There was a time when thrillers were a bit short on the ground in the graphic novel medium. Now there’s loads of them, and the quality has risen dramatically.
Silence and Co is a good example. It follows a fairly well trod path for the genre, with lone assassin Alexander Maranzano working through the body count as he tries to figure out what’s going on with the people he’s working for. He starts out as a member of a Mafia family but things start getting complicated when he’s approached by Silence, a more covert criminal group, that’s large and influential enough to push even the Mafia around.
There are twists and turns galore in Benshemesh’s plot, as Maranzano uncovers secrets and plunges deeper into the cold, hard world of the professional assassin. If anything there’s too many: just as the story is settling into a flow, the rug is pulled from under us and all the pieces go scattering in whole new directions.
The illustration is well suited to the style. It’s not going to win any awards but the black and white doesn’t detract from the story and there aren’t many core characters to differentiate between.
While thriller fans will certainly get a few kicks out of this, sharper illustration could have lifted the overall quality of the book and fewer twists for twists sake might allowed for more depth in the story.
Story 4
Art 3
Overall 4