Christopher Fowler writes one of my favorite book series. The series is known both as the Bryant and May mysteries as well as the Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries. I have noticed, as I have recommended the series to many people, that readers seem to be along the lines of "love it or hate it" and that there don't seem to be any in between opinions. In my case, I love it.
Arthur Bryant and John May are detectives based out of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit. The Unit was founded, if memory serves, during WWII out of the government's desire to keep panic out of the public eye. They did so by giving publicly sensitive cases with the potential to cause mass panic to the specialized and "experimental" unit called the Peculiar Crimes Unit. In one of the prior books in the series it is joked that the unit was originally called the Particular Crimes Unit and only ended up being called Peculiar by accident and joke.
The two main characters, Arthur Bryant and John May, in this case are looking back at a case from their past. A very well to-do family with pedigree and influence, the Whitstables, have become the focus of a string of murders. We start with the death of a family lawyer, Max Jacob, who was murdered quietly in the lobby of a posh hotel. The detectives must figure who and what killed him as he died alone in plain sight of the entire hotel lobby.
The initial killing is followed by the deaths of three members of the Whitstable family. William, Peter, and their sister Bella. William is blown up in a public place without harming any of the people who are physically near to him, Peter's throat is cut at the barber's in the same posh hotel as the business man was killed in, and Bella is poisoned at a play surrounded by at least a dozen people including Mr. Bryant. How are these deaths occurring?
We follow Bryant and May as they trudge through the case, digging up clues with the help of a mildly annoying teen. You get absorbed as a young child of the Whitstable family is kidnapped, become disturbed when another family member is attacked within the family mausoleum, and either gasp in shock or are utterly bewildered by the cause and purpose of these deaths.
The conclusion is most entertaining and positively weird, so I won't give it up here. Overall, the book is fascinating. My only real complaint is the annoyance factor of the teenage girl that helps Bryant and May on and off throughout the story. Honestly, what teenage girl isn't a bit of an annoyance from time to time? I'd give the story four and a half cups of Earl Grey out of five.
Consider reading the rest of the Bryant and May series:
Full Dark House
The Water Room
The Ten Second Staircase
White Corridor (my personal favorite)
The Victoria Vanishes
On the Loose
Off the Rails
The Memory of Blood
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