a nice period mystery with just a touch of the surreal. ( )

Christopher Fowler is sensitive, realistic and funny. It makes for a great writer. ( )

I was introduced to this series by other fans of the Rivers of London books. It seems urban fantasy-adjacent, though I was expecting it to be more full-on, so I guess I kept waiting for the paranormal stuff to kick in. Arthur Bryant (it is revealed through flashbacks) is a founding detective in the Peculiar Crimes Unit (sounds promising), but it seems he is more keen to find the supernatural among London's criminals, than actually finding it. His new partner, John May, is skeptical that this is a sensible way to investigate crimes, and it seems that in the course of their first case together, they each start coming around to the other's perspective. When people start dying on the production of "Orpheus in the Underworld," which is being staged at a theatre during the London Blitz, Bryant is convinced there is a phantom at work, or at least a killer who is profoundly influenced by the classical mythology in which the play is steeped. May isn't so sure, or at least, he doesn't know what to think. This telling of the two detectives' first case together in 1940 is interspersed with the contemporary narrative that follows the death of Bryant, in a fiery explosion, and the resulting investigation that May undertakes, although he is grieving the loss of his partner and friend, and feels unmoored without his counterpart. Both cases unfold with surprises, even if they are more mundane than Bryant would like. I've enjoyed this, and I will continue reading about these detectives. ( )

The first book in the Bryant and May mystery series, recommended by fellow LTers. A pair of British detectives, who have been partners since World War II, are torn apart in modern-day London by a bomb. Investigation indicates that the answer to today's mystery lies in the archives of their first case, a serial killer stalking a theater troupe during the Blitz.

I found this one to be a slow starter. It was definitely a case where my usual method of knowing as little as possible about a book before reading it worked against me, as I spent the first several chapters trying to figure just what the heck was going on. However, the parts set back in the 1940s were engaging in a confusing sort of way, and the modern-day segments seemed a bit shoehorned in, as it were. I'm not sure I was captivated enough to seek out the rest of the series. ( )

** spoiler alert ** Clearly this is a book that many people enjoy, I'm just not one of them -- and I do think it was well written, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I found the characters hard to relate to, unlikable, and generally neither brilliant nor interesting, despite the assurances of their friends. The setting was decent, but then the plot (which purported to be somewhat paranormal) devolved instead into Phantom of the Opera, which I found deeply uninteresting. I kept hoping there would be some plot twist or another to rescue it, but apparently I saw the twist coming from early on as well. Oh well. I think it did capture the bleak malaise that living in a city under continuous bombing must have caused, I just wanted something different from the plot. ( )