This was an interesting story, with great accompanying illustrations, and I enjoyed the recommended listening scattered throughout the story. Nina comes to the city hoping to making it big as a musician, and quickly finds herself drawn into trying to track down and fight Nazis. WWII might be over, but the fight is still going on behind the scenes. Of course, things are rarely as they seem, and Shapiro does an excellent job of building tension while moving the plot along smoothly. Chan's illustrations really help bring the story to life, and add extra depth to the story. Curious to see where the rest of the trilogy goes! ( )

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

Queen of Kenosha is set in early 60s New York, where Nina Overstreet has come from her small town of Kenosha to pursue her dream of being a professional musician. At a gig, Nina encounters the mysterious Nick, who eventually recruits her to be part of a covert anti-Nazi operation. Initially attracted by Nick's ideals, and by the very welcome money, she soon starts to question the group's methods and comes to be seen as a liability by her colleagues.

Shapiro's plot is a good one. I thought I had it figured out pretty early, but some surprises in the ending proved me wrong. There's certainly enough intrigue going on to keep me coming back for more, but I did think there were a few aspects of the book that were less successful. Nina's conveniently advanced ability in karate is a very unlikely skill for a US small town girl in the 60s, especially one who says that music has dominated her life. When would she have had the time to learn this? I also thought the art work was a bit lacking. Some of the expressions on Nina's face at times looked, frankly, a bit dopey and out of character. The cover art shows Nina as having black hair when she has brown hair in the book, an obvious glitch that should have been easily spotted and corrected. Still, these nit-picks won't stop me from reading the second volume when it comes along. ( )

I'm a bit undecided whether I liked this one or not. It wasn't bad, but it wasnt greatly thrilling either. Maybe I've watched too many Mission Impossible episodes with a similar plot... I am curious about how the rest of the story will unfold, since this is only part one of three, and that's always a good sign. ( )

Nina Overstreet had been making a pretty good name for herself as a singer-songwriter in her hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin. But after moving to New York to try to build her career, she is struggling in the Greenwich Village folk music scene. Then one night, after a late gig, she meets Nick Ladd and she is recruited into a secretive organization fighting undercover Nazis who are trying to establish the Fourth Reich in the United States. At first, Nina is excited but eventually she must confront the fact that she is expected to compromise her ideals.

Queen of Kenosha is the first installment in the three-part graphic novel series The Thin Thinline Trilogy by Howard Shapiro. I requested the arc based on the cover and the publishers blurb. It sounded interesting. However, after reading it, I have mixed feelings. I liked the art quite a bit but the story itself…I’m undecided. I think it stretched my willing suspension just a little too much. I found Nina a tad too self-righteous – I mean, she is recruited to a shadow company and she is shocked, shocked that it is doing things outside the law to accomplish its ends including the use of extreme violence. One would have thought she would have a) received better vetting and b) better training since she was expected to walk into some pretty dangerous situations. I get it – it’s kind of an ‘if we behave the same as the bad guys, then we are no better than them’ ideology but I tend to fall squarely in the ‘if you see a Nazi, punch a Nazi’ camp. I also wondered where they could go with this in future installments – theoretically, Nina’s moral dilemma might be timely but it seems like it would make for a whole lot less action or excitement in fiction.

Still, as I said, I liked the art and the music lists before each chapter were interesting although somewhat out of time given the inclusion of bands like The Pretenders and Dire Straits – I would have thought that since Nina is supposed to be an early ‘60s folk singer, there were plenty of protest songs of the era that would have served the same purpose of introducing each section – but, okay, admittedly that’s kinda nitpicking. In the end, I did enjoy Queen of Kenosha but I’m not sure I would want to continue with the series.

2.5

Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Animal Media Group for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review ( )