Linnea Kent gave up her job as a homicide detective to open an agency that focuses on more mundane investigations. But when she is approached about finding a missing girl, will that all go out the window? Find out in Pine & Merrimac #1 from BOOM! Studios.

PINE AND MERRIMAC #1

Writer: Kyle Starks
Artist: Fran Galán
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Jon Moisan
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: January 3, 2024

Previously in Pine and Merrimac: Linnea Kent is a former homicide detective who got tired of seeing the worst of humanity. She and her husband, a former MMA fighter, move to a smaller town and open a detective agency that works on smaller, less traumatic kinds of cases. But she never knows who their next client will be.

ANOTHER DAY IN THE DETECTIVE LIFE

Pine and Merrimac #1 opens bright and early in the morning as Parker Kent wakes his wife Linnea up with a cappuccino. He tried to cook breakfast for her, but cooking is not the forte of this former fighter. He bought her a breakfast sandwich. I love this opening. This simple little sequence tells us how close they are. Plus, it establishes that their names are not Pine and Merrimac, as we might have assumed.

Linnea fills us in with their back story. They live in Jamesport, a New England town. She grew up here. When she was a kid, her sister was kidnapped and murdered. Because of this, Linnea became a homicide detective, moved to the city, and learned how much she hated dealing with murders. She met Parker on a case. His sparring partner was murdered. She solved the case, and she and Parker fell in love. After they got married, they moved back to Jamesport and Linnea opened a detective agency on the corner of Pine and Merrimac.

That morning, their first client is Mister Powers, who wants them to prove that his wife has been cheating on him so he can divorce her and not lose money in the settlement. Since she became sober, she’s been harping at him for staying out late, that there isn’t any food in the house, etc. He is obnoxious and Linnea wastes no time telling him this. She also says that he is the one who has been cheating. She does a little Holmesian assessment of the clues that point to this and says she will gladly work for his wife. When Powers gets irate, Parker steps in and encourages him to leave.

The next person to stop by is Abigail Byrne who is irate and intoxicated. She flings feces at their window and comes in to accuse Linnea of ruining her life…by telling her husband she had cheated on him. She is mad at him, but she is also mad at Linnea. Not everyone loves the local detective.

Then a couple comes in and asks Linnea to help them find their daughter, Tabitha, a girl who looks a lot like Linnea’s sister. Parker steps into inform them that they do not take missing person cases. In Linnea’s experience, all too often they end up as murder cases. But this time she decides to take their case.

A little investigation takes them to a gas station along Tabitha’s walk home. The store has camera footage, and it captures the girl walking past. A minute later, four motorcycles go past. Two minutes later, three of the motorcycles return in the other direction. Linnea recognizes their insignia. They go to the bikers’ club house and Linnea tricks them into admitting they took her. They get defensive and threaten Linnea, and Parker steps in and beats them up until one of them tells them where they dropped the girl off.

HAUNTED BY THE PAST

I love the art of Pine and Merrimac #1. The lines are light-handed and the colors are more pastel than bold. These, in combination, lift the heaviness of the subject matter into something that, while certainly serious, does not read as grimly dark. That many of the characters have a touch of caricature in their composition also contributes to that effect. Mister Powers, for example, is short, rumpled, unshaven, and has a terrible combover. He also has the effrontery to put his feet, in boots, up on Linnea’s desk. And the visual clues she notices on him are reflected in the art, so the vigilant reader will start to suspect him.

I cannot say that Parker is a gentle giant because he can handily take on a group of bikers. The blood flows and teeth go flying in the fight. His face is fierce and intense. He is believable as a retired professional fighter. But what really makes him charming is to see the contrast in him when he is alone with Linnea. We can tell that he loves her deeply and is putty in her hands. Brains and brawn are a classic pairing for a detective tale, and they fit that mold delightfully.

BOTTOM LINE: CHARMING AND GRIPPING

Pine and Merrimac #1 is off to a solid start. Not only do we get a good feel for the engaging main characters, but we get a clean setup that connects the current case to the mystery that haunts Linnea’s past. And this was all done without slowing down the pace in the least.

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