Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler

First Line: It really was a hell of a blast.

When a bomb rips through the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London and claims the life of eighty-year-old detective Arthur Bryant, his partner John May faces the end of a partnership that lasted over fifty years. Bryant's death also seems to have ties to their very first case during the Blitz in World War II. May finds his old friend's notes of that very first case and becomes convinced that the past has returned... and it has a score to settle.

The city is being bombed almost nightly, but a faceless killer is stalking London's theaters. This is a criminal who has an uncanny ability to escape detection, and it will take all of Arthur Bryant's unorthodox techniques and John May's dogged police work to catch him. But how on earth could the killer have returned after all these years?

I first tried to read Full Dark House shortly after it was published during my first trip to the UK. I think I was on sensory overload because I did not care for the book at all. But then I read White Corridor, the fifth book in the series, and it became one of my best reads last year. This encouraged me to start at the beginning again.

Full Dark House has a complex mystery that I enjoyed trying to solve, and along the way, I also learned plenty of theater lore. Another very strong point in the book was the excellent feel for life in London during the Blitz that Fowler gives us. The smell of unwashed bodies (since so many water lines had been bombed). Walking through the streets during the blackout trying not to fall in any craters. The spectral walls of blasted buildings looming in the darkness. Sewage lines being hit and emptying themselves out in the subway system. I like books that add to my knowledge of social history.

There was also the pleasure of getting to know the young Bryant and May, and of enjoying Fowler's sense of humor. Bryant and May are quite the pair, and I'm going to enjoy working my way through this series. The only thing that really didn't work all that well for me in Full Dark House was the transitions between the present-day and World War II timelines. Many's the time I found myself stopping to figure out what year it was.

Am I glad that I read this book again? Yes, I am. I'm also glad that I have quite a few left to read. I'm looking forward to a long and pleasurable association with Bryant and May.

Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler

eISBN: 9780553900415

Bantam Books © 2003

eBook, 387 pages

Police Procedural/Humorous, #1 Bryant & May mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon. 

White Corridor by Christopher Fowler

First Line: "Concentrate on the moth."

Arthur Bryant and John May are famous for solving crimes that the ordinary police cannot. How do they do it? These two "well-seasoned" officers who refuse to retire use anyone and anything from crackpot psychics to the latest in forensics. All their expertise is needed to solve this latest case: a fellow member of the Peculiar Crimes Unit has been killed inside a locked autopsy room.

The room is only populated by the dead, and just four PCU members have a key. Trouble is, the Unit has been shut down for a forced "vacation" and Bryant and May are stuck in a van somewhere in the Dartmoor countryside during a freak blizzard. The two men must not only try to solve a murder via cell phone, they must take care not to freeze to death. Furthermore, what they don't know quite yet is that a murderer is on the prowl among all the snowed-in vehicles along the road, a murderer searching for a beautiful woman and her young son.

Years ago, I read the first book in Fowler's Bryant and May series and didn't care for it at all, but always at the back of my mind, I thought there might have been extenuating circumstances. You see, I read Full Dark House while on my very first trip to the UK, and I'm pretty sure my brain was on sensory overload. I am very happy to announce that I thoroughly enjoyed this fifth book in the series, and now I'm wanting to catch up with all the adventures of these two men.

One of the small things that was so enjoyable was that Fowler increased my vocabulary. It's not often that writers use words that I'm not familiar with (and may I also add that the built-in dictionary is one of the perks of owning an eReader). Both storylines worked together extremely well. Everyone at the Peculiar Crimes Unit is used to having Bryant and May on hand to solve the crimes, but this time Sergeant Janice Longbright is in charge, and she's petrified that she's going to make a hash of it all. Then there's the young mother and son running from the homicidal maniac while the wind howls and the snow piles up. Fowler lets readers see things from several different perspectives, and my mind really got a workout trying to piece together the clues for both crimes.

As marvelous as the story is in White Corridor, the characters of Bryant and May are superb, especially if you like mysteries with flashes of brilliant humor. How old is Arthur Bryant? "Mr. Bryant is so old that most of his lifetime subscriptions have run out." One of the books in his office is Code-Breaking in Braille, and he planned the route to the psychics convention using a map printed in 1907. You'd never think in a million years that such a person could be any good at solving crimes or be allowed to get away with the things that he does. For the most part, John May is the slightly younger and steadier of the two, but at this stage of the game, May knows it's useless trying to rein in his determined partner. And as far as that "getting away with things" goes, as Fowler says in White Corridor, "The PCU got away with murder because few of their suspects ever did." And that's what it's all about, isn't it? Well, except for the fact that those two have a cell phone with a charge that seems to last till the end of time....

I am thrilled that I gave this series a second chance. Now I have fourteen books to read in order to catch up. Happy reading for me!

White Corridor by Christopher Fowler

eISBN: 9780553903768

Bantam Books © 2007

eBook, 354 pages

Police Procedural, #5 Bryant & May mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.