Hall of Mirrors

September 15, 2018
A prequel that finds Fowler's imperishable detective duo (Bryant & May: Wild Chamber, 2017, etc.) already in hot water back in 1969 as they struggle to solve a country-house mystery deep in Kent, far from the resources of their Peculiar Crimes Unit.When their lively pursuit of sociopathic criminal Burlington Bertie, ne Cedric Powles, gets a little too lively for public safety, Bryant and May's boss, Roger Trapp, dispatches them on a more routine assignment: to babysit businessman Monty Hatton-Jones over the weekend, keeping him safe until he can give evidence against crooked developer Sir Charles Chamberlain Monday morning. What could possibly go wrong? Only this: Monty's fears for his life don't prevent him from accepting a weekend invitation from Lady Beatrice Banks-Marion, who's about to sell her late husband's estate, Tavistock Hall, to millionaire Donald Burke for repurposing as the Burke Better Business School. Monty has a deal brewing with Burke and doesn't intend to be talked out of the trip. Instead, he gets Bryant and May invited along with him, where they join Lady Beatrice's stoner son, Lord Harry; Burke; his wife, Norma; his lawyer, Toby Stafford; nightclub singer Vanessa Harrow; mystery novelist Pamela Claxon; decorator Slade Wilson; the Rev. Trevor Patethric; and diverse members of the Tavistock domestic staff. A local army unit's war games effectively isolate the place, making departure possible only through death, which obligingly arrives in the shape of five separate attempts on the lives of the assembled company, two of them successful. Suddenly, protecting the life of Monty Hatton-Jones looks like the least of Bryant and May's problems.The inspired idea of revisiting the youth of his aged sleuths in swinging England is matched by Fowler's customary gusto in sweating the details. More fully fleshed-out suspects, clues, red herrings, twists, and honest mystery and detection than in the last three whodunits you read.

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October 1, 2018
Set in 1969, Fowler’s solid 15th Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery (after 2017’s Bryant & May: Wild Chamber) lacks the series’ usual bizarre elements but in compensation offers a scenario right out of an Agatha Christie novel. When the efforts of eccentric detectives Arthur Bryant and John May to apprehend someone they believe to be an escaped murderer ends up sinking a ship, they’re taken off regular duties and assigned to watch over whistle-blower Monty Hatton-Jones, a company director who’s scheduled to testify against Sir Charles Chamberlain. Chamberlain, a wealthy London housing developer, has been charged with bribery. A few days before the trial, Bryant and May accompany Hatton-Jones to Tavistock Hall, a country house where their charge is spending the weekend. Tavistock Hall ends up cut off from the outside world because of some military exercises mistakenly scheduled for the area, an unfortunate circumstance that creates a closed circle of suspects after a grisly murder is committed. Fowler evokes the period as neatly as he crafts the plot. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary.

October 15, 2018
The intrepid detective duo of Arthur Bryant and John May, of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit, encounters murder and mayhem in an English manor. "Shades of Agatha Christie, as Bryant comments in recounting the case, which took place in September 1969. Bryant and May are at risk of losing their livelihoods after accidentally blowing up a barge. They can redeem themselves by guarding Monty Hatton-Jones, a key witness in an upcoming trial, who insists on attending a weekend party at Tavistock Hall, soon to be sold by Lady Banks-Marion to millionaire Donald Burke. So the detectives go along, joining guests Burke and his wife, his lawyer, his young mistress, an interior decorator, a vicar, and a mystery novelist. With the manor cut off from the outside world over the weekend, thanks to nearby army maneuvers, the mayhem starts when a gargoyle is pushed from the roof onto Hatton-Jones. This is just the beginning, with the narrative veering between laugh-out-loud funny to macabre (a body in a macerator, murder by knitting needle). This fifteenth Bryant and May outing concludes with an updating on the lives of all the characters. Could this signal an end to the long-running, eccentric, and consistently entertaining series? Let's hope not.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2018

Curmudgeonly detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit are back--really back, as the book time-travels to 1969, when our heroes are condemned to look after Monty Hatton-Jones, the prosecution's chief witness in the trial of a shady developer. Alas, restless Monty insists on attending a party at posh and sprawling Tavistock Hall. Isn't that the perfect country setting for the perfect country murder?

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