Don't get too attached to anyone you meet in the pages of Richard Sala's Mad Night.

I sought this book out after enjoying several books Sala has released over the past few years through Fantagraphics. But this, I'll tell you up front, is not his best work.

It's certainly an ambitious piece of storytelling. Initially serialized over several years in 12 issues of Evil Eye, Mad Night reveals a case of mad science on the campus of Lone Mountain College. More than one person, dark and mysterious, is murdering people there, and the police are working hard to bury the evidence. There are sexy brainwashed pirate girls, a ruthless puppet, lurching killers, secret pacts, hidden monsters and all sorts of goings on that are like oxygen to Jenny Drood, a young amateur sleuth who mostly just wants to get her camera back.

Drood is a likable enough lead character, although given her foul mouth and dark moods, it's a wonder she has any friends at school. It's no wonder sometimes pal Kasper Keene wants nothing to do with her investigation; only his own sense of guilt over the missing camera keeps him involved in the case.

But, while Mad Night overflows with dark atmosphere and intriguing twists and bends, it suffers from an excess of imagination. Sala peopled this story with so many characters that they begin to run together, and it's tough sometimes to recall just who's working with whom. Some characters, such as the guy producing owl-themed posters, seem entirely extraneous to the plot.

Fortunately, the cast drops like flies, so it's not always necessary to figure out exactly what one character's role is in the story before the issue becomes bloody and moot.

There's plenty of violence and a bit of nudity, rendering the book unsuitable for younger readers. Otherwise, it's a bit kooky and a bit creepy, but falls short of other Sala works such as his Peculia tales.