“Drop Dead Hands” is a romance? And she’s having that jerk’s baby? Sometimes, this collection read more like a soap opera than a hard case crime book. I mean, her stepson is in love with the enemy’s daughter! How very Shakespearean. Just not the kind of stories I anticipated after reading "Deadly Beloved". I don't think I'll be continuing with this graphic novel series. ( )

I read these stories when they came out in comic book form back in the '90s, and it was pleasant to revisit them in this new collection, the first volume of a new series hoping to collect all the Ms. Tree stories from their many different publishers. In an unusual choice, the creator and editors have chosen to eschew chronological order, skipping the Michael Tree's original anthology appearances and her first series run, to reprint here issues 1, 4, 7, 8 and 9 from the second series. It seems random at first glance, but as Collins points out in his introduction, the stories effectively introduce the character and have an overall arc that follows her through an unexpected pregnancy.

These tales hold up pretty well -- even if the writing and art can be a bit stiff -- and actually allow readers to see through some unusually large cracks in Ms. Tree's normally hardboiled personality. It was never one of my must-read comic books back in the day, but until now I hadn't realized how much I missed Ms. Tree and her employees at Tree Investigations, Inc. I will certainly check out future collections. ( )