I was perusing my local Books-A-Million last night when I stumbled upon two books that truly excited me, both Death Note related. The first being the release of Volume 13, or the “How to Read” volume which basically acts as an encylopedia for the story. The 2nd book was one I’d never even heard of titled Death Note: Another Note, and was apparently a side story for L pre-Kira case. Of course, I was fascinated by the cool cover as much as the concept, so I grabbed in and read it all last night, only to now be able provide you with my review.

The story begins with a killer, known as Beyond Birthday (B.B.), who has presented the LA police with a seemingly impossible case to crack, leaving similar voodoo dolls at the scene, but changing his modus operundi with every kill. Naomi Misora, currently on temporary leave from the FBI, has heard little of the case, but when she gets a random call from L, the world famous detective, he asks her to be his eyes and ears and to delve deep into the case to discover Beyond Birthday’s intentions, before he can kill again.

Of course, aside from what is actually a decently exciting story, the extra bonus here is for Death Note fans to learn a little more about L, and a whole lot more about Misora. As with Death Note, there are definitely twists and turns to keep the reader excited, but this time we can’t see both sides of the story so the intensity may be even more satisfying. Once again too, B.B. and L present us with a great challenge of wits, and Misora does a fine job too adding her own conjectures to the mix, as they all try to get closer to their goals, L and Misora to save, and B.B. to… well you’ll have to see.

Last note for die hard fans of Death Note is that while this story was written by Nisio Isin, instead of Tsugumi Ohba (both pen names), the sense of the characters remains the same so the enjoyment level is still decently high. Indeed, this is no Death Note anew, but for a side story I’d say it’s fairly good and, in my opinion, worth the purchase.