XIII Mystery: Little Jones by Henninot/Yann 7.5

Another entry in the series that explores the background of key characters in the XIII books. Even though it’s the third, and I haven’t read the second one, it doesn’t matter because these books are connected to the original series – not each other. They can also be read as stand-alone books.

Here we explore Jones as a 10-year old. It takes place in the late ’60s/early ’70s and it’s rife with socio-political stuff: we have references to Malcolm X, The Black Panthers, racial discrimination, and other good stuff.

What’s amusing about this book (and the original XIII series, to some extent)  is that real-life characters are introduced in barely-veiled ways – their names are similar, but not exactly the same, and their histories are a bit skewed (for instance, Roman Polanski’s fate here is significantly different).

But that can also be frustrating, because it feels all too convenient – all these characters and well-known people are related in some way. As a “what if” exercise, it’s fun, but as a serious tale it become all too incredible to buy into.

On a technical level, the writing and art is solid enough, even if it’s relatively standard fare for its genre. Recommended with reservations.