Case Closed: Volume 9 by Gosho Aoyama

9/10

Case Closed is more of an older teen’s manga where high school kid Jimmy Kudo doesn’t have an ordinary spare time activity like the other kids at his school, no, he’s a detective, and in each case he is involved with, he has to be careful who he messes with.

There are several different cases for Jimmy to solve, and all are equally as tricky. Three are mentioned in the back cover, which as a manga reader knows is the other way around (it reads right to left).

Cases include the Junior Detective League having to track down the villains who have taken Amy for a ride in their car, what she doesn’t know is that they are all murderers – and they have to get to her as quick as they can. In another, a college reunion turns sour when one is found with a bullet hole in their temple, and the gun in her hand. The question is, is it suicide, or just plain murder? Birthday parties don’t always go as planned, not when they are held by a poor little rich girl, especially when she goes missing and everyone else is found dead.

Jimmy, AKA Conan has his own three man army who help him along with his investigations, and he is very rarely wrong with his analysis of each case. Gollancz manga have got some rather interesting artists and writers on board, and unlike other leading manga publishers, they aren’t afraid to go with a classic shonen manga style. The stories are gripping, have an element of humour that is endearing. As the novel states at the back, it does have realistic comic violence in it, but it is overshadowed by it being drawn in a very comical way.