Sanction #2: Bureaucratic Roadblocks

A woman is dead, and Leningrad detective Boris Dimitrovich intends to solve the mystery of her murder. Sanction #1 surrounded the case with intrigue and urgency. And now Fawkes throws up a few unconventional roadblocks in Sanction #2 that keeps the story extra interesting.

An old man holds an ax deep inside a cabin deep on the first page of Sanction #2. Then the issue cuts to the Kirov Ballet where the detective, Boris Dimitrovich, is interviewing the head of the ballet in connection with Irina, the dead woman from the first issue. The last time she was seen, Irina had borrowed a red dress from the ballet for a date with an older man who liked Scotch. It provides Boris with a vital clue before he returns to the police station on a hunt for records from past murders that he believes are connected. But before he can get permission, he learns that his wife is in danger.

Sanction’s charm isn’t so much the mystery at the heart of the series (it’s compelling, though not distinctive), but the series’ setting. The first issue set the stage in a general sense for police life in the former Soviet Union. Sanction #2 goes even deeper. Lying to inflate performance levels is an accepted practice. Arresting innocent people to close cases is commonplace. But perhaps most importantly, investigations can be slowed or stopped by complex institutional bureaucracy. In most crime fiction featuring a detective being thwarted by other police, the police getting in the way are corrupt and likely tied to the crime in some way. Here, Boris’ attempt to compare his current crime to past events is hindered by an officious record keeper who won’t permit him access without the appropriate permission. New roadblocks require new solutions, and Sanction #2 is less predictable as a result.

Humor proves to be an additional benefit of the unusual setting and its peculiarities. The monthly meeting where case closure rates are discussed features truly laughable numbers to prove that there is almost no crime in Leningrad. That scene is paid off a page later by what’s almost a punchline when Detective Smirnoff reveals that everyone’s numbers are inflated by ten points. The record keeper refusing to let Boris see basic police reports from a few years back comes across as absurd. The humor in Sanction #2 doesn’t feel intentional, and that is to its benefit.

The color scheme in Sanction #2 makes it feel oppressively cold practically from start to finish. Lecce leans primarily on light blues and grays for exteriors and all but one interior. The exception is Boris’ interview with the head of the ballet. Lecce colors her space with warmer beiges and burnt orange. The interview sequence is the most human and least procedural scene. The comparatively warmer color scheme emphasizes those qualities and firmly separates it from Sanction’s more unfeeling Soviet setting.

Fuso primarily employs harsh angles and straight lines with his characters. His style has varying success where crafting emotive characters is concerned. There are several instances when both Dimitri and Boris display a general lack of feeling. But when they do give off emotion, it is particularly intense. Indeed, the head of the ballet that Dimitri interviews is rife with feeling, by far the deepest and most authentic emotion displayed by anyone in the issue.

Sharpe’s color choices for the issue’s sound effects match Lecce’s overall color scheme. It keeps the overall visual feeling intact in those instances.