There are relatively few webcomics out there that delve into the genre of murder mystery fiction. Part of that lies with the literary nature of mystery fiction – unlike the open-ended aspects found in fantasy and science fiction, mysteries need to follow certain literary traditions, including the need for the story to end once the mystery is solved (and the story comes to a natural end). This can be problematic for cartoonists as a lot of time and effort is invested in the characters and world that the comic takes place in. While a number of mystery stories are episodic in nature, few comics embrace the short-story format that is often found in this genre. Fortunately, cartoonists can dabble in this genre with a occasional storyline even if the comic as a whole focuses on a different genre. Darken is an excellent example of this, with its most recent storyline proving to be a stealth-whodunit murder mystery, written by guest-writer Maurice Gordon and drawn by Kate Ashwin, Darken’s normal cartoonist.

The story starts out explaining how Duchess Jill ended up the owner of the finishing school, St. Leon Academy, beginning with Jill working at the school as a teacher. Interestingly, the roots for this story were planted over a year ago with Jill’s interest in teaching street urchins and the like to become the next generation of nobility and politicians. When we first met Jill early on in Darken’s storyline, she was described as a femme fatale, who had married a number of rich husbands, only for each husband to die under mysterious circumstances. Naturally, the story of the twin brothers who own St. Leon Academy takes a similar murderous turn. On the surface, the story of Edward and Richard Danderby could appear to be a simple case of sibling rivalry and jealousy gone horribly awry, as we learn of the fight between Edward and Richard and of the deaths of each.

Unfortunately, one key element was forgotten in telling the story; Jill’s revelation that both men were “mysteriously murdered.” It was this lack of prior revelation that led me to call it a “stealth” whodunit mystery, as all we knew was that Jill had acquired the school… not how. It is Jill’s own admission that both men were murdered that even hints at her own involvement, and leaves the reader scrambling to decide who killed who, and when. Likewise, we are only given hints of the romance between Edward and Jill, with the revelation that she was married to Edward just scant weeks after they’d met being revealed by the Sergeant inspecting the deaths. Despite these omissions, the storyline reads quite well and is an enjoyable and short glimpse at the mystery short stories that were popular a century ago.