A really dark story of three men trying to stay connected when the female focus their mother and wife walked out on the family.
Men don't do the bonding thing quite so well; they get together oncea week at a shooting range and competitively fire at a target. Things are not getting any easier it seems, Dad is a Cop nearing retirement fearing a lonely time where his boys will not stay in touch. Relationships haven't gone that well for the boys; neither of them being able to sustain converations as work demands keepsthe older brother's marriage tense while the younger one doesn't believe in marriage it seems.
They men are tense each with their own issues and unable to opening say what they mean and confide in one another. Thecop trading water but dreading leaving the force; the older boy, a successful author but not such a good husband perhaps and the younger one without meaningful employment, in debt and needing to borrow larger sums of money from his sibling.
Things get very complicated very quickly when the writer get news he feared and cannot just talk to his surgeon wife. He suddenly has an epiphany; drawing on his talents to control a plot and expand his story with logic and without glaring mistakes he seeks to take control back of his life as though he was writing himself as a character in one of his books.
This has both a sense of purpose and clear thinking to control his actions but it makes him self-reliant and single minded he withdraws from the rest of his family. Citing the pressures of finishing his novel his new focus means he redefines his relationships with lasting effect.
A comic book, well illustrated but restricted in art other than the use of light and shade, No colour here just that monochromatic look of a bygone age. Little to endear itself in terms of characters as all seem to be in a state of unravelling and following narrow paths removed of choice.
Plenty of passion and carrying a stark reality of when relationships become strained. It was just long enough to enjoy but a struggle to read at times and tell characters apart in just black and white.
The lack of colour palate sets the tone but the drawing or artwork is not as stylised as say Sin City as played out in the movies; but that is comparing apples with pears. With the constraints of pen and ink the story is well defined and the absence of colour emphasises the lack of redemption evident in the story. Well worth reading but devoid of hope and reconciliation. True to its theme and title NOIR.

This graphic novel has an interesting style to it with the black and white heavy ink. This really lends itself to the gritty story. I'll recommend this one.