Grandville Nöel

With his trusty adjunct, Detective Sergeant Ratzi, away for Christmas, there's no holiday for Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard as he embarks on an investigation into the disappearance of his housekeeper's niece, Bunty Spall.

The trail leads to a growing religious cult, where a charismatic unicorn messiah and his con men cronies, already responsible for mass murder in the United States, are about to lead a crusade for the ethnic cleansing of the French Empire's doughfaces - the derogatory nickname for humans used by the majority, animal-headed population. Teaming up with Chance Lucas, a gun-slinging operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and reigniting his steamy love affair with the voluptuous Parisian badger prostitute Billie, LeBrock clashes with both cult fanatics and doughface terrorists, uncovering in the process a centuries-old religious conspiracy that threatens to plunge the world into bloody civil war.

Grandville Nöel signals the welcome return to anthropomorphic steampunk detective fiction of master comics storyteller, graphic novel pioneer and Costa award-winner Bryan Talbot, with the fourth stand-alone volume of the Eisner and Hugo Award-nominated Grandville series. Containing its trademark fast-paced blend of deduction, humour, artistic pastiche and explosive edge-of-the-seat action, Grandville Nöel dramatically raises the bar for the whole series. With Paris in the grip of the mysterious crime lord, Tiberius Koenig, and an increasingly violent backlash by human extremists, can LeBrock stop the seemingly inevitable slide into fascism? What is the secret of the legendary True Gospels? Can he rescue Bunty Spall from the clutches of the strangely hypnotic unicorn named Apollo? But does Bunty want to be saved? And will LeBrock be back in time for Christmas dinner?

No badger does it better!