Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood (Bryant & May 9) [Hardcover]

This is the author's ninth book in his Bryant & May series, and perhaps the best. The plot is as weird and wonderful as ever (I suspect that I'm not the only person who has always found Punch & Judy, the theme of the mystery, more than a little bit creepy. Add in the by now usual efforts of the powers that be to end the elderly detectives' bizarre careers, and a great twist at the end, and it all makes for a cracking read.

For people new to Bryant & May there's a Wikileaks dossier on the Peculiar Crimes Unit at the start of the book, so there's no reason for anybody not to read this. If there were any justice in the world, ten million people would be watching adaptations of Fowler's books each Monday on TV, not a certain other series involving aged detectives.

This is a review of the audio CD of 'Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood', the ninth story in a series but my first taste of Bryant and May.

The recording is entirely acceptable. The reading is generally good. Certain accents are clearly not the strong point of the actor doing the reading - a female Asian detective has a very strange voice that sometimes sounds closer to West Indian than anything else, for example. The general characterisation, however, is very well done and overall the telling is a bonus.

As for the story itself, there was much to like here. The story involves an investigation by police officers of the Peculiar Crimes Unit into the murder of a young child, apparently by a Mr Punch puppet. There are only a limited number of possible suspects. It is, in many ways, a classic locked room style puzzle and the dark and stormy night of the murder and the outré atmospheric detail of Mr Punch (and later other Punch puppets) remind us of the great master of these sorts of stories, John Dickson Carr with his blend of apparently impossible crimes and arch gothic atmosphere.

There are entertaining digressions about the history of Mr Punch, the history of London, automata and the Grand Guignol. These were, for me at least, highlights of the story: entertaining and interesting nuggets of information on subjects that appeal to my curiosity.

The characters are sufficiently engaging to keep the story interesting, if not, it has to be said, always very believable, and the main detective dottily amusing. Those like me who come to the story without any previous contact with the characters need not worry that they will miss out as there is a lengthy introduction, giving brief character sketches of all the recurring characters, apparently in the form of a confidential report by a civil servant. Whilst useful to those joining the series at this stage, I do wonder how anyone familiar with the stories would find it. It also reveals, in its misuse of the word 'jurisprudence' to mean 'jurisdiction' or 'purview', a certain carelessness toward the details of the story - this is not the sort of mistake a Whitehall mandarin is likely to make - and such issues are recur through the book.

As another example a character is said to have died of blood poisoning or perhaps tetanus (there seems to be a confusion between the two) after getting a small cut earlier that day. Both conditions can be fatal but for them to have killed so quickly seems highly unlikely, yet we are asked to believe that no-one questioned this. Perhaps we aren't supposed to examine the story that closely but, in what is nominally a detective story these things stand out.

My main disappointments relate to the solution, however. Firstly, many of the more interesting aspects of the case turn out to be complete blinds to what is actually happening. Of course, that is entirely legitimate in the solution to a mystery but, where intriguing speculations turn out to in fact have no connection to the story, a slight sense of disappointment often follows: the plotting and solution is not quite so clever as you might have been lead to believe. Secondly, in order to incorporate the more bizarre and outré aspects of the crime the solution has to involve the murderer acting in a fairly incomprehensible manner. Unlike a Dickson Carr solution, for example, where the most implausible set of events is given an explanation - often by exceptional stage management - but where the actions all make sense within their context, here certain actions taken by the killer have little obvious internal logic. Thirdly, the solution does not 'play fair'. There is the appearance of a story that allows you to guess the murderer. It is likely that your suspicions will turn towards the murderer at some stage. It turns out that the detective is able to confirm who it is, however, thanks to information that the reader is not made privy to. Worse than that, we are given dialogue between the killer and a victim which does not fit with any of the other information we have about either the victim or the murderer and their proclivities.

So, overall, an entertaining story, read well, which passes the time amiably but which leaves one feeling slightly dissatisfied.

Christopher Fowler's ninth episode in his acclaimed Peculiar Crimes Unit novels manages, quite well, to keep his reputation (and the series) intact. In "The Memory of Blood," Fowler's detective duo of Arthur Bryant and John May unravel another mystery (a series of, yes, murders) in grand fashion.

As readers of the previous books know, the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) is a specially set up organization to handle the more "sensitive" cases, usually pertaining to high-level politicians, royals, the wealthy, or high-profile celebrities--too hot for the usual teams of Scotland Yard to handle.

In "The Memory of Blood," we find the duo once again involved with scenes from "the theatre crowd" whereby a new theatre, the New Strand, is staging "The Two Murderers." Alas and alike, art imitates life, it seems. During a cast party reception at the home of the theatre owner Robert Kramer, Kramer's baby is found, tossed out of his bedroom window, six floors below. Very dead. Lying on the floor is a life-sized puppet, Mr. Punch (of Punch and Judy). Horrific as it is, Bryant and May have a job to do. Catch the murderer. But there are a plethora of questions abounding already, not to mention a whole host of suspects: everyone at the cast party.

Clearly, of course, Fowler is in charge of his story and after a while, the case is solved. It's not so much that the case is solved in this book (or in this series) but how it is solved. Bryant is well beyond his sell by date, aging and, certainly, a bit eccentric, not only in his methods of crime fighting, but in his personal behavior as well. Rude, crude, and often simply mystifying, Bryant nevertheless is a brilliant detective. His modus operandi is offset by the more stable, logical, and level-headed May. And what a team they make. Fowler's appeal though is more than just giving us a murder mystery. His very clever, very literate, often achingly satiric, and usually witty prose make for added enchantment. His love and knowledge of the London theatre (and appreciation of Shakespeare) are simply bonuses.

"The Memory of Blood" is a literate, readable story, and the author brilliantly uses just enough wit to undercut the real tragedies of the murders. A good read, indeed.