* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

This graphic novel opens with a killing spree in a shopping centre. Detectives Shaw and McGregor are shocked to learn that the perpetrator was one of their witnesses in a major paedophile investigation. Later, two of their colleagues, while on a drugs stakeout, enter a warehouse and do not come out. A SWAT team goes in and immediately comes out, refusing to ever go in there again.

Shaw and McGregor are disgusted with this and march into the warehouse themselves. This starts off a horrific journey for them where they relive the paedophilia investigation and are forced to confront their inner demons, dragging their colleagues into the mire with them.

More horror than noir crime, this is a great story from the writer of the Preacher series. The artwork is suitably gothic and gloomy, and convincingly scary at times. Very good. ( )

There is so much to unpack from this book...where to even start?

I'm just going to say it right now, Garth Ennis, along with Donny Cates, Tom King, and the disgraced Warren Ellis, are likely the four most brilliant writers in the comic book industry today. Ennis' The Boys and Preacher should cement his fame. But this book? This just rises above almost everything else I've read from him.

I love when a novel can tell a gripping, surprising story, and still examine a Big Theme. And it doesn't get much bigger theme-wise than the nature of evil. But tying it into so many aspects of our real world...racism, homophobia, misogyny, Trump, the Bible, God, the devil, and Jesus, and the basic nature of humans...this is just a fascinating book.

And yet, it's also a creeping horror story about a child molester, and two cops' attempt to bring him down.

The writing is brilliant. The art is brilliant. The colouring is brilliant. This is just...it's a book that has to be experienced.

Impressive stuff. ( )

If you enjoy a horror read during which dread drips slowly onto you with the viscosity of blood and by the end you're drenched in it--this graphic novel is for you.

Shaw and McGregor are two FBI agents sent to a very strange scene. Not the scene of a crime, but a scene. Why? Because the tactical team went in to investigate the disappearance of two other FBI agents into a warehouse and whomever, or whatever, the team encountered gave them cause to pivot and immediately run for their lives. Shaw and McGregor take the fleeing of the tactical team as a sign that they should indeed proceed into the warehouse, but they could never have imagined in their wildest dreams just who--or what--or both--is inside that warehouse.

I personally think I need to read A Walk Through Hell a second time. There’s a philosophical side to this graphic novel that will have you thinking even after you’ve finished reading it, and trust me there's quite a bit to think about. The story slowly unfolds like a blooming flower of doom, and I loved every moment of it.

The characters are fantastic and multi-dimensional. I wish I could share more than that, but I don't want to spoil anything and there's so much to spoil as far as the characters go! I personally loved Shaw, and read her parts out loud to myself.

My only criticism is that occasionally the timeline-jumping was a bit jarring, but the effect was temporary. The timelines are all tied up in an unsettling bow at the end

Is it a walk through hell? You’ll have to read it and find out. I’m not sure there’s a correct answer.

If you like this graphic novel, I have a hunch you'll also enjoy Midnight Vista, which is also published by Aftershock Comix. ( )