{"id":34776,"date":"2026-01-19T17:07:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34776"},"modified":"2026-01-19T17:07:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:07:06","slug":"who-killed-nessie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/01\/19\/who-killed-nessie\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Killed Nessie?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Paul Cornell & Rachael Smith<\/strong> (Avery Hill Publishing)
\nISBN: 978-1-917355-23-0 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

The world is not as you imagine.<\/p>\n

Actually, it probably is and the cosy creepy mystery that unfolds here will happily confirm it for you. It\u2019s worth a shot, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

The hospitality industry has been through some tough times lately and generally tries extra hard to keep even the most difficult of customers happy. That\u2019s especially true of repeat gigs, as new hire Lindsay Grockle<\/em> discovers when she\u2019s left in sole charge of the Lakeside Hotel near Turoga, Wisconsin. She\u2019s three weeks on the job and the entire staff have entrusted her with running, supervising and accommodating an annual convention. Apparently they\u2019re lovely but a bit weird and she should expect a lot of strange appearances and pretty intense cosplay…<\/p>\n

Prepped but nervous, the hordes arrive (57 guests actually!) and settle in. As she was warned Lindsay learns they take their role-playing really seriously. At least it\u2019s all familiar stuff – monsters, cryptids, fairies, legendary beasts and the like – giving Grockle time to stew in what went wrong in her recent bust-up and ponder what life\u2019s all about…<\/p>\n

Sadly, things go south on the first night after a great deal of alcohol has been consumed all around. Awakened by a very upset but remarkably poised and composed talking cat (The Beast of Bodmin Moor <\/em>or \u201cBob\u201d <\/em>to you) Lyndsay is informed that one of the guests – The Loch Ness Monster<\/em> – has been murdered… and, by the way, all the guests are actual magic-infused monsters, fairies, legendary beasts and the like…
\n\"\"
\nOnce she\u2019s properly convinced that she\u2019s awake and it\u2019s all happening, Grockle grudgingly takes on the job of finding the killer: trudging through bizarre relationships, outr\u00e9 politics, wild historical grudges and all the traditional tawdriness that comes with a domestic killing as opposed to (say) slaying a dragon or facing a gorgon…<\/p>\n

Depressed and overwhelmed, Grockle persists against a wall of weird mis- and dis-information: probing, interviewing, crosschecking and visiting the underworld to question the victim (a rare perk in most murder cases); and slowly a pattern forms. Hopefully she can resolve it before the regular staff turn up on Monday morning and before the next murder attempt succeeds…<\/p>\n

Crafted by multi award-winning wordsmith Paul Cornell (screen, podcast, prose and comics pages) who has crafted tales of everything from Doctor Who<\/strong> to Sherlock Holmes<\/strong> and Batman<\/strong> to Wolverine<\/strong> – as well as his many self-originated series and star, this fabulously wry and charming chiller is rendered by equally award-winning illustrator Rachael Smith, whose other delights include NAP COMIX<\/strong>, Doctor Who<\/strong>, Wired Up Wrong<\/strong>, Quarantine Comix <\/strong>and Isabella & Blodwen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Beguiling, subversive, intensely absorbing and delightfully full-on and off-kilter, Who Killed Nessie?<\/strong> is a smart and witty foray of froth and fantasy no one with dreams and wishes still to enjoy should miss.
\n\u00a9 Paul Cornell, Rachael Smith, 2025. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1932 was born everyman Jack Caprio<\/strong>; writer, agent, artist, editor of Creator\u2019s Syndicate and Vice President of the National Cartoonists Society. One thing he didn\u2019t do was create Herg\u00e9<\/strong>\u2019s Jo, Zette and Jocko<\/em><\/strong> which launched today in 1936.<\/p>\n

In 1948 Joe<\/strong> (E-Man<\/strong>, Dick Tracy<\/strong>, Scooby Doo<\/strong>, everything<\/strong>) Staton<\/strong> was born, just like Tom<\/strong> (Swamp Thing<\/strong>, Prince Valiant<\/strong>) Yeates<\/strong> in 1955. Ella Cinders<\/strong> cartoonist Charles Plumb<\/strong> died in 1982, and we lost George Woodbridge<\/strong> (Mad Magazine<\/strong>) in 2004 as well as Dutch cartoonist Jan Kruis<\/strong> (Jan, Jans en de Kinderen<\/em><\/strong>\/Jack, Jacky and the Juniors<\/strong>) in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paul Cornell & Rachael Smith (Avery Hill Publishing) ISBN: 978-1-917355-23-0 (TPB\/Digital edition) The world is not as you imagine. Actually, it probably is and the cosy creepy mystery that unfolds here will happily confirm it for you. It\u2019s worth a shot, isn\u2019t it? The hospitality industry has been through some tough times lately and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Who Killed Nessie?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,75,239,102,125,225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-british","category-crime-comics","category-drama","category-fantasy","category-humour","category-mystery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-92U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34779,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34776\/revisions\/34779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}