The Memory of Blood

Starred review from February 20, 2012
A nasty locked-room mystery involving the murder of an infant—and implicating an inanimate oversized Mr. Punch puppet as the killer—kicks off Fowler’s stellar eighth Peculiar Crimes Unit caper (after 2010’s Bryant & May off the Rails). The PCU’s ace detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, investigate the death of Noah Kramer, newborn son of theater impresario Robert Kramer, during a cast party for the London stage mystery The Two Murderers. They determine that someone involved with the production had to be responsible—but who, and why? When cast members begin dying in accordance with the plot of the historical Punch and Judy puppet show, the detectives immerse themselves in an intrigue involving adultery, professional jealousies, and threats to national security. Fowler makes the most of his odd couples’ personality traits—Bryant’s eccentric pedantry, May’s hard-boiled attitude—amid his trademark mix of whimsical humor and macabre thrills. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

February 15, 2012
The Peculiar Crimes Unit (Bryant & May Off the Rails, 2010, etc.) celebrates its new digs in Caledonian Road by investigating a murder whose leading suspect is Mr. Punch, of Punch and Judy fame. The party to celebrate the opening of Ray Pryce's The Two Murderers, critically panned but highly commercial, comes to a crashing end with the news that theater owner Robert Kramer's 1-year-old son Noah has been hurled from his nursery window. Marks from the hands of a life-size puppet of Punch lying nearby are around the infant's neck; the nursery door is locked from the inside; and the window is utterly inaccessible from the outside. If the puppet didn't throttle and shake the baby to death, who did, and how did he or she make his escape? Called to the scene by the bizarre nature of the crime, Arthur Bryant and John May find many outsized egos--including handsome leading man Marcus Sigler, flamboyant assistant stage manager Gail Strong and snarky reviewer Alex Lansdale, all hiding guilty secrets--but no answers to the obvious questions. To make matters worse, Anna Marquand, the freelance transcriber to whom Bryant has been dictating his memoirs, dies shortly after being mugged outside the door of her flat. Nor is the killer of Noah Kramer content to call it a day. Three more partygoers will die, winnowing the list of suspects without casting any more illumination, before a final brainwave at a reprise of the fatal party leads to an arrest.Though no single element stands out, Fowler achieves a fine balance between the impossible crime, the juggling of suspects and motives, Mr. Bryant's flights of recondite erudition, the planting and decoding of clues and the obligatory plots to discredit and disband the PCU.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2012

In modern London, elderly detective Arthur Bryant of the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) is an anachronism. "You're still a Victorian at heart," says his equally ancient but more tech-savvy partner, John May. "You'd like to see the return of fog and cobblestone streets and tuberculosis, and sticking kids up chimneys." Although their superiors would love to disband their unit, there is a method to this eccentric duo's madness as they solve cases deemed too bizarre for ordinary police methods. Their latest case involves a locked-room murder at a theater cast party. The suspect? A Victorian puppet. And that leads our sleuths (and readers) into the fascinating and spooky history of traditional Punch-and-Judy shows. VERDICT With some exceptions (like the preceding Bryant & May off the Rails), this series can be read out of sequence. For newbies, Fowler amusingly includes a secret police document, released on Wikileaks, that outlines the history of the PCU and its team. Fowler's growing body of fans will snatch this one up, and readers who enjoy Golden Age-style mysteries with a spot of humor and gothic atmosphere shouldn't miss this. [A TV series is planned in the UK; Derek Jacobi is rumored to star.--Ed.]--Wilda Williams, Library Journal

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2012
The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) is the black sheep of London's Metropolitan Police Force. This dubious division, originally formed to tackle politically prickly, high-profile cases, has gained infamy for its unorthodox methods and quirky staff. Heading the PCU are two seniorand senior-citizendetectives: the bumbling but brilliant Arthur Bryant and the uberfastidious John May. In this ninth installment in Fowler's irreverent series, Bryant, May, and cronies investigate the murder of an infant at a theater cast party. The victim's father is theater owner Robert Julius Kramer, a nefarious real-estate agent long on funds and short on aesthetic sensibility. The child was killed in a locked room of Kramer's opulent London penthouse, where the only possible perpetrator seems to be a Mr. Punch (of Punch and Judy fame). Fowler serves up his usual lively blend of intriguing mystery and wicked wit. He vividly evokes his native London, where the King Charles I Pub had the Smiths on the jukebox, animal heads on the walls and a clientele that often ended up on the floor. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)