Detective Gould is the most brilliant detective in the city of Red Wheelbarrow. While he hasn’t been successful in actually reducing crime, there are no unsolved cases on his watch. Lately, though, there has been a string of very odd crimes. Gould knows they’re connected in some way, but puzzling out just how is proving to be more of a challenge than he anticipated. When he discovers the truth, he finds it hits horrifyingly close to home – and reveals more about his own character than he thought possible.

Red Handed is a weird one. The story is very piecemeal, told in a non-linear way that readers may find confusing (it certainly required more close reading on my part than usual). There’s not actually much of the story told from Gould’s point of view, which was initially quite confusing for me. Kindt mainly follows the culprits of the strange crimes, who each get their own chapter. We get into their heads, but not quite far enough to really understand what’s going on. Interspersed among these small stories are conversations between Gould and a mysterious individual, plus some newspaper pages and a strange, possibly connected story about a woman. It all (mostly) fits together at the end, but getting there is a challenge.

Actually, I’d say that the way the story was told deliberately obfuscated it, contributing to the confusion of the mystery, which would certainly have been easier to understand in a more traditionally-told tale. I think that’s what Kindt was going for, though I’m not sure the technique really adds much. I mostly just found it frustrating, and whereas I’m sure others would gladly go back and re-read the book, picking up on the clues that are only understandable after the solution is revealed, I don’t have the patience to.

Red Handed reminds me a little of Hannah Berry’s Britten and Brulightly, another deliberately strange noir mystery, though Berry’s book is told in a much more straightforward way, and the art is quite different.

While I wasn’t completely sold on the way Kindt told his story, there’s certainly something to be said for experimenting. The book is an interesting study, and I think it shows the potential for creativity in the graphic format. The art in particular is worth poring over. It’s lovely in itself, but it’s also fun to puzzle out how it brings clarity (or doesn’t) to the story. The conversations between Gould and the mystery person are told in white thought bubbles on a plain black background. Other sections are sketchy but mostly realistically portrayed, while others lean more toward abstraction. It’s an interesting, attractive, and odd mix.

I’d recommend this to readers who are looking for something that will stretch them a bit, who want something different and challenging. Readers looking for their noir fix would do well to give this a shot too, as Kindt pulls off that particular tone with ease. Though this is an adult book, teens interested in graphic mysteries may also enjoy it, and there’s nothing the average parent would find objectionable.

Finished copy received from the publisher. Red Handed is available now.