Clue

 Clue (2018) by Paul Allor

A little further down that internet rabbit hole, I found another graphic novel based on the classic board game and a very meta presentation of the story. This adaptation adds a few characters including our narrator, the butler Upton, as well as one more colorful suspect (Dr. Orchid) and two colorful detectives (Ochre & Amarillo). Upton continually breaks the fourth wall--addressing not only the reader, but also the writer and the editor. In some ways it is an intriguing concept, but his recurring complaints about flashback scenes did get old very quickly.

The story line based on Big Pharma and all its various links to government, military, etc. was interesting and very topical. But it didn't really grip me. And, I'm afraid I'm a bit old-fashioned, but the whole idea of Clue (the game) was that it was based on those nice, tidy little country house mysteries of the 1930s and 1940s. There is just a bit too much gratuitous graphic violence going on here. I understand what the writer was going for in the last few pages...but it doesn't mean I found it satisfying. This, like the previous graphic novel, was a fairly decent read, but not quite what I was hoping for. I would appreciate a really clever twist on the country house mystery in comic form...After reading two graphic novels, I'm still looking. ★★★

First line: Ominous. You may think our guests stupid, or even daft, to venture out on a night like this.

Last line: After all...I did say NO witnesses.

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Deaths = 10 (one shot; three hit on head; four stabbed; two fell from height)