or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
23 used & new from £0.33

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Ten-second Staircase (Bryant & May 4)
 
See larger image
 

Ten-second Staircase (Bryant & May 4) (Paperback)

by Christopher Fowler (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £5.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.00 (25%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, November 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
12 new from £3.07 11 used from £0.33

Frequently Bought Together

Ten-second Staircase (Bryant & May 4) + White Corridor (Bryant & May 5) + Seventyseven Clocks (Bryant & May 3)
Price For All Three: £17.93

Show availability and shipping details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

White Corridor (Bryant & May 5)

White Corridor (Bryant & May 5)

by Christopher Fowler
4.9 out of 5 stars (7)  £5.97
Seventyseven Clocks (Bryant & May 3)

Seventyseven Clocks (Bryant & May 3)

by Christopher Fowler
£5.97
The Water Room

The Water Room

by Christopher Fowler
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  £6.97
Full Dark House

Full Dark House

by Christopher Fowler
3.7 out of 5 stars (7)  £6.84
The Victoria Vanishes (Bryant & May 6)

The Victoria Vanishes (Bryant & May 6)

by Christopher Fowler
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £5.47
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Books; New edition edition (2 Jul 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0553817205
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553817201
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 103,898 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Product Description

A controversial artist is found dead in her own art installation inside a riverside gallery with locked doors and windows - the only witness is a small boy who insists the murderer was a masked man on a horse. A television presenter is struck by lightning while indoors...Two seemingly impossible crimes that only Arthur Bryant and John May of the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit might be able to solve. But Bryant has lost his nerve following a disastrous public appearance, and May is fighting to keep the unit from closure. Worse still, the case of the Leicester Square Vampire, an unsolved mystery from the past that changed both their lives, has returned to haunt them. With a sinister modern-day highwayman bringing terror to the London streets in a series of crimes each more puzzling than the last, the elderly detectives track their suspect to an exclusive private school and a deprived housing estate. But just when they need all the help they can get to uncover a new breed of criminal, the highwayman is hailed a national hero, and the public turns against them...Bryant & May are back on the case in an adventure that explores the dark side of celebrity, the conflicts of youth, age and class, and the peculiar myths of old London.


From the Inside Flap

It is a crime tailor-made for the Met’s Peculiar Crimes Unit: a controversial contemporary artist murdered and displayed as part of her own outrageous installation. No suspects, no motive, no evidence – which means business as usual for the PCU’s decrepit and cantankerous detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May. But this time they have a witness – a twelve-year-old boy who swears the killer was a masked highwayman riding a black horse . . .

In the face of others’ disbelief, Bryant and May take the sighting seriously – and then ‘the Highwayman’ is spotted again, at the scene of his next outlandish murder. Whatever the killer’s real identity, he seems intent on ridding London of various minor celebrities while becoming one himself. As the tabloids begin to create ‘Highwayman Fever’, Bryant and May, together with the newest member of the team – May’s agoraphobic granddaughter, April – find themselves baffled by a case that seems to involve everything from vicious artistic rivalries and sleazy sex to feuding street gangs and the Knights Templar. To crack it, they need to use every orthodox – and unorthodox – means at their disposal, including myth, witchcraft and the psycho-geographic history of London’s ‘monsters’ past and present.

And if one unsolvable crime were not enough, it begins to look as though this case has disturbing links to a decades-old killing spree that nearly destroyed the partnership of Bryant and May once before . . . and might again. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Ten-second Staircase (Bryant & May 4)
62% buy the item featured on this page:
Ten-second Staircase (Bryant & May 4) 4.1 out of 5 stars (9)
£5.99
Full Dark House
12% buy
Full Dark House 3.7 out of 5 stars (7)
£6.84
White Corridor (Bryant & May 5)
11% buy
White Corridor (Bryant & May 5) 4.9 out of 5 stars (7)
£5.97
The Water Room
8% buy
The Water Room 4.8 out of 5 stars (4)
£6.97

 

Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book, 25 May 2006
So begins this, the darkest adventure yet for Fowlers geriatric investigators.

An awesome piece of fiction that trawls through this duo's past inadequacies and mistakes, only to have them mirrored by the events their present investigations create.

Faced with the yet again imminent threat of closure of the PSU, these two irascible opposites complement each other perfectly in their desire to solve the current series of murders committed by the elusive Highwayman. Together with the increasing knowledge of it's connections to the oft mentioned case, in previous novels featuring this duo, of the Leicester Square Vampire, they stumble back and forth from past to present aided by two generations of May's descendants, hindered by an equal number of generations evil.

Shrewdly skillfully crafted characters old and new. Fowlers appreciation of the darker side of humanity, together with the faltering innocence of his lead characters helps to bind the plot of the novel firmly within the bounds of possibility and indeed at times probability. His unique talent for combining factual historical events from the city of London's past, with the stubbornness and persistent inquiry into events old and new by Bryant & May beggars belief. An extremely well researched novel, which shows in the depth of minutiae that Fowler describes from his home cities ancient and more recent past. Almost chronological at times, but a valid historical record of the United Kingdom's capital city and the dark and evil denizens who shaped it's mythology and lore in the minds of their victims then, and now in the legend and doggerel that passes into the minds of children from their parents to this day.

Death runs rampant through this novel, as with all Fowlers previous ones detailing the exploits of these elderly crime solvers. Victims falling prey to the uncanny and downright strange in manners of demise so fiendishly ingenious as to make your blood freeze. The grim reaper under Fowlers guiding hand cuts a swathe through the degenerate and downright nasty with ease. There are casualties too though, not only from their past, but from their present firmament of esoteric and arcane aides.

If you've read any of Bryant and May's previous exploits, then you're in for another surefire treat. If you're a newbie to these gentlemen and their motley crew of stalwarts and equally bumbling associates, then all this reviewer can advise, is that you hold on tight. This novel is one hell of a ride. A gritty, dark and at times confounding piece of fiction that will make you gasp, make you cringe, and make you re-read many a paragraph so that the pure horror evoked by the novel grips you beyond reasoning. And you'll laugh. Oh you will most certainly laugh. Chris Fowler writes humor with the skill and deft precision of the Monty Python team. Combine that with the almost Greek tragedy-esqueness of the familial situations within the novel and you'll see that Fowler has hit on yet another winning formula.

Over the years, this reviewer has read all of Chris Fowlers novels featuring the exploits of Bryant & May, and has come to regard them as such unique characters within fiction, comparable only with Agatha Christie's inimitable Miss Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. Now THAT would make for a team-up. Bryant / Marple and May / Poirot.
Not forgetting the loyal group surrounding Bryant & May. Mangeshkar, Bimsley, Banbury, Kershaw and Oswald Finch, and of course the most wonderful Janice Longbright. These characters alone would make any novel worth reading for their appearance alone.

A page turner of a novel. A masterpiece yet again from the imagination of Christopher Fowler.

Fowlers imaginative prowess is at its peak in this novel. He twists where you expect a logical turn, and warps your own understanding of the stories events at every page. In both the Leicester Square Vampire, and indeed the Highwayman, Fowler has created two extremely versatile and seriously fiendish antagonists. The revelations behind both these characters identities and seemingly impossible exploits had this reviewer trying to catch his breath as they unfolded. Magnifique!

Hesitant to say that this reviewer eagerly awaits the next novel in this series entitled `White Corridor', but eagerly looking forward to read Chris's revelation of the death of a major character in that novel. I can't wait!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Immortality, at any cost?, 27 Oct 2006
By J. S. Bundy (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
I am so glad that after the very disappointing Seventy Seven Clocks Christopher Fowler is back on form in no uncertain terms.

London once again provides an elegant backdrop to his latest novel. We are in the world of minor celebrity which is cleverly entwined with the capitals myths, including the 'bete noir' of the PCU, The Leicester Square Vampire. Janice Longbright once again adds glamour to the unit and May's grand daughter rescued in the previous novel joins the team.

There are few modern writers whose love of the city shines through in such a way, Christopher Fowler should be applauded for showing us London in all its guises, both good and evil.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars More mysteries illuminated..., 29 Aug 2007
By R. Aherne (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Once again the wonderful Bryant & May continue to light up the page with a modern day twist on the Highwayman as folk hero leading to possibly the series' best denouement so far.

Add this to plot strands and sub-plots involving ancient religious orders, agoraphobic family members, feuding street gangs and the resolution of a case first mentioned in Roofworld and you'll find this very hard to put down.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Stairway to Average
The peculiar crimes unit sounds mysterious, but isn't peculiar just something other than the norm? Detectives Bryant and May are the veteran detectives who effectively run the... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Sam

3.0 out of 5 stars A curate's egg
This is the third Bryant & May mystery I have read, and I'm still in two minds about the series. With regard to the Ten-Second Staircase, the characterisation of the two leads... Read more
Published 3 months ago by P. Rees

5.0 out of 5 stars Crime Fighters Without Match
Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May novels are something to be savoured. They consist of a fascinating mix of history, sociology and mysticism, with a huge dollop of tongue in... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Quicksilver

1.0 out of 5 stars Utter rubbish, Save your money
I'm afraid I have to disagree with the three rave reviews posted here. This book is abysmal -- badly plotted, poor grammar, shoddy characterisation, "explanations" that defy... Read more
Published 22 months ago by The Bagster

5.0 out of 5 stars superb flight of forensic fiction
Actually it's far better than simple forensic fiction. The totally brilliant Bryant and May [the two detectives] don't so much strike a light in the murky world of London's... Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2007 by Nick Hackney

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great Fowler novel
Ten-second Staircase is another of the Byant and May mysteries.
It is possible to read these novels individually, but I would recommend starting at the beginning so that you... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2006 by Snapdragon

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.