Where Is Kiki? follow crime fighting authors Mop and Monkus, two men who get involved in mysteries, solve them, and turn their adventures into best selling books. Their latest adventure sees them discovering dozens of missing pieces of artwork hidden inside the home of a respected art dealer. With this dealer now in prison, the two detectives launch their latest novel, telling the public about this case. However, a couple of bizarre events happen at the book signing that send them down an ever twisting road.

The book really deals with two mysteries that are going on at the same time, one of which deals with the aftermath of catching their art dealer/thief, and his attempt to escape from prison, as well as the kidnapping of one of their friends, Kiki.

My biggest issue with this book is how these stories play out, and how the two mysteries keep butting up against each other and become a little confused. There were times that the two detectives would find a clue, or discover an important figure, but I was never sure as to which of the two stories it pertained to. This lack of explanation became even worse at the end of the book, where we learn who is behind the kidnapping of Kiki. Unless I missed something it's not explained why this person took her. Okay, it seems like they're obsessively in love with her, or something like that, but none of it is actually explained. I didn't know that there was even a connection between these two before this big reveal, and then it's wrapped up too quickly to really give it any space.

There were times too when the artwork added to this sense of confusion, as the style was at times quite messy. I didn't know if certain characters had bizarre features, such as one man who was squat, but had extremely long arms and huge hands, or if this was due to the messy, frantic style of the art. Do some of these people actually look like that? If so, there are a few people in this book who literally have no necks.

I'm sorry to say that I just didn't really get on with this book, despite really wanting to. I kept checking how many pages were left in the book because I was getting bored by things, and just wanted to get to the answers. Unfortunately, these answers either left me confused or feeling unsatisfied, and I never felt like I got a good sense of any of the characters and didn't really come to care for any of them because of this. It might appeal to fans of the series, but I wouldn't advise it for new readers like myself.

This is very entertaining story, a bit like Tin-Tin for adults. Mop and Monkus are caught up in a mystery when their friend Contessa Kiki is kidnapped. Having just engineered the capture and imprisonment of a well known business man, they now have to deal with revenge attacks, attacks from other criminals, a robot attack and the obstruction of the police. They also encounter a magic cloak.

This all combines into a high octane engaging adventure with lots of clever humour along the way. The artwork is good and the dialogue is excellent. I love entertaining comics and this one was great!

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

A Mop and Monkus Caper is an attractive multi-panel. The mystery itself is all the more entertaining in combination with the rich visuals.

Back to a graphic novel; a comic caper from Europe Comics who bring us these traditional characters from France into English.
We are introduced to Mop and Monkus bundling private detectives who don’t just solve mysteries—they write them! This gumshoe duo, beloved as Tintin or Astérix, has been a fixture of French comics for decades.
Set in the 1980’s with the backdrop of Paris the design and artwork are terrific and the characters are drawn with great skill and panache. Scenes at night are cleverly accomplished and the streets resonate with garlic and baguettes.
Mop and Monkus are an oddball partnership with varying skills but sufficient to get there in the end as they encounter the criminal underworld and struggle with crooks, they helped put in prison during previous cases. Who’s story is perhaps now showcased in a new best selling book.
The main threat of the kidnapping of Kiki is revealed at a book signing event. I love this inside look at an author’s joy/chore meeting their audience.
Overall, this is a thrilling adventure with plenty of action with the focus on fun and comedic situations. Just what a comic should be and thus it was an enjoyable read, packed with pages of light escapism.

We start with two blokes and their blonde female getaway driver helping themselves to access to a rich and famous art dealer's home, and ringing the cops, who recover no end of stolen grand masters. It turns out the two blokes are authors as well as investigators, but when their book about the crime hits the shelves it all kicks off – the daughter of the art dealer violently claims his innocence, and the driver gal gets snatched. Can our redoubtable pair trace the criminals, solve the case of the stolen art – and anything else the convoluted case demands of them?

This was an oddity for me, but not necessarily in a bad way. What we're told implies this is a part of a series of old, and that we might know the blokes (they have different names in the original French, but all their monikers were new to me), only for a forepage to give credit for the invention of Kiki, the kidnapped lass, some time in the 1960s. Oh, and it's set in the 1980s, yet came out with a copyright for last year (2019). So is this a modern revisit, or honest homage, or what? And how can it be good at all, when nine times out ten such retro relaunches of French comics suck big time?

Well, it is quite good fun, up to a point. You do have to bear with one of the burly blokes looking like a steroidal Captain Haddock, and subtlety in the artwork making some faces look as well-crafted as a golliwog. And story-wise you can certainly enjoy a good set-up until it becomes a really ungainly mash-up of your regular policier, with added invisibility cloaks, and a cross between Robocop and the "Danger, Will Robinson" skirt-chasing droid of the 60s. It has to be said that, as you can read from the above, it does dissolve into a hella mess, and without knowing what the originals were like and what this was specifically designing to do, it's not that much cop. Two and a half stars.