Fog over Tolbiac Bridge

Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge: A Nestor Burma Mystery by Jacques Tardi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Nestor Burma receives a letter asking for help from a man he's never met, he is dragged into a web of mysteries, all tied to a heist twenty years earlier...

I loved the Tardi and Manchette crime books Fantagraphics put out a while back so I grabbed this during the annual Fantagraphics sale last November.

I gather this is an adaptation of a Leo Malet detective novel. Nestor Burma is a down on his luck private eye. Is there any other kind? Anyway, Burma turns over a lot of rocks, unearthing parts of his own past best left buried, and eventually finds out who killed the letter writer, along with a lot of other stuff.

Tardi's art was what brought me to this and I was not disappointed. His cartoony figures and dark, brooding, realistic backgrounds really made the story pop for me. Does it ever NOT rain in Paris? The mystery wasn't solveable but who cares. Burma's walking around the gloomy Paris streets pulled everything together.

I didn't like it quite as much as the Tardi-Manchette collaborations but Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge was a great read. Four out of five stars.

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