Savage Membrane: A Cal McDonald Mystery

    (IDW, 2002, 2004)
™ and © Idea + Design Works LLC

To call this novel a hard-boiled adventure would be like saying Picasso was a moderately influential artist. Writer Steve Niles’ urban supernatural suspense thriller pushes the limits of both the crime and horror genres that blend for a gritty, horrific story. Imagine Mickey Spillane starring in Night of the Living Dead. These eggs aren’t hard-boiled; they’re scrambled with the broken shell and served with tabasco sauce. And very well-done.

And well-done the story is. Cal McDonald is a downtrodden detective whose vices are many; cigarettes, alcohol, and an addiction to painkillers help dull his mind and body to an assortment of bad memories and ongoing injuries. By all rights, he should be dead—as dead as his undead ghoul partner, Mo’lock. In fact, the world of Cal McDonald is one where vampires, zombies, and other assorted creatures exist in the shadows. And most of the world goes about their activities, preferring to deny the existence of this shadowy underworld.

When a number of homeless people turn up dead, little is thought of it, until autopsies reveal that cause of death was the removal of their brains. Supernatural detective supreme McDonald is brought in, when a connection to an earlier series of murders (thought long-solved) is made. This leads McDonald and Mo’lock into a fraught-filled adventure where they’re repeatedly shot at, beaten up, and pursued by a trio of Frankenstein-like teen-agers.

This novel is about as gritty as they come, and Niles succeeds at telling the kind of story he tells best. Also accompanying the novel is a series of illustrations from fellow Spawn collaborator Ashley Wood, although a few more of these illustrations would have been welcomed. This is an excellent detective story, as well as a horror story, and fans of both should be pleased.

— Jim Johnson
Jump to issue:
  NotesWriterArtist
#1 (Hardcover Edition by Ben Templesmith)


Cover Price: $50.00
2 copies available from $50.00 		Steve NilesBen Templesmith