What do you think?
Rate this book
Case Files Vol. I: Murder and Meaning
This full-color, high-quality graphic novel from two law enforcement experts presents a case for a Christian worldview through an entertaining action-adventure story.
Detective Michael “Murph” Murphy is near retirement. After twenty-five years as a sworn peace officer in Los Angeles County, he’s wondering what will keep him busy next. He finds his mind drifting as he joins his team—with a few newbies along—to comb the cliffs of San Pedro for any clues to a recent murder there.
But when a fresh murder in Palos Verdes occurs, and a mysterious subject starts calling the police department to talk to Murph, the stakes get higher. A third killing leads the team to suspect one person is behind all the murders—and still on the loose. Worse, the crimes have happened at one-week intervals, which means Murph and his colleagues have only a few days left to keep the killer from striking again ….
This highly engaging, full-color graphic novel for adults is one of the first available that Christian comic book enthusiasts can feel great about reading and recommending to friends. Written by the real-life detectives and Christian apologists behind Cold-Case Christianity, and featuring art from the renowned creators of The Chosen comic book series, Case Murder and Meaning has all the action and intrigue comic book readers want laced with questions about the purpose and value of human life.
Detective Michael “Murph” Murphy is near retirement. After twenty-five years as a sworn peace officer in Los Angeles County, he’s wondering what will keep him busy next. He finds his mind drifting as he joins his team—with a few newbies along—to comb the cliffs of San Pedro for any clues to a recent murder there.
But when a fresh murder in Palos Verdes occurs, and a mysterious subject starts calling the police department to talk to Murph, the stakes get higher. A third killing leads the team to suspect one person is behind all the murders—and still on the loose. Worse, the crimes have happened at one-week intervals, which means Murph and his colleagues have only a few days left to keep the killer from striking again ….
This highly engaging, full-color graphic novel for adults is one of the first available that Christian comic book enthusiasts can feel great about reading and recommending to friends. Written by the real-life detectives and Christian apologists behind Cold-Case Christianity, and featuring art from the renowned creators of The Chosen comic book series, Case Murder and Meaning has all the action and intrigue comic book readers want laced with questions about the purpose and value of human life.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2025
3 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
J. Warner Wallace
34 books689 followersJ. Warner Wallace is a Dateline featured cold-case homicide detective, popular national speaker and best-selling author. He continues to consult on cold-case investigations while serving as a Senior Fellow at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He is also an adjunct professor of apologetics at Talbot School of Theology (Biola University) and Southern Evangelical Seminary, and a faculty member at Summit Ministries. J. Warner became a Christ-follower at the age of thirty-five after investigating the claims of the New Testament gospels using his skill set as a detective. He eventually earned a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies from Gateway Seminary.
J. Warner has appeared on television and radio, explaining the role that evidence plays in the Christian definition of “faith” and defending the historicity of Jesus, the reliability of the Bible and the truth of the Christian worldview. Jim also speaks at churches, retreats and camps as he seeks to help people become confident Christian case makers. J. Warner’s book, Cold-Case Christianity, provides readers with ten principles of cold case investigations and utilizes these principles to examine the reliability of the gospel eyewitness accounts. In God’s Crime Scene, he investigates eight pieces of evidence in the universe to make the case for God’s existence. In Forensic Faith, J. Warner makes the case for a more reasonable, evidential Christian faith.
J. Warner’s professional investigative work has received national recognition; his cases have been featured more than any other detective on NBC’s Dateline, and his work has also appeared on CourtTV and Fox News. He also appears on television as an investigative consultant (most recently on truTV) and had a role in God’s Not Dead 2, making the case for the historicity of Jesus. J. Warner was awarded the Police and Fire Medal of Valor “Sustained Superiority” Award for his continuing work on cold-case homicides, and the CopsWest Award after solving a 1979 murder. Relying on over two decades of investigative experience, J. Warner provides his readers and audiences with the tools they will need to investigate the claims of Christianity and make a convincing case for the truth of the Christian worldview.
J. Warner has appeared on television and radio, explaining the role that evidence plays in the Christian definition of “faith” and defending the historicity of Jesus, the reliability of the Bible and the truth of the Christian worldview. Jim also speaks at churches, retreats and camps as he seeks to help people become confident Christian case makers. J. Warner’s book, Cold-Case Christianity, provides readers with ten principles of cold case investigations and utilizes these principles to examine the reliability of the gospel eyewitness accounts. In God’s Crime Scene, he investigates eight pieces of evidence in the universe to make the case for God’s existence. In Forensic Faith, J. Warner makes the case for a more reasonable, evidential Christian faith.
J. Warner’s professional investigative work has received national recognition; his cases have been featured more than any other detective on NBC’s Dateline, and his work has also appeared on CourtTV and Fox News. He also appears on television as an investigative consultant (most recently on truTV) and had a role in God’s Not Dead 2, making the case for the historicity of Jesus. J. Warner was awarded the Police and Fire Medal of Valor “Sustained Superiority” Award for his continuing work on cold-case homicides, and the CopsWest Award after solving a 1979 murder. Relying on over two decades of investigative experience, J. Warner provides his readers and audiences with the tools they will need to investigate the claims of Christianity and make a convincing case for the truth of the Christian worldview.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 14, 2025
Engaging story, and I enjoyed the emphasis on real-world police detective work (supplied by the authors having experience in law enforcement and detective work). The artwork is good, and the layout creative. The story does suffer at times from over-narration and over-choreographing of the themes. But the ending felt appropriate, and I am curious enough that I suspect I’ll pick up future volumes in this series.
November 29, 2025
"We're all worthless. None of us matter. Not just me, but you too. We're just animals fighting for survival. Eventually we'll be gone, and it will be like we were never here at all."
Easily the best thing about this was Lockjaw; unfortunately, he's featured on only the second page of the final chapter. Otherwise, the ending is seriously anticlimactic (despite the pseudo Andy Griffiths fun), and the narrative blocks along the way are too simplistic and banal, as, for example, this trio of consecutive blocks will attest:
Murph believed the preservation of life was the ultimate purpose of law enforcement. Murders mattered because lives were at stake. Nothing was more important to the law than protecting human life because nothing was more important than human life.
It's unclear why those thoughts were not attributed to Capt. Obvious, but two other panels pretty much prevented this tale from being taken in any way seriously. The first was the final panel of chapter 3, which depicts the shock of recognition on Murph's face when his younger partner Pete Leota casually observes that they at least have the serial killer's phone number because earlier he'd called Murph directly and had an unlikely but extended discussion about existence. As the senior detective, Murph should definitely not have been surprised about that traced call. The other ruinous panel is on page 14 of chapter 4, which shows at least seven people lined up waiting to use a payphone (and, yes, the setting is otherwise the Doordash-and-home-security-cameras present day). Overall, the art exceeds the subpar writing, even though early on Det. Marco Russo looks about 15 years old (and sometimes 12); the upgraded depiction his younger sister, crime analyst Laura, gets in chapter 4 is an improvement from chapters 1-3, but, alas, it's not sustained in chapter 6. By then, interest in the storyline isn't really sustained either, though.
March 8, 2025
“The point is, we’ve got to keep our eyes open. Who knows what important stuff we could miss if we aren’t really looking. And keep in mind that every body was somebody before they ended up under a sheet like this … they mattered just like you and I do.”
That quote alone captures the weight behind this high-stakes detective story, where murder investigations aren’t just about solving cases but about recognizing the value of every life. With a gripping, true-crime feel and a graphic style that delivers both grit and clarity, Case Files: Murder and Meaning is visually stunning and narratively compelling. It reads like a classic detective novel brought to life in a format that keeps the pages turning.
While the crime procedural elements are on point, the "meaning" aspect left me wanting more. This is billed as a graphic novel from Christian apologists, yet the faith elements barely surface. A passing mention of God’s view on human worth felt like a missed opportunity rather than a driving force in the story. If the Gospel had been woven through as seamlessly as the action, this would have been a knockout.
That said, this is not a comic for kids. Crime, violence, and murder take center stage, making it a story strictly for adult readers. For those who enjoy detective fiction in a visually dynamic format, this will check a lot of boxes. But for readers hoping for a faith-driven narrative, it might not deliver the depth expected. A deeper integration of faith would have taken this from good to great!
I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher, David C. Cook. I am not required to write a positive review nor paid to do so. This is my honest and unbiased review. My thoughts and opinions expressed in this book review are my own. My review focuses on the writing and the story’s content, ensuring transparency and reliability.
That quote alone captures the weight behind this high-stakes detective story, where murder investigations aren’t just about solving cases but about recognizing the value of every life. With a gripping, true-crime feel and a graphic style that delivers both grit and clarity, Case Files: Murder and Meaning is visually stunning and narratively compelling. It reads like a classic detective novel brought to life in a format that keeps the pages turning.
While the crime procedural elements are on point, the "meaning" aspect left me wanting more. This is billed as a graphic novel from Christian apologists, yet the faith elements barely surface. A passing mention of God’s view on human worth felt like a missed opportunity rather than a driving force in the story. If the Gospel had been woven through as seamlessly as the action, this would have been a knockout.
That said, this is not a comic for kids. Crime, violence, and murder take center stage, making it a story strictly for adult readers. For those who enjoy detective fiction in a visually dynamic format, this will check a lot of boxes. But for readers hoping for a faith-driven narrative, it might not deliver the depth expected. A deeper integration of faith would have taken this from good to great!
I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher, David C. Cook. I am not required to write a positive review nor paid to do so. This is my honest and unbiased review. My thoughts and opinions expressed in this book review are my own. My review focuses on the writing and the story’s content, ensuring transparency and reliability.
March 10, 2025
This review was written by my husband Greg:
I’m a fan of sequential art, what some call comic books or graphic novels. I’ve been reading it for 40+ years - different art styles and different story genres from across the globe. I’m rating Case Files Vol 1: Murder and Meaning 3.5 stars; it’s a good read.
However, the story has a few dialog and small plotting issues for me. I’m not sure that a supervisor of a police department calls a detective under his command “sir” or how an officer doesn’t know that his female partner has a child. How does a perpetrator who’s shot by a detective call him “sir” in the direct aftermath instead of screaming in pain? What is the purpose of repeatedly showing the primary protagonist carrying around a duffel bag and not getting the payoff of what’s in it?
Overall, the art is very serviceable to the story. The panel placement and pacing is really nice; only one panel toward the end in a hospital scene is a little off. The visit to the morgue is overly gratuitous - sometimes less is more and can convey as much meaning in a graphic novel just as it does in cinema.
My larger concern is why the artist(s) are not credited for their work. My review copy only includes the author names and does not recognize the rest of the creative team. It takes far more than two writers to make a graphic novel unless they were they also art team (penciler, inker, colorist etc.) and they should be recognized if they were.
The message is solid about how to treat one another on a daily basis. We all have worth in this world: to one another, to those we love, and to those that don’t know us. I would be interested in the growth of this crew of detectives and officers in future volumes.
I’m a fan of sequential art, what some call comic books or graphic novels. I’ve been reading it for 40+ years - different art styles and different story genres from across the globe. I’m rating Case Files Vol 1: Murder and Meaning 3.5 stars; it’s a good read.
However, the story has a few dialog and small plotting issues for me. I’m not sure that a supervisor of a police department calls a detective under his command “sir” or how an officer doesn’t know that his female partner has a child. How does a perpetrator who’s shot by a detective call him “sir” in the direct aftermath instead of screaming in pain? What is the purpose of repeatedly showing the primary protagonist carrying around a duffel bag and not getting the payoff of what’s in it?
Overall, the art is very serviceable to the story. The panel placement and pacing is really nice; only one panel toward the end in a hospital scene is a little off. The visit to the morgue is overly gratuitous - sometimes less is more and can convey as much meaning in a graphic novel just as it does in cinema.
My larger concern is why the artist(s) are not credited for their work. My review copy only includes the author names and does not recognize the rest of the creative team. It takes far more than two writers to make a graphic novel unless they were they also art team (penciler, inker, colorist etc.) and they should be recognized if they were.
The message is solid about how to treat one another on a daily basis. We all have worth in this world: to one another, to those we love, and to those that don’t know us. I would be interested in the growth of this crew of detectives and officers in future volumes.
March 4, 2025
"Murder and Meaning" is a graphic novel following 4 homicide detectives working on a series of murders. Detective Murph and his partner teach two detectives new to the homicide department while they investigate the murders. While we get scenes from the point of view of several characters (including the bad guy), we mostly follow Murph. When there's a new murder linked to the first one, it becomes clear that a man arrested in a past case took some angry words Murph said to him to heart and now, free, wants to make Murp feel that same hurt.
The focus of the story was on solving the cases, but there's an underlying theme about what gives a person or a thing worth. The first murder victim was a drug addict that was valued by his girlfriend but few others. A later murder victim was someone well known, and suddenly the pressure was on. Is it popularity give you more value? Is your worth dependent on how much you contribute to the case? That sort of thing. At the end, a minor character stated that God says he's valuable, so he focuses on that rather than on human opinions.
There were some bloody wounds shown, but it wasn't gory. The illustrations were clear and easy to follow, but occasionally it wasn't clear to me which word bubble was the next one to read. This wasn't necessarily confusing, but it did take me out of the story while I sorted out the order. This novel is aimed at adults, not kids. Overall, I'd recommend it to adults who enjoy detective novels.
I received a free ebook review copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.
The focus of the story was on solving the cases, but there's an underlying theme about what gives a person or a thing worth. The first murder victim was a drug addict that was valued by his girlfriend but few others. A later murder victim was someone well known, and suddenly the pressure was on. Is it popularity give you more value? Is your worth dependent on how much you contribute to the case? That sort of thing. At the end, a minor character stated that God says he's valuable, so he focuses on that rather than on human opinions.
There were some bloody wounds shown, but it wasn't gory. The illustrations were clear and easy to follow, but occasionally it wasn't clear to me which word bubble was the next one to read. This wasn't necessarily confusing, but it did take me out of the story while I sorted out the order. This novel is aimed at adults, not kids. Overall, I'd recommend it to adults who enjoy detective novels.
I received a free ebook review copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.
July 30, 2025
What connection is there between 25 year veteran detective Michael "Murph" Murphy and the serial killer who bashes his victims' heads in and then brands them? Is there a method to the murderer's madness, or is it better put "a message to his madness?" And since he does it the same day of the week, can Murph and his "A-Team" find out who it is and stop him before he strikes again?
"Case Files Vol. 1: Murder and Meaning" is a graphic novel written by Homicide Detective/Christian apologist/Author J. Warner Wallace and his son Jimmy Wallace (also in law enforcement), with great illustrations by Steve Crespo and Dario Formisani. The plot follows seasoned detective Murph, easy going Pete Leota, hard-working young mother Ashley Perez, and self-proclaimed hot shot Marco Russo as they try to catch a serial killer who keeps calling to talk to Murph.
This story gives me a realistic view of what police-work is like. For example, Leota asked Murph if they used chalk like on TV in the old days, and the fact that the members of a team may have other cases to work on besides the main one. I'll admit that it wasn't the most joyful and enjoyable novel I've read, but the writers did a great job with the plotting and with the character development. And since this is Volume 1 and having read the ending, I'm sure there will at least be a volume 2. And I'm looking forward to it.
"Case Files Vol. 1: Murder and Meaning" is a graphic novel written by Homicide Detective/Christian apologist/Author J. Warner Wallace and his son Jimmy Wallace (also in law enforcement), with great illustrations by Steve Crespo and Dario Formisani. The plot follows seasoned detective Murph, easy going Pete Leota, hard-working young mother Ashley Perez, and self-proclaimed hot shot Marco Russo as they try to catch a serial killer who keeps calling to talk to Murph.
This story gives me a realistic view of what police-work is like. For example, Leota asked Murph if they used chalk like on TV in the old days, and the fact that the members of a team may have other cases to work on besides the main one. I'll admit that it wasn't the most joyful and enjoyable novel I've read, but the writers did a great job with the plotting and with the character development. And since this is Volume 1 and having read the ending, I'm sure there will at least be a volume 2. And I'm looking forward to it.
October 15, 2025
This is an enjoyable story that keeps the reader engaged as we follow a homicide detective through various murders which cause him to process the meaning of life.
I'm not a regular graphic novel reader so I don't know if it's normal to have chapters, but I appreciated the chapters to break everything up into easy reading chunks.
There are a couple of places where the scene shifts abruptly and the flow breaks so I didn't want to give 5 stars. I also found the message to be a little forced instead of naturally occurring. I doubt the believability of the serial killer. The message is clearly the whole point of the story and I think it could be better executed(no pun intended). Still worth the read.
I'm not a regular graphic novel reader so I don't know if it's normal to have chapters, but I appreciated the chapters to break everything up into easy reading chunks.
There are a couple of places where the scene shifts abruptly and the flow breaks so I didn't want to give 5 stars. I also found the message to be a little forced instead of naturally occurring. I doubt the believability of the serial killer. The message is clearly the whole point of the story and I think it could be better executed(no pun intended). Still worth the read.
January 10, 2026
This is a comic book following a detective as he solves a murder spree. The author is a Christian apologist and so you can see a Christian worldview developing in the book, even if most of the characters have questionable morals and outlooks on life. Unfortunately the story is pretty flat. Nothing made me really interested case, there are no unexpected twists and nothing to pique your interest really. The dialogue can also feel pretty wooden. I appreciate the attempt to make a comic book with a Christian worldview, however, and so I would try the next installment. I’d be more interested if the author would try a different story altogether though than try to carry this one on.
October 25, 2025
Finished in one seating: do recommend it…
It has been eons since I read this type of genre so it took a bit to get into it but the pace of the story was good; the build up of the characters and the real dilemmas that comes with this type of job; obviously the questions posed here are present in each person’s life but it’s probably much more intense when evil is confronted in a daily basis and the answers for those questions defines how we go around life and death.
It has been eons since I read this type of genre so it took a bit to get into it but the pace of the story was good; the build up of the characters and the real dilemmas that comes with this type of job; obviously the questions posed here are present in each person’s life but it’s probably much more intense when evil is confronted in a daily basis and the answers for those questions defines how we go around life and death.
April 11, 2025
J Warner Wallace does it again. This time with his son, Jimmy, and with a slightly different style than his prior books as it is written as a graphic novel. This book has beautiful visual images. Their knowledge of law enforcement is evident throughout. Highly recommend!
April 19, 2025
great concept and storyline
J. Warner Wallace never seems to disappoint! This new format brings the story telling to a whole new level and drives home a very important Biblical message.
J. Warner Wallace never seems to disappoint! This new format brings the story telling to a whole new level and drives home a very important Biblical message.
April 3, 2025
Really, really good
April 23, 2025
Haven't read comics since childhood, but this one locked on and wouldn't let go. Great crime story by J. Warner Wallace and son.
May 15, 2025
3.75
nothing mind boggling. finished in an hour and a half. good for people learning about detectives bc it is written by real ones. just an easy quick read.
nothing mind boggling. finished in an hour and a half. good for people learning about detectives bc it is written by real ones. just an easy quick read.
July 23, 2025
There’s something sincere and full of itself in this. It’s refreshing and headstrong.
November 13, 2025
Eh, it was a pretty decent book, but not enough God, and sometimes it was a little confusing, tbh.
November 27, 2025
This graphic novel is worth the read, it really open your mind to think before you speak. Your words have power.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews