Full Dark House (original 2003; udgave 2003)

The first in a series and I think I’ll look for others!

This bounces between 2000 and when the two partners met during WWII – 1940s.

John May reported early to his new job. He was of a tall, sportive look, down to earth, good with people and 19 years old. He is reporting to Arthur Bryant, indoor type, shorter and heavier, an ever curious mind that works on its own system, and not always good with people. The two unlikely will form a working bond that stretches over 60 years, while working on the North London Peculiar Crimes Unit of the police force.

The first case is an unusual murder at the Palace Theatre. It is a gruesome sight and things keep being more gruesome and peculiar. The play is “Orpheus in the Underworld,” based in Greek mythology. The murders seem to tie into the various actors and the characters they play.

In trying to untangle and tie the threads in a logical order, Bryant calls in a psychic friend to see if she can give a reading. Bryant also seems to go off on strange tangents in analyzing the clues and actions involved. Meanwhile, May is a more standard procedure type, and finds himself frequently puzzled by Bryant’s behaviour.

The action in 2000 involves an explosion at the Peculiar Crime offices. A body is found in the rubble with no ID, but it is figured to be Bryant. Being an insomniac, it isn’t unusual for him to work late or all night. May was the last to see Bryant when he left.

It is also found that Bryant is revisiting the Palace Theatre murders from WWII. There is a loose bit Bryant is determined to snag and tie up, even though the case was considered solved. Is there someone still alive, who is responsible for the blast that was involved in this old case?

The story moves and meanders, but the assortment of characters keeps it ( )

An interesting hodge-podge of a book with an implausible plot, odd allusions, a meticulous base in both the London of the Blitz and in the present day, and a lot of unlikely motivations, this mystery still managed to keep my attention for a good read. It was difficult in the beginning to follow when it switched from the present to the past, and there were a few too many characters, but after a while I got the hang of it. ( )

The premise behind this book was intriguing: a Peculiar Crimes Unit, set up during the Blitz quietly to handle crimes that might undermine civilian morale, leaving lots of room for Mulder-meets-British-stiff-upper-lip humour.

The Unit is led by Bryant: an eccentric, ostentatiously intuitive, tactless, scarf-wearing, driven twenty-two-year-old who is more comfortable with exotic books than with ordinary people. His newly-hired first-day-on-the-job side-kick is the enthusiastic, scientifically-minded, charming, good-looking nineteen-year-old May, brought in as a detective despite his lack of experience because all the experienced people have left to fight the Germans.

The overall effect was that of a frenetic young "Dr Who" meeting "Endeavour".

I liked the spirit of it. It would make great television. It didn't hold my attention as a book.

The opening, in London in the 1990s when Bryant and May are still serving officers although they are both beyond the normal retirement age, didn't quite work for me. It asked me to care too much about characters I'd barely met. I had no context and so didn't get the emotional impact of the devastating fire-bomb.

Once the story flipped to London during the Blitz it hit its stride. The writing was strong on visuals, a little predictable on dialogue and way out there on the weirdness of plot.

The problem I had was that this retrospective visit to London felt a little too cosy and too nostalgic, a feeling that was amplified by the "Mystique of the Theatre" riff. The murder was surprisingly gruesome but carried little emotional impact.

I abandoned the book when my irritation with the changing points of view, sliding timelines and self-consciously look-how-clever-but-quaint-we-were-back-then technology innovations overwhelmed my interest in who had what to whom and why.

I'm sure many people will enjoy this. Maybe I'd have ridden with it more easily if there was an all-cast audio version but the text by itself didn't hold me. ( )

The plot is very loose, as mysteries go. It barely holds together, and really needed to be reworked. The writing is also a bit loose and sloppy, like Fowler isn't sure who the narrator should be. I didn't particularly connect with the main characters, but did enjoy the London setting. ( )

Another great Peculiar crimes Unit book. I have read about 3 of these books but not in order. They are very well written, well researched and full of information. Full Dark House tells us about living through the second world war in England as well as entertaining us with a Bryant and May mystery. Well worth reading. ( )