Secret Messages

(NBM)
™ and © NBM

A former FBI agent is haunted by the memory of a would-be assassin. Now, a private investigator, detective Phil Housley, is hired to track down a missing attorney. Meanwhile, an eccentric comic-book artist is mysteriously murdered. And all of these events are connected by hidden conspiracies about alien abductions.

Secret Messages is a sequel to Michael Cherkas and Larry Hancock’s original 1980s Silent Invasion series. And, if there is any aspect of paranoia not thrown into this suspenseful story, the reader would be hard-pressed to find it. With a story set in 1965, itself a time where theories of suspected conspiracies were plentiful, readers just might find themselves looking over their shoulders or peeking out from behind the curtains when they’re finished. Everything from flying saucers (that no one seems to notice) to the guy in the baseball cap who keeps showing up everywhere conveys a sense of fear that’s not quite tangible, but there, nonetheless. Say, what’s up with the backward glance from that woman outside the diner, anyway?

The simple, thick-lined art might hamper the enjoyment of the story for some, though. And readers should be warned that this is essentially a reprint of Caliber’s 1998 series Silent Invasion: Abductions. But NBM was smart to give this series another shot, and fans of X-Files and JFK who missed this the first time around will want to have a look now.

— Jim Johnson

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