.
I'm impressed by the unusual plot device with Ms.Tree on the psychiatrist's couch and the action moving back and forth between her remembered experience and the present. Also impressive is the author's mastery of the female first person point of view replete with fashion references.
Even though I loved and am certainly recommending the novel, I'm deducting 1 star for the ending. It seems too phoney and contrived. Maybe the author was trying to stay with old-fashioned cliches, but I didn't like it in this fresh take on an old branch of literature.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
