LIAR'S PARADISE

In a world where superheroes roam freely among humans, a man tries to avenge the death of his wife.

Hartman (When Santa Came to Town, 2014) and Bedford set their novel in the fictional town of Liar’s Paradise, where superheroes and supervillains roam the streets. Unfortunately, the Cadet, the town’s most prominent hero, abuses his powers by sleeping with adoring women, even going so far as to stage accidents from which he can then rescue them. None of this really matters much to the novel’s hero, reformed criminal Lex Tennessee, who is mostly focused on his new legitimate job and his beloved wife, Peggy. However, this changes when Peggy has an affair with the Cadet and is then killed in a mysterious accident. When he realizes the truth about the Cadet, Lex dedicates himself to finding the hero’s weakness and avenging his wife’s death, with a little help from some former supervillains. This universe is an intriguing one where heroes and villains are part of the fabric of everyday life—and where the line between hero and villain is sometimes thinner than expected. The story is built on a fantastic idea that has shades of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic graphic novel Watchmen, albeit without such darkness. Readers might wish for a little more fleshing out of this novel’s world: How long have superheroes been a part of the life of Liar’s Paradise? Are there other heroes waiting to take the Cadet’s place? Answers to these questions and others would have helped to develop a fuller, richer world for the story to inhabit. Instead, it’s mostly swagger and violence as people shout lines like “Show’s over, asshole!” The characters are also rather thinly drawn, especially the females; from saintly Peggy to sexy but villainous Airy Phantom, they don’t quite leap off the page as fully three-dimensional figures. It seems clear that Hartman and Bedford are planning to expand this novel into a series. More careful development of the people and their motivations—instead of relying too much on cartoonish dialogue and action sequences—might serve them well.

A thin but entertaining superhero story.