Fatale #9 (2012)

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips offer another round in their hard-boiled series, and it is a doozy. Unexpected and depressing violence hide around each corner, as the main characters stalk a dangerous cult, who, in turn, is hunting them...with deadly secrets biding their time. What I like here are the strong characters, each with their own agenda (check), and each with their own personality (double-check), even if they only show up for a page or less...that's storytelling. What I don't like is not understanding what-just-happened, which occurred twice, while one time I got it after rereading, but the other--uh-uh. Still, a strong issue that curdles your blood in the late nights between dreams.