Product Description

It’s a case tailor-made for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. A lonely hearts killer is targeting middle-aged women at some of England’s most well-known pubs—including one torn down eighty years ago. What’s more, Arthur Bryant happened to see one of the victims only moments before her death at the pub that doesn’t exist. Indeed, this case is littered with clues that defy everything the veteran detectives know about the habits of serial killers, the methodology of crime, and the odds of making an arrest. Now, with the public on the verge of panic and their superiors determined to shut the PCU down for good, Detectives Bryant and May must rise to the occasion in defense of two great English traditions—the pub and the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

That’s easier said than done. A lost funeral urn, the eighteenth-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, the Knights Templars, the secret history of pubs, and the discovery of an astounding religious relic may be enough to convince one of the pair to take back his resignation letter. But with Bryant consulting a memory specialist and May encountering a brush with mortality, do the Peculiar Crimes Unit’s two living legends have enough life left to stop a murderous conspiracy…and a deadly cupid targeting one of their own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #468299 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-28
• Released on: 2008-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780553805024
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Officialdom casts a skeptical eye on the unorthodox crime solving of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit in Fowler's excellent sixth novel to feature senior detectives Arthur Bryant and John May (after 2007's White Corridor). While the unit's members scheme to insure their professional survival, a serial killer is targeting middle-aged women who drop dead in pubs, apparently of natural causes. Bryant puts the investigation on his team's docket after realizing that he observed one of the victims, shortly before her demise, enter the Victoria Cross, a pub that hasn't existed for almost a century. Characters who could easily have been caricatures in lesser hands assume enough depth to make them both plausible and engaging. If this is indeed the last in the series as the conclusion suggests, then the versatile author has ended on a high note. Those who appreciate Fowler's special blend of the macabre, dark humor and impossible crime puzzles will wish they haven't seen the last of Bryant and May. (Oct.)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Cackles and chills await readers in Fowler’s sixth installment in his series featuring Arthur Bryant and John May, two irrepressible British sleuths a bit long in the tooth. As senior detectives in the aptly named Peculiar Crimes Unit, the pair tackles quirky cases no other copper can crack. Detective May is the more affable of the two, while pipe-smoking misanthrope Bryant relishes every opportunity to rankle the ranks. This time around, they’re after a perpetrator preying on middle-age women in the city’s most popular watering holes. His method—engaging victims in conversation as he injects them with a toxic cocktail—enables him to go virtually unnoticed among the nightly hubbub of pubs. Bryant and May discover a connection between the victims, but the most critical clues, it turns out, are embedded in the history of the alehouses themselves (including the long-gone Victoria Cross, where Bryant swears he saw one of the victims just moments before her death). Meanwhile, Bryant must contend with a failing memory, May with failing health, and both with the possibility that the ever-more-peculiar Peculiar Crimes Unit will be shut down for good. Dry wit and a heady dose of British history make this crisp whodunit good to the last drop. --Allison Block

Review
“How many locked-room puzzles can Bryant and May unlock before their Peculiar Crimes Unit is disbanded? Many more, one hopes!” —Kirkus Reviews

“The team's heart and soul are its elderly lead detectives, John May and Arthur Bryant. Bryant is especially endearing cranky, absent-minded, brilliant and stuffed with obscure information about London.”—Seattle Times


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

Well-written mystery
The Victoria Vanishes is the sixth installment in the Peculiar Crimes Unit series featuring Bryant and May, two detectives who have unusual methods of solving unusual crimes. One evening, in front of the Victoria Cross pub, Bryant sees a woman murdered. Later, when he goes to investigate, he finds that the pub doesn't exist. One murder turns into several as a killer is tracked down.

There's not only murder in this intelligent mystery, but lore about the old pubs of London and a government conspiracy. The strength of the novel lies in the psychological evaluations of the murderer, the characterizations of Bryant, May, and their colleagues, and the pub lore. As one of the characters says, "The pubs of London are taken almost completely for granted by those who drink in them. Every single one has a unique and extraordinary history...these places hold the key to our past, and therefore present. They're an unappreciated indication of who we are, and a sign of all we've lost and remember fondly." And every now and then, Fowler attempts to infuse the book with a little humor. This novel is well-written and charming, and I look forward to reading more novels in the series.

"I'm far too old to start obeying the rules now."
In Christopher Fowler's "The Victoria Vanishes," the London-based Peculiar Crimes Unit investigates the case of a mysterious killer who targets women, seemingly at random, in English pubs. Arthur Bryant and John May, who are senior detectives and long-time partners, for many years have used their esoteric knowledge, unique skills, and willingness to skirt the law to solve unusual and confounding crimes. Both men are past retirement age and it shows. May, who is the more grounded of the two, is ailing and scheduled for surgery; Arthur's memory, vision, and hearing are all gradually deteriorating and he is considering retirement.

Meanwhile, both men still care deeply about their mission: "to deal with crimes that could cause civil unrest and political embarrassment," as well as with those arcane matters that no ordinary detective would have the imagination and expertise to tackle successfully. Unfortunately, the top brass at the Home Office has long tried to shut the PCU down. To hasten the unit's demise, a stickler for procedure named Jack Renfield has been named the PCU's Duty Sergeant. He smugly declares, "I'll be putting a curb on some of your more illegal habits...making sure there are no more of your famous breaches of conduct."

When Arthur witnesses a woman walking into a pub called the Victoria Cross, he believes that he has unearthed a clue to a series of killings could conceivably terrorize the city's female population. However, he later discovers that the Victoria Cross has not existed for over seventy-five years. Is this a sign that he is losing his mind at last? Why would someone kill women in pubs at all, a place where there are witnesses galore? Even when the PCU's team closes in on a suspect, Bryant suspects that the situation is far more complex than any of them could have imagined.

The most entertaining aspects of this novel are its intelligent humor and amusingly sarcastic and witty dialogue. I laughed until I cried at the irreverent eulogy delivered by Bryant at the wake of the late, unlamented Oswald Elias Finch, the PCU's former pathologist who died in his own morgue. Bryant drunkenly ticks off the deceased's less attractive qualities: "No sense of humour, no charm, friendless, embittered, stone-faced and bloody miserable, on top of which he stank." For some unaccountable reason, Bryant has the job of disposing of the dead man's ashes, an assignment which proves to be a bit too much for the sloshed detective.

Fowler celebrates the unique character of London, a place steeped in both history and eccentricity. He has created a wonderful cast of characters in the PCU: Sergeant Janice Longbright, a lonely woman who has sacrificed a social life for her career and is beginning to regret it; Meera Mangeshkar, a tough female cop who grew up on a council estate; the ethereal April, John May's granddaughter, a recovering agoraphobic who is superb at assembling and interpreting police reports, evidence, and witness statements; twenty-eight year old Giles Kershaw, a brilliant Eton graduate who is stepping into Finch's shoes as the unit's new pathologist; and Dan Banbury, a hacker who uses his considerable abilities as the PCU's "IT guy and crime scene manager." Each of these individuals has a role to play and, although they bicker at times like any family, they have grown to care deeply about one another.

The book's sole flaw is the mystery itself. For quite a while, the novel moves along briskly, building up a fair amount of suspense, but the implausible and anticlimactic conclusion falls flat. Nevertheless, fans of this series should read "The Victoria Vanishes" for its colorful descriptive writing, inventiveness, and veneration of London's fascinating ambiance. Fowler appreciates life's vagaries as well as the importance of maintaining a bit of skepticism even when things appear to be as plain as the nose on your face.

This is not a work to be skimmed on the bus, but rather to be read in the quiet of solitude
The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) mystery series by Christopher Fowler is one of a kind. Unapologetically British, one finds elements of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, James Bond, "The Avengers" and "Danger Mouse" circulating throughout the books, yet the concept is delightfully unique. The PCU is a division of the London Metropolitan Police Department, which has been in existence for over 60 years. Arthur Bryant and John May, its stalwart, eccentric detectives, have been at the de facto helm for more or less the entire time, riding herd over a group of square but interesting pegs who can't fit in anywhere else.

In THE VICTORIA VANISHES, middle-aged women are turning up dead in London pubs. The manner of their deaths --- the administration of a painless, extremely quick-acting poison --- is puzzling as well. What is confounding is that Bryant appears to have been the last person to see one of the victims alive, outside of a pub that had been demolished some 80 years previously. He is at a loss. Already coming to doubt the veracity of his observational faculties, he is seriously contemplating retirement. As with so many of their other investigations, the sheer volume of Bryant and May's case history, and Bryant's encyclopedic if arcane body of knowledge --- hampered only by his sporadic though temporary memory lapses --- ultimately win the day.

There is a bit of logic to this, given that, in their world, Bryant and May have been investigating cases for over six decades in one location. Elements of past and present cases dovetail, cross over, dip and swirl, and fall back on themselves. But in this book, when the identity of the murderer is revealed and the cad is apprehended, Bryant is not done. There are some unanswered questions that deal not so much with the murderer's motivation --- that is all too clear --- but with what, or who, wound him up and pointed him toward these particular victims. And what about that vanishing pub?

THE VICTORIA VANISHES is one of those rare books in which the real excitement begins after the murderer is brought to justice. And talk about multiple endings! Fans of the series will be screaming, jumping up and down, unable to believe what they are reading by the time they reach the conclusion. I had to read the ending a couple of times before it sunk in that Fowler indeed was actually carrying out an act that had been hinted at since the beginning of the series. Or is he? That is but one of the many attractions of these novels, which are as delightfully and insidiously addicting as a serotonin supplement.

Fowler makes demands on the reader: the plots are complex, the characters are multi-faceted, and the humor is fast, furious and subtle. This is not a work to be skimmed on the bus, but rather to be read in the quiet of solitude so that every word, sentence and nuance can be fully appreciated alone and within context.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub