Detective Jermain (Detective Jermain Series #1) » (Graphic Novel)

MISAKO ROCKS! is the creator of Biker Girl and Rock and Roll Love. A self-taught artist from a family of law-enforcement officials,Misako moved to the United States from Japan as a teenager. She now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Jermain, the sixteen-year-old daughter of famous detective parents, can’t stop playing detective herself and nosing into other people’s business. When she realizes that some of the students and teachers at school are acting very strange, she has to solve the mystery!

Jermaine’s friends Andy, a shy but cute computer geek, and Travis, a popular heartbreaker, are her partners in detection—and they both have feelings for her. Between the dangers at school and this unexpected love triangle, what will Jermain do?

This is the first in a new series by Misako Rocks!

VOYA

When Jermain was seven years old, her famous detective father was murdered. Raised by her mother to be strong and ambitious, Jermain is now seventeen and a hardheaded amateur detective. After the deaths of a teacher and a student, Jermain begins to notice strange behavior at school among certain students and staff. She ropes her best friends Andy and Travis into helping her find out what is causing the zombie-like behavior at their school. In addition to solving the mystery, Jermain grapples with pressure to decide where she will go to college and what she will do with her future. When both Andy and Travis complicate matters even further by admitting their feelings to Jermain, she finds it difficult to stay focused on the increasingly puzzling situation at school. The appealing manga-style art will attract fans of the genre, and the format, which varies in the number and style of panels from page to page, makes for a fast read. Unfortunately the gap-filled story leaves much to be desired. The plot, which never fully takes off, feels hastily constructed and will leave readers wondering if they missed important pieces of action, as sometimes neither the written word nor the artwork adequately flesh out the story's developments. Jermain, who initially seems spunky and strong willed, gets lost in the stiff dialogue and unpolished plot. The competing story lines distract from Jermain's potentially exciting main cause, the mystery at school, and which even ends up being trite and uninteresting. Reviewer: Amanda MacGregor