Full Dark House (Peculiar Crimes Unit Series #1)

This book began a new obsession!

I have spent many weeks in London over the years, so I was prepared to like this first in a series of novels about an offbeat crime-solving team in that city. I read this novel and its sequels with my A to Z street guide in hand. While the present time focus is on a terrorist bombing of their headquarters, or so it seems, the back story tells of the very first case the detective team of Bryant and May ever worked on together, at a theater during the Blitz in 1942. It was engrossing--both complex and inventive, but also humorous and ironic. I immediately ordered every other novel in the series, and I am now on the latest, published in November 2008,called The Victoria Vanishes. The Victoria in question is not the train station, as I had first believed, nor the express train to Brighton from that station or to and from Gatwick, but a pub named the Victoria Cross. As befits Bryant's (and Fowler's) fascination with London, we need a history of London pubs in order to solve the pub murders accurately. I hope these old guys go on forever.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Great characters

A little slow at the start but I couldn't put the book down after the first 50 or so pages. Nice character development.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Fabulous

Fowler is a wonderful author and the first book in his Bryant and May goes to prove that. You'll be left guessing up until the very end and love every moment of it. The characters are dynamic and it has been an absolute treat to have stumbled across this author.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

For Corner Mouse

Are you joking? Have you ever read a closed door mystery before. Wills Feeman Crofts, G. K Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers. Your opinion is worthless here. Let true fans of the genre weigh in before they read your sadly ignorant review.

Mycroft

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fine start to this new mystery series

Detective Sergeant Janice Longbright learns from long time Detective John May that an explosion killed his peer Detective Arthur Bryant. John and Arthur first met when the Peculiar Crimes Unit was established in 1940 and they investigated a weird murder of a dancer at the Palace Theatre. That case with its odd occult like feel forms the start of a long time friendship and partnership.................................. Now both octogenarians, it appears that Arthur was writing his memoirs when a six decades old bomb from the World War II Blitz exploded and killed him. John, who had talked to his buddy just prior to his death, finds a design of the Palace amongst the ruins of Bryant¿s residence. Was his partner killed because someone wants the sixty plus years old crime to remain cold or was this just an accident caused by the victim¿s own absent minded brilliant lifestyle? John believes murder has occurred and he plans to prove it...................................... FULL DARK HOUSE is a terrific police procedural that uses an occult like homicide from 1940 as the motive for a modern day killing. The story line is driven by the octogenarian John and to a degree supplemented by his long time detective partner Arthur though the latter is dead and appears more as either flashback thoughts or the victim. The sleuthing is fabulous and the support cast realistically add depth to the hero, but when all is said and done this novel belongs to dedicated John, who somewhat obsessed in solving his pal¿s death hopefully is around for a decade or two solving more London murders............................... Harriet Klausner

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fun and entertaining

Well put together storyline with engaging characters. Good read.

Great Read!

This book was great! It had great quirky characters, history, humor. Cant wait to read the rest of the series.

Keeps you interested!

I read books from several genres but I haven't picked up a mystery in a while. This book got me completely hooked on mysteries again! I've already bought another book from the same author to read. The appealing quality is the flashbacks to WWII era London juxtaposed with current terrorist situations in London. The similarities and differences from each era are very interesting. Great read!

Bought because of the book cover

The book cover caught my eye I must admit. (I'm all about the marketing.) I found it slow going. Usually, I am a very fast reader, but just couldn't get into this one. I've picked it up and put it back down about three times now and am only about 1/4 of the way through. I will finish it eventually, but just haven't found myself that interested. I normally start and finish a book in a day, but this one hasn't grabbed me.

For Bunter

Thank you, Mycroft. Because of you, I will indeed be reading this book.

Too far out

This reviewer does not understand the popular success that had made the "Peculiar Crimes" squad the success that has spawned an extensive series chronicalling their escapades. It belongs to that class of "mysteries" in which the utterly improbable blends with the absolutely impossible to create a product that might better be cataloged under fantasy, albeit without the witchcraft. To properly appreciate this work one must be prepared to accept characters whose motivations would in the real world would be addressed by psychiatric attention, police procedures that might reasonably be expected to receive the earnest attention of upper management, if not the Supreme Court, and a deus ex machina ending in which a pivotal character who has spent most of the book in disembodied fragments from a bomb magically reappears as if produced with a flourish from Zeus' hat.

In the interest of full disclosure, my wife liked it. Go figure.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A great unique series!!!!

Go and buy every one of the Bryant and May books, then sit down and get ready to READ! I have trouble remembering that these guys are fictional characters. I keep wanting to look them up at the PCU in London. They are the 2 most engaging elderly detectives you will ever meet in fiction. Absolutely unique.

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