Le Der des Ders [French]

A superb hard-boiled graphic-novel thriller by celebrated French cartoonist Jacques Tardi, adapted from the Didier Daeninckx novel. Roguish investigator Eugene Varlot has been assigned to find out who is blackmailing French colonel Fantin de Larsaodiere. Is it connected with the colonel's unimpressive war record? The plot twists and turns through 1920's Paris, exposing corruption, illusion, and idealism as it leads Varlot to le der des ders. The horrors of WWI, societal corruption, and socialist ideas are major concerns of Tardi's, and he pulls them all together with his marvellous attention to period detail and superb sense of characterization.

This post-war noir is notable in that it is set post-WWI Paris, as opposed to post-WWII America. That said, it follows the classic detective novel in which a smart-alex PI is hired for what seems like a straightforward blackmail investigation, and ends up embroiled in something way bigger than him thanks to his overcuriosity. Daeninckx does a great job detailing a France reeling from the loss of a generation of young men, and seeing the first hints of American cultural influence. The PI is notable for his big American car, his American liquor and clothing as he runs around Paris trying to put the pieces together. One gets the sense it's a roundabout critique on contemporary cultural globalism. If you like this, you might want to check out Philip Kerr's March Violets, set in 1936 Berlin.