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The Second Bryant & May Mystery
by Christopher FowlerFrom the book jacket: They are detection's
oddest couple: two cranky detectives whose professional
partnership dates back half a century. Now Arthur Bryant and
John May, of London's 'Peculiar Crimes Unit' return in a case
of multiple murder that twists through a subterranean course
of secrets, lies, and extreme passions that drive even
ordinary men and women to the most shocking crimes.
Comment: Publishers Weekly awards The Water Room a
'starred review' and Booklist also praises saying, 'the
real thrill here is the delightful duo in the starring roles,
two fresh and unusual characters who manage to breathe new
life into an established genre in which it's getting harder
and harder to find anything genuinely fresh. However,
Kirkus Reviews is more guarded describing it as 'humorous,
engaging, at times incoherent'. The New York Times has the
final word saying, 'the plot isn't designed to make sense
but to draw us into an imaginative funhouse of a world where
sage minds go to expand their vistas and sharpen their wits.
This is
Fowler's 12th novel and the second in his Bryant & May
series, the first being Full Dark House. He lives
and works in Soho, London, where he runs The Creative
Partnership, a movie marketing company that produces TV
and radio scripts, documentaries, trailers and promos.
He spends half the day with his company and half
writing.
Although he began as a writer of humorous books, he now
focuses on what he describes as 'urban unease'. The
Peculiar Crimes Unit is Fowler's invention - it handles
crimes that the regular police are not equipped to deal
with, cases that could cause social panic and ones that
require sensitive handling. Full Dark House is
set in 1940s London, but this second book is set in the
1990s. Fowler says, 'you know from the first book that
they work together for fifty years, so I'm not too
worried about being sequential'.
The third in the series, Seventy-Seven Clocks, was published last year, in what looks to be a paperback original (at least in the USA), and Ten Second Staircase will be published in hardcover in late June. Fowler says he is planning at least six books in the series, maybe more.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in July 2005, and has been updated for the
April 2006 edition.
Click here to go to this issue.
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