White Corridor (2007)

The fifth Bryant and May mystery features a locked room and some long-distance sleuthing. A member of the Peculiar Crimes Unit is found dead in the autopsy room and only four people had the key. Normally our esteemed senior detectives would solve the case themselves, but they're stuck on the highway to Dartmoor en route to a spiritualists' convention. They also have a killer on the loose, prowling the lines of snowbound cars. And as if that isn't enough, there's yet another plot afoot to discredit the PCU and get its funding revoked. All in a day's work for Bryant and May.

I liked this story well enough but the characters held my attention more than the plot most of the time. Bryant and May are always worth the price of admission, with their good-natured bickering, Bryant's eccentricities, and May's long-suffering skepticism. DS Janice Longbright also comes into her own here, being left in charge of the PCU with the lead detectives away, although of course they manage to remain at the other end of the mobile phone for the duration. The pace really picked up in the second half, and I did not guess the solution to either case. Very well done, with a nice twist that makes perfect sense once it's revealed. And the last bit of the story back at PCU hit just the right comic note.

Recommended if you like the series and are in the mood for some blustery winter reading. ( )

Read this for my mystery book club. Jolly good read! The beginning chapters were a bit difficult, but the story finally came together. Really liked the churlish main characters. ( )

The Peculiar Crimes Unit is in danger of losing its funding, but that isn't all that's troubling the team. Bryant and May are trapped in a major snowstorm in the south of England, possibly with a homicidal maniac, and there may be the possibility that a unit team member has murdered of one of their own.
This was not a particularly intricate mystery, but I found it a pleasant read which engaged the mind without sending it into convolutions. Fowler writes characters I enjoy reading about and leaves me wanting to know more. ( )

Typical Bryant and May eventually. The beginning is a bit strange. I thought I'd picked up the wrong book. It eventually got around to the "Bryant and May" detective scenario and was a good read. Not as good as the "Clocks" novel. ( )

An enchanting mystery, or rather two mysteries. One is a classic ‘locked room’ scenario and the other a serial killer haunts a line of snowbound cars occupied and stranded during a freak blizzard. There are passages that are so exactly ‘right’, like the visit by the feared Teutonic princess. London is a living character in the Bryant and May mysteries. A really charming cozy, and something much more.