In the first of two stories that comprise Visual Crime, Rotart Sulli, a painter who illustrates crime fiction, gets a peculiar requirement along with an assignment: he is to stay at Hotel Ace in room 611 until his illustration is finished. In the book''s second story, Sulli is once again hired to illustrate a crime story; and once again, he''s told to place the finished work in your back window - it will be seen. Visual Crime also collects a dozen short stories occupying a single page, all illustrated by Sulli''s Hopperesque paintings, which alternate with Moriarty''s rough-hewn, proletarian pen-and-ink panels. It''s a portrait of the artist working alone in a mysterious and uncertain world, creating stunning images that transcend the melodramatic stories they illustrate.