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This is the eighth time that Arthur Bryant has shambled onto the stage, along with his dapper colleague, John May. Their last case, which seemed to have concluded triumphantly, went suddenly and horribly wrong. Bryant blames himself, and now he, May, and the Peculiar Crimes Unit have just one week to capture the murderer who got away or the PCU will vanish permanently into the mists of time. The PCU's remit is to investigate crimes that threaten to disturb public confidence in a way different to your ordinary murders and muggings. These tend to be apparently impossible crimes, committed in inexplicable ways that suggest some supernatural intervention. Over the years, Bryant & May have led readers into obscure areas of forgotten London history and lore - the tamed and redirected London rivers, the ancient history and magic commemorated in the names of London pubs, resurrected highwaymen and pagan gods - all underpinning the modern city that ceaselessly changes its face but cannot suppress its past. This time out, it's the Underground, "a kind of ghost London," according to Bryant, "its routes mirror the streets, which in turn follow the hedgerows marking out the city's ancient boundaries. So you could say that the underground provides us with a kind of spiritual blueprint for the passage of London's residents." May remains, as ever, unconvinced. The centre of attention, this time, is King's Cross-St Pancras, where, in the previous book, the "King's Cross Executioner" plied his trade, was caught, and lost again. He appears to be haunting the King's Cross tube station, appearing and disappearing in inexplicable ways and leaving bodies behind as he goes. He is far from the only ghost in that particular station, which has seen more than its fair share of outrage and tragedy, from bombs to the devastating fire in 1987 that cost 31 people their lives and injured at least twice that number. Under the pressure of necessity, the two detectives pursue different approaches to the central puzzle. May, pragmatic as ever, interviews, questions, takes notes. Bryant consults a white witch and a Tarot reader, but primarily tries to winkle out what patterns may underlie the deaths. May, impatient, calls Bryant a "hopeless romantic...Nothing's straightforward with you. It always has to have a hidden meaning." In the end, of course, both methods converge for a successful resolution, just as a very contemporary technologically-driven happening takes over the grand concourse of St Pancras at the climactic moment. The Bryant & May series is clearly not for everyone. Its quirky combination of solid, old-fashioned detection, eccentricity, recourse to the supernatural, and London history is hard to describe, let alone characterize. The books are witty in a very British sort of way. But it is interesting to note the difference between how the British publisher presents this book and the niche that the US publisher apparently hopes to find for it. The cover of the British edition is black, lit only by May's torch and the glow from a station platform at their backs. One is reminded of 1930s police novels or perhaps London during the Blitz. The US cover would be suitable for a new edition of Mary Poppins - all bright pink with rather goofy line illustrations popping out of a suitcase. But mustn't grumble. The series, which for a while now has been teetering, like the PCU itself, on the verge of extinction, has been rescued by its US publisher and Fowler is working on the next as we speak. I myself cannot think of a happier prospect. § Yvonne Klein is a writer, translator, and retired college English professor who lives in Montreal.
Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, October 2010
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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