Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry

A Mystery graphic novel set in gloomy 1940s London, PI Fernández Britten is known as the Heartbreaker. He's the one who follows cheating spouses and delivers news that ruins marriages. He's so tired of the life that he states dramatically that he won't get up for anything less than a murder. But when Charlotte Maughton, the daughter of children's publishing magnate Maurice Maughton, hires him to look into the alleged suicide of her fiancé, Berni Kudos, Britten glumly takes the case.

With his trusty sidekick and confident, Stewart Brulightly—who just happens to be a teabag (Brulightly provides the comedic layer needed to prevent the story from bogging down with the gloom) —Britten begins sniffing around Kudos's job at Maughton Publishing, keeping in mind Charlotte's suspicion that her fiancé's death could be tied to a blackmailing scheme aimed at her powerful father. The deeper Britten digs, the more mired he becomes in a pit of long-festering family secrets. For a man who's made his living telling the truth, Britten begins to realize that there are some instances when it's best to stay quiet.

On the surface this appears to be a gloomy graphic novel but then the subtle nuances come to light. It is illustrated with dark washes of sepia, blue and grey that give backdrop to the gloom and disappointment and sadness that sets the stage for the story. It's a bit refreshing to read a story that you just know is not going to end well but doesn't wallow in the muck plus the mystery is not apparent on who done it and was a surprise even to the end. Not a GN to read lightly.