RIC HOCHET VOLUME 2

"MURDER IN THE GARDENS"
Writer: Zidrou | Artist: Van Liemt | Colorist: Cerminaro

Our next Ric Hochet adventure finds the intrepid reporter investigating a government blackmail scheme (called the "High Ground" by Ric and his editor). While attempting to meet an informant, he is instead attacked by a hit man calling himself the Nyctalope (because he suffers from the confition of Nyctalopia, allowing him to see in the dark). Ric's arm is sprained and he spends the rest of the story in a cast and sling, with Commissoner Bourdon's niece, Nadine, driving him around.

Ric's investigation is interrupted when he gets involved in a new story -- three men, one a senator, have recently died in the Luxembourg Gardens park, and all the deaths occurred immediately after the men were seen kissing a mystery woman in red. When a fourth such incident happens while Ric, Bourdon, and Nadine at at the park investigating, Ric gives chase -- but the woman in red escapes when she shouts out that Ric is a pervert trying to force himself on her.

Ric is subseqently removed from the High Ground case and told to cover the assassinations instead. He has another run-in with the Nyctalope which results in him obtaining the file he was originally after when the story started -- but that file is soon stolen from the new reporter on the case, Bob Drummond. Meanwhile, Ric's investigation leads him to a radical left-wing newpaper called Madmen, whose founder died under mysterious circumstances in the park a year earlier. Ric interviews the other three members of the Madmen staff (while Nadine comically smokes the joint they've offered her, coughing periodically in the background). Not long after, Commissioner Bourdon fills Luxembourg Gardens with undercover cops. When the murderess in red strikes again, claiming another victim -- and kissing Ric as well in the process -- she attempts escape, but multiple women on their way out of the park are arrested.

This leads to an unconventional police lineup, where Ric kisses four women to try and figure out which is the killer. He names one, who turns out to be a police plant, and the others are let free. But Ric knows he was wrong, and knows the real killer was in the lineup. Realizing she is Cheryl, a member of the Madmen staff, he trails her to thepaper's office and then calls to invite her to a meeting in the park. There, the girl explain to Ric that Madmen's founder had cracked a story of government corruption involving French nuclear tests years earlier, and was killed to keep the story unrevealed. So the Madmen staff have been bumping off officials involved in the cover-up. Then, with her story told, Cheryl takes her own life.

Later, when Ric has his cast removed, he finds that Cheryl slipped a key inside it at one point, which opens a locker containing the "Blue Jerboa" file on the nuclear test. Ric presents the file to his editor as compensation for the loss of the High Ground file.

And that's... it? I mean, the main story, the woman in red, is resolved and concluded. But we never see the Nyctalope again, and there's no further development of the High Ground. I'm assuming Zidrou and Van Liemt intend to continue that story in a subsequent volume (though there's only one remaining in English -- and possibly at all, as far as I've been able to tell), but it just seems odd. I guess I'm unused to seeing continuing plotlines in these European album-style comics, unless the series in question is explicitly serialized, continuing from volume to volume, which RIC HOCHET didn't seem to be.

There's also a weird moment at the end, when Ric gives the Blue Jerboa file to his boss, where he says, "In case another 'break-in' should deprive La Rafale of a major scoop, I took the precaution making a few copies of the 'Blue Jerboa' file!" Is he accusing his editor of smashing poor Bob Drummond over the head with a heavy object and taking the file? I mean, the guy does state that La Rafale isn't in the business of writing about government conspiracies and the like, but still. This seems like a weird little exchange. I suppose it would make more sense if I had read the older RIC HOCHET stories -- like, maybe the editor is known for being a little corrupt or something -- but he comes across fairly normal here.

Otherwise, I don't have a lot to say about this one. So far, Ric Hochet doesn't blow me away, but it's a weird situation: I like the characters a lot. Ric is great, Nadine is a lot of fun, and the other supporting cast members are fine. And last week's story was quite good. But this one, while starting off promising, kind of limps to a finish. It could be due to the fact that I've never been big on stories about government cover-ups and conspiracies. They just aren't my thing. But more than that, there's something missing from this one, which I can't quite explain. It could be that Ric never feels like he's in any real danger outside of the opening scene, or it could be that the mystery just didn't capture my imagination.

But in any case, there's one volume left, and I'm hopeful it will close things out on a high note. Stand by to find out next Friday!