by Lorie Lewis Ham
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When I decided to start reviewing mystery manga for KRL published by Yen Press, I expected most of them to be set in Japan like the majority of the other manga I read, but so far that has not been the case. Lost Lad in London by Shima Shinya is actually set in London, as you would suspect from the title. And this one is a bit more of a traditional mystery than some of the other manga that I have reviewed lately.
Amazon description: The whole of London is shocked when the mayor is found dead on an Underground train, but perhaps none more than university student Al Adley. Though he took the Tube at the time of the fatal stabbing, he doesn’t remember seeing anything unusual—certainly nothing to explain how a bloody knife found its way into his pocket that night. However, in spite of this damning evidence, Detective Ellis believes Al’s claims of innocence. Now the two must work together to conceal Al’s involvement and clear his name in the face of shadowy forces working to see Al take the fall for a crime he didn’t commit…
I sped through this intriguing story, hoping to get some answers by the end of Vol 1, but with a manga I should have known better—I can’t wait to get my hands on the rest of the volumes to find out who the killer is. An interesting twist to this story is Detective Ellis’ obsession with finding the truth, even if it means hiding some evidence from his superiors until he does. This obsession seems to come from a past investigation where he feels that he was responsible for sending the wrong person to jail. He is determined not to let that happen again. Ellis is in pretty bad shape physically in this Vol and I hope the remaining volumes provide some insight into what happened to him.
The artwork isn’t my favorite and at times it can be a little hard to tell some of the characters apart, but there is no mistaking Ellis. The story itself makes Lost Lad in London very worth reading and I can’t wait to find out what happens next! Vol 2 also came out in 2022 and Vol 3 came out in early 2023 and I believe it may be the final volume. I can’t wait to read them both! If you love a good mystery, I highly recommend Lost Lad London.
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