Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jul 15, 2009

Stephen rated it:

Bryant and May are a pair of geriatric detectives working the mysterious streets of London, taking the time to puzzle over crimes whose patterns are not immediately obvious, finding connections that might be missed by a policeman working the beat and looking to meet his targets. In this, the first I've read in the series, their Peculiar Crimes Unit faces closure, their health deterioriates, and a man is murdering women in the middle of crowded pubs.

Bryant and May are similar in many More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 15, 2010

Alana rated it:

So, normally, I think that GoodReads trumps LibraryThing, or at least most of the time. But LibraryThing will give me free advanced reading copies of books and that's pretty sweet.

The Victoria Vanishes is apparently the sixth book in a series that fall under the "Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery" series title.
I was charmed by our two main characters, Arthur Bryant and John May -- gentlemen detectives of a certain era, one of whom certainly merits the designation of "pe More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2010

Kristi rated it:

I must start this review by stating that I had not read any other Christopher Fowler books, including the 5 preceding PCU books. With that in mind, I think this book would have been more satisfying had I read the prior books in the series.[return][return]Jumping in at book 6 is never ideal, but some authors set you up well to do so. In this case I felt a little blind. There were a fair bit of characters in the book being referred to by first or last name and little in the way of character traits More...

0 comments like

Mar 06, 2011

Spuddie rated it:

#6 Bryant & May "Peculiar Crimes Unit" mystery set in London. When a middle-aged woman dies in suspicious circumstances in a London street, Arthur Bryant recognizes her, having seen her entering a pub the evening before as he was walking home half-soused from Oswald Finch's wake. The problem comes when he and his partner John May go to find the pub and find that not only is it not there, but it hadn't been there since sometime in the 1800's.

When several other middle aged-w More...

0 comments like

Apr 13, 2010

Anne rated it:

This is the second 'Peculiar Crimes Unit' mystery I've read and the character of Detective Bryant comes across very clearly here as the absent-minded, but brilliant, polymath, especially in the arcane history of London pubs in this adventure. The ending is preposterous and implausible, but the book is very funny and well-written, so it's still worth reading if you aren't a stickler for logical conclusions in mysteries.
Sample excerpt, Bryant giving a eulogy for their medical examiner, 'Oswa More...

0 comments like

Dec 30, 2010

Laurie rated it:

I picked this one up because I was snowed in and bored. From my point of view it takes a bit of getting used to ... for one thing I'm not really a crime-fiction reader (except Wallander). But I find that Bryant and May are sort of growing on me: elderly eccentrics who, working together, have a particular talent for the detection of the apparently inexplicable (including, in this book, murders not thought to be anything other than natural deaths). Whether I'll like the whole book remains to be se More...

0 comments like

Oct 14, 2011

Toni rated it:

Another crime for the Quirky Peculiar Crimes Unit!

All the cast of characters is present, even new ones slowly settling into the unusual, not-by-the book routine but besides the danger offered from the killer--and the men behind the killer--other dangers threaten. John May, Bryant's partner has unexpectedly resigned and won't give an acceptable reason why, and the home office, which has been trying to close the Peculiar Crimes Unit for an interminable time, appears to have finally foun More...

0 comments like

Jun 29, 2009

Jeff rated it:

I read this on the plane home from UK and wish I'd read it there or before going. An intricate and eccentric mystery by someone who knows London by heart and loves the place. This one concentrates on the pubs and makes you want to visit them one by one. Seriously! Just don't get murdered in one if you can help it.

Other fabulous Fowler mysteries include The Water Room (featuring the real life underground waterways of London as major factor in the plot) and an excellent book whose More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2009

Laren rated it:

I have read one of the other Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) mysteries and it was interesting, with the characters numerous quirks being both amusing and effecive. In this one however, they are neither. Women are being killed by lethal injection at various taverns around town. One of them is seen outside a tavern by a member of the PCU shortly before her death. however, it turns out that this particular tavern doesn't exist, or rather, it used to exist, but not anymore, so this is how the murders More...

0 comments like

Jan 27, 2009

Danielle rated it:

This book is a prime example of why I don't like to read series books anywhere other than the first book. There is a strong sense that this is the final book--with lots of references to previous cases.

The detectives, May and Bryant, are getting old and are ready to retire. Their division, the Peculiar Crimes Unit,is about to close (but I guess the closing of the division is a common threat to all the books).

The mystery is interesting, but the book moves slow. And u More...

0 comments like

Mar 21, 2011

Michele rated it:

This was the first Bryant & May I read, ever. It was a good book in that, as number 6 in a series, it easily stood on its own with the story. It really does help if you are even vaguely famililar with modern London or have been to any of the older pubs in England. As I lived in the UK for more than seven years, it was easy to relate to the story. I enjoyed the detectives and the Peculiar Crimes Unit so much that I went looking for more and found a wonderful series. I started the entire seri More...

0 comments like

Sep 15, 2009

Jeanne rated it:

This appears to be the final installment in the Bryant & May series—drat! I love these crusty old gents! Anyway, please forgive me for skipping to the end of the series—I get what I can get from the library.

So, a killer has been targeting middle-aged women in London’s pubs. He injects them with a lethal dose of drugs and watches them quietly slip away. Of course, the PCU must solve this case immediately. If you’re not safe in a pub, where can you be safe?!

Naturally, More...

0 comments like

Dec 05, 2008

Tim rated it:

The Peculiar Crimes Unit is a British investigative force that looks into crimes that fall outside the realm of "normal" policing. These mysteries aren't exactly cozies, but they are quite charming and very British in their eccentricities. Led by two octogenarian detectives that have been together since the end of the second world war, the group is called upon to investigate a baffling case of women being murdered in pubs around London. It wouldn't be a Peculiar Crimes Unit story witho More...

0 comments like

Jun 14, 2010

Iris rated it:

The Victoria Cross is a London pub that vanishes overnight. Unfortunately, it also appears to be the scene of a murder. Fortunatly, the detectives of the Pecular Crimes Unit pick up the case.

I read this book since it won an award for funniest mystery novel. I didn't find it to be laugh-out-loud funny. Quirky probably describes it better. It was a different style of mystery than I normally read, but I didn't find it very plausible. I will probably try another though.

More...

0 comments like

Mar 25, 2009

Sarah rated it:

This is the book that compels me to wake up in the middle of the night to sneak in another chapter.... I'm usually not a fan of mysteries, and this isn't the boilerplate whodunnit. (It's also not as contrived as the Jasper Fforde Literary Crimes novels, which I have tried but never warmed to.) Most of the focus is on the internal doings of the Peculiar Crimes Unit. One imagines the BBC having fun filming this series sometime in the future.

A small note: my edition has a different cov More...

0 comments like

Aug 15, 2010

InfoShaman rated it:

I enjoyed this so much, and its unusual concept, that I intend to read the rest of the series. A delightful and well written mystery.

I used to feel guilty if I wasn't reading "great" literature or "serious" non-fiction. But now I've reached an advanced age where, if I don't find a book entertaining or informative, I give the author no more than 50 pages max to grab my attention. This explains why most of my reading is labeled with 3, 4, or 5 stars. Anything less t More...

0 comments like

Apr 20, 2011

Ian rated it:

Reminiscent in more ways than one of Edmund Crispin's THE MOVING TOYSHOP: not just in its basic premise - someone witnesses a crime at a location that somehow turns out never to have existed when he goes back to investigate - but in the way the author appears more interested in riffing on traditional notions of British eccentricity than constructing a coherent or believable mystery. As is often the case with Crispin as well, I'm not convinced anyone could guess whodunit based purely on the evid More...

0 comments like

Aug 27, 2011

Peggy rated it:

Leave it to me to start a series with #6! Each book can stand on its own though and I thoroughly enjoyed this romp through some of London's most famous pubs on the way to solving a very odd string of murders. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is full of 'peculiar' detectives.

I loved everyone of these quirky detectives - Bryant - getting old and forgetful, hopes he can remember the info he digs up until he can tell someone else in the dept. Mays - He just found out he has a tumor on the wall of More...

1 comment like

Jan 12, 2009

Joanne rated it:

This is the fourth in a series that I just discovered. Bryant and May are elderly detectives in the Peculiar Crimes Unit, which investigates, well, peculiar crimes. Like this one where women keep getting murdered in pubs -- just about as public a space as one could imagine, yet no one sees the crime. And then on the way home one night one of the detectives sees one of the victims enter a pub. When the find her body on the sidewalk in the morning, the pub is no longer there. It hasn't been t More...

0 comments like

Oct 26, 2008

Carey rated it:

Something terrible is happening in the old pubs of London. Women are being gently killed in the middle of crowded and noisy nightspots. The first couple of deaths are not tied together right away. But then the similarities are noticed by Arthur Bryant of the Peculiar Crimes Unit and the hunt for a murderer begins.

Bryant and his partner, John May, are an unusual pair. They are in their eighties and have been solving London's oddest crimes for years. They are an anachronism, solving ca More...

0 comments like

Aug 05, 2008

LJ rated it:

THE VICTORIA VANISHES (Pol. Proc-Bryant & May-London-Cont) – VG+
Fowler, Christopher – 6th in series
Doubleday, 2008, UK Hardcover – ISBN: 9780385610681

First Sentence: She had four and a half minutes left to live.

Pathologist Oswald Finch is dead, May has been diagnosed with a tumor on his heart and Bryant has submitted his resignation letter. On his way home from Finch’s wake, Bryant notices a woman going into a pub. The woman is later found dead and when th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 14, 2010

Lynne-marie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Dec 22, 2009

Marcy rated it:

This book is the 6th installment in the Peculiar Crimes Unit series, but only the 1st I've read. The PCU is tasked to nvestigate unusual crimes, is headed by 2 very senior (advanced in age) detectives and staffed by a very odd combination of law enforcement types. Middle age women are dying in the pubs of London and the PCU is on the case. A complex plot with the mystery seemingly solved before it is, great writing which evokes a very visual London and lots of quick witted humor made this a v More...

0 comments like

Apr 26, 2009

Sian rated it:

As with "White Corridor", a bit bland and the "A" plot tries, as always, for something scandalous and au courant that doesn't fit the tone of the series. The strongest books in this series are the ones that spend much of their time in the past, and this one, while waxing nostalgic about London, stays firmly in the present. Still, the writing is better than many, and it's chock full of characters I'm quite fond of. In particular, this one has a sweet and autumnal note.

0 comments like

Aug 03, 2010

Tracy rated it:

Well, in a technical sense this book wasn't really All That. The history of the internal politics weren't explained enough so that this book stood on its own (if that sort of thing matters to the reader). There were some jumps in detection that seemed to be there only to move the story along more quickly. The actual mystery wasn't much of a mystery and the "twist" seemed more of a throw-in rather than an important (or interesting) addition to the story.

BUT. I really liked More...

0 comments like

Sep 02, 2011

Candy added it

Well, yes, Fowler does indulge a bit too much in London blue-badge guide lore, but for me it's irresistible. The Victoria is (or isn't) a pub, and its hypothetical location is on my route from the St. Pancras public library to lunch, or back to the Penn Club. Most of the murders occur in pubs that don't vanish and are actually there--Fowler even includes a list, with addresses, as an appendix, with a plea to "help protect the city's unique social network by buying a few pints in one." More...

0 comments like

Aug 02, 2009

Jon rated it:

I really like the characters in this series...wooly, professorial Arthur Bryant and dapper, sophisticated John May. I also enjoy the tidbits of British history and mythology. But the plots always leave me slightly dissatisfied. In this novel single, middle-aged women are getting killed in the middle of bustling pubs...a series of crimes that almost go unnoticed, until Arthur Bryant accidentally stumbles upon the case.

0 comments like

Jan 30, 2009

Patrick rated it:

I just discovered this series of offbeat procedurals.

Arthur Bryant and John May are the senior detectives and guiding lights of the Peculiar Crimes Unit. TVV is, apparently, the last entry in the series, so naturally I read it first.

D'oh!

Funny, clever stuff — plenty of whodunnit plus the antics of Bryant, who regularly consults psychics, witches, and other unconventional sources.

0 comments like

Jul 02, 2010

Sherry rated it:

Although I don't remember a lot, Mr. Fowler's books are filled with historical facts. IMO, this certainly adds to the story. His mysteries are quirky and full of twists. His characters are intelligent and fun. The different, mainly London locations, are described so one feels he can see it. I recommend the Bryant and May stories to anyone who likes their mysteries a little different. But, it is best to begin with the first in the series.

0 comments like

Jul 31, 2011

Pip100 added it

This was intended to be the last Bryant and May mystery (it was supposed to be a series of six novels), but Fowler has just released book seven. As a result, much of the melancholic breaking up of the Peculiar Crimes Unit now feels a little hollow, but it's a good read nonetheless. Not the best in the series (I'd be pushing Ten Second Staircase for that award), but still highly readable.

0 comments like

reviews