Amazon.co.uk Review
If you're searching for something really different in the overcrowded field of crime writing, then do yourself a favour and pick up a novel by Christopher Fowler. The author's Bryant and May series is proving to be one of the quirkiest and most ingenious pleasures to be found in the genre: atmospheric, sardonically funny and craftily suspenseful. Of course, this will come as no surprise to those who had discovered Fowler via his earlier writing in the horror and fantasy field (another genre in which he quickly distinguished himself from most of the competition). But there is no doubt that he has really found his métier with his recent books set in the Met's Peculiar Crimes unit. The Home Office is on the point of shutting this unorthodox unit down, when an important staff member is found dead in a sealed autopsy room. Suspects are numerous, and as a wintry Britain shivers, the brilliantly intuitive detective duo who are Fowler's protagonists are
hors de combat where this particular investigation is concerned; on their way to a scientific convention, they have been snowed in after a blizzard in Devon. Can Bryant and May conduct their investigations from afar? However, this is not their only problem -- a psychotic killer is haunting the Dartmoor Road, with a homicidal shopping list.
This is quite delicious stuff, delivered with all the assurance we have come to expect from Fowler. As ever, his eccentric team of ageing detectives are one of the most original creations around, and the outrageously inventive plots that Fowler conjures are a match for the characterisation. If you're beginning to feel that the crime genre is running out of steam, the slightest acquaintance with one of Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May novels will quickly disabuse you of this notion --Barry Forshaw
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Product Description
The unthinkable has happened at London's Peculiar Crimes Unit. In the bitter depths of winter, a key member of staff has been found murdered, and everyone who works there is suddenly a suspect. But Arthur Bryant and John May, the eccentric elderly detectives who run London's strangest crime division, aren't on hand to solve the crime. They've ventured into the heart of the English countryside, only to become stranded on a desolate snowbound section of road. As the blizzard worsens, Bryant & May attempt to solve the crime long distance using only their mobile phones. Unfortunately, their situation is about to get very much worse. Unknown to the stranded detectives, an obsessed killer has travelled from the Riviera to Dartmoor, and is stalking the stranded vehicles, searching for one particular victim, coming closer with each passing minute...As if it didn't have enough trouble, the Peculiar Crimes unit is about to receive a demanding royal visitor, and the Home Office is preparing to shut the PCU down when the visit inevitably goes wrong...Two murderers, two incapacitated detectives, just six hours to solve two crimes and save the unit. Armed only with their wits, woolly coats and a stack of dubious veal and ham pies, Bryant & May are bracing themselves for the strangest day they've ever spent, trapped inside the white corridor...
by Christopher Fowler
by Christopher Fowler
by Christopher Fowler
by Christopher Fowler
by Christopher Fowler
