An avid reader, Stephen's knowledge of Crime Fiction is fairly extensive, with The Golden Age is his greatest interest.
These short stories from Arthur Bryant's memoirs of his time in the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) are a little piece of disappearing English eccentricity. Bryant's memory is not altogether reliable and he does tend to mix fiction and fact so these cases have been checked as best they can by his biographer Cynthia Birdhanger.
With these tales you not only get two very original detectives who do a lot more than just lateral thinking when trying to solve a case, you also get a very convincing back street history of London too. Arthur Bryant & John May the two senior detectives on the staff of the PCU have appeared in more than a dozen novels and now two volumes of short stories all of which are entertaining, intriguing, comical and a joy to read.
The two detectives have been around a long time, but though time may diminish the speed and sap the stamina of many it has little effect on the PCU's finest. Well they were never very quick & Bryant certainly tired easily. Their skill lies in thinking well away from the box and in Bryant's case using all manner of people to help him, often shaman, witches and other arcane individuals.
There are a number of PCU staffers who aid our detective duo from the long suffering Unit Chief Raymond Land down to the Two Daves the maintenance men called in on a semi permanent basis to keep the PCU building in Caledonian Road from falling apart. By the way, PCU is at Caledonian Road because Bryant managed to set fire to their old offices in Mornington Crescent!
The PCU has somehow survived, since being set up in Wartime, despite failing to move with the times in modern policing, missing performance targets and still employing two senior citizens who have been up before disciplinary panels. Bryant & May have even be accused of blackmailing a senior Home Office official. Two ordinary coppers they are not!
In this collection the pair of the Met Police's heirlooms solve the death of Bryant's postman, travel to Transylvania on the tracks of a book thief and try to solve the strange phenomenon of the street corner where more crime incidents take place than anywhere else in the neighborhood.
Mr Fowler's creations are one of the best modern takes on the Golden Age of detective fiction around. You can't help but take them to your heart and they keep on giving book after book.
