Sandcastle is a dark and deeply peculiar science fiction murder mystery written by award-winning documentary film-maker Pierre Oscar Levy and illustrated by Frederik Peeters [Blue Pills, Lupus].

It’s very early on a perfect summer’s day when a disparate bunch of people begin to arrive at a seemingly idyllic, secluded cove in order to enjoy some time at the beach. There are a couple of families with young children; one family apparently from the local area, while the other is visiting from America. One family is accompanied by a dog, the other by a granny. Also spending a day at that beach are an Algerian refugee with a perpetually bloody nose, a young couple and a crotchety genre writer.

While the beach and gentle waters might appear inviting, there is actually something menacing lurking in the shadows of the shady cliffs. First they discover a pile of abandoned clothes down by the water’s edge, then the body of a young woman is found floating in the cove. Most are quick to blame the Algerian; the police are phoned but somehow fail to arrive. Something is deeply amiss down on that beach. Just as help seems never able to arrive, the group feel trapped on the  beach, as if held in place by some invisible force. And then time goes all screwy.

Sandcastle is the first graphic novel that Pierre Oscar Levy has written and it is certainly a complex and intriguing story, if not a completely satisfying one. While it might at first present as being a fairly straightforward whodunit, after the girl’s body is discovered the story takes an extreme turn for the weird. There is still some vague attempt at seeking help and uncovering what happened to her [and a fair bit of muck and blame is thrown about] but that particular mystery is soon  overshadowed by the shenanigans that time is indulging in down on the beach.

The storyline is Sandcastle is profoundly unsettling and this is certainly echoed by Frederik Peeters’ artwork. Sandcastle is illustrated throughout in stark black and white, with plenty of reaction shots to portray the extreme emotions of the characters and also plenty of dead panels to convey the sense of melancholy and menace that hangs over the beach. Although Peeters has taken a realistic, if dark, approach to the characters, there is something slightly off-kilter with all of their faces. They’re far from mutated, but everyone looks a little wrong and this adds to the discomfort of the story.

Sandcastle is a compelling though troubling book. Seeing how the murder mystery potential of the story is subsumed by the science fiction inspired angst is both entertaining and engrossing, but there is no real payoff when it comes to the conclusion. There are a lot of great ideas in Sandcastle and it is unfortunate that they are rather left to linger rather than building into something massive. However, Sandcastle is still an innovative genre mash-up and is sure to appeal to fans of darker, more complex graphic novels which seek to subvert reality and twist the mundane into the extraordinary.

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