From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Full Dark House (Bryant & May, #1)

Christopher Fowler

Start date: December 15, 2017

Finish date: December 31, 2017

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: A short-notice buddy read!
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What Members Thought

Dec 21, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-series-first-novel, uk-fiction, crime-fiction

If I had to classify this novel in terms of genre, it would be somewhere along the lines of British police procedural meets the X-files. I was thinking while I was reading this that it would make a fun movie, but I countered that thought with the knowledge that some screenwriter would just screw it up, so better to leave it in book format.

What a cool book! I originally bought this book in mass market paperback format eons ago, but never got around to reading it until I saw the same book in trad If I had to classify this novel in terms of genre, it would be somewhere along the lines of British police procedural meets the X-files. I was thinking while I was reading this that it would make a fun movie, but I countered that thought with the knowledge that some screenwriter would just screw it up, so better to leave it in book format.

What a cool book! I originally bought this book in mass market paperback format eons ago, but never got around to reading it until I saw the same book in trade paper size (which I really prefer), and I pounced on it. I picked it up last night and didn't look back until I finished it this morning. If that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is.

brief summary; no spoilers here:
Arthur Bryant, a most eccentric partner in detection of John May, was revisiting the pair's first case together some 60 years later, and the lab he was working was blown to kingdom come, taking Bryant with it. John May, of course, whose friendship with Bryant has lasted throughout their career as detectives in the Peculiar Crimes Unit (started during the Blitz in London), is devastated, and realizes that to solve the case of Bryant's death, he has to go back in time to re-examine their first case, since that was what Bryant was working on. It turns out that this case involved a very bizarre production of Orpheus in the Underworld, complete with can-can and high French knickers by the dancers at the end. They were assigned to the case when a pair of feet were discovered on the charcoal brazier of a Turkish street vendor - leading them to the death of a dancer in the theater staging the production. After that, the show was plagued with problems that required special assistance from the Peculiar Crimes Unit -- for example, a medium whose cat channeled the spirit of a dead pilot, along with other, shall we say, more unorthodox methodologies of crime solving. But back to the future: May will not rest until he solves Bryant's death, so he tries to put the missing pieces together to do so.

The book weaves both past and present together to get to the root of the modern-day tragedy, and does it well by examining the original case back at the time of the Blitz. The characters, however, make this novel what it is. Bryant and May are very well suited to each other, and the rest of the characters are not droll toadies relegated to the background, but have lives of their own here. I'm very big on the use of place & setting as a character of its own within a novel, and here Fowler has done that -- the darkness of blacked-out London during the bombings has its own personality. Fowler's descriptions of how people coped and how society worked during the Blitz was also very well done.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes British mysteries, and to people who like mystery spiced with a bit of the fantastic & paranormal, but done so in a way that doesn't turn silly and take you off on ridiculous tangents. I already know I'm going to really enjoy this series and can't wait to get to the others. ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

May 21, 2011 Jan C rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, england, 2011

Excellent. I can't wait for #2 - once I find out what it is.

I was stumped.

It was kind of confusing though - always jumping backwards and forwards through time. One place we are in the '40s and then the next thing you know, we are back in the present day. Admittedly both cases did tie together but it took me a little bit grasping that we were no longer in the same time zone.

Sorry time traveler lovers - this is not "time travel" but just two stories in two different decades taking place within the ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 30, 2015 Julie Durnell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the first book in the series of symbiotic partners in the Peculiar Crimes Unit, Arthur Bryant and John May. I found this book of their first and "last" cases to be a complex and engrossing mystery. The relationship of the two friends and partners is well written and I look forward to reading more of their stories. The background of the first case, which begins with the formulation of the PCU, takes place in London during the Blitz, centering on the Palace Theater production of Orpheus in ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Nov 12, 2017 Jenn Estepp rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindling, world-at-war-twice, libraries-are-great, sleuths-and-gumshoes

Super entertaining. I'm looking forward to reading more in this series. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 18, 2012 Tom rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Terribly over-written. Could have cut out 100 pages and not missed it. Too much detail, too much description, it's supposed to be a mystery-thriller - it just dragged. ...more

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