White Corridor

Years ago, I read the first book in Fowler's Bryant and May series and didn't care for it at all, but always at the back of my mind, I thought there might have been extenuating circumstances. You see, I read Full Dark House while on my very first trip to the UK, and I'm pretty sure my brain was on sensory overload. I am very happy to announce that I thoroughly enjoyed this fifth book in the series, and now I'm wanting to catch up with all the adventures of these two men.

One of the small things that was so enjoyable was that Fowler increased my vocabulary. It's not often that writers use words that I'm not familiar with (and may I also add that the built-in dictionary is one of the perks of owning an eReader). Both storylines worked show more together extremely well. Everyone at the Peculiar Crimes Unit is used to having Bryant and May on hand to solve the crimes, but this time Sergeant Janice Longbright is in charge, and she's petrified that she's going to make a hash of it all. Then there's the young mother and son running from the homicidal maniac while the wind howls and the snow piles up. Fowler lets readers see things from several different perspectives, and my mind really got a workout trying to piece together the clues for both crimes.

As marvelous as the story is in White Corridor, the characters of Bryant and May are superb, especially if you like mysteries with flashes of brilliant humor. How old is Arthur Bryant? "Mr. Bryant is so old that most of his lifetime subscriptions have run out." One of the books in his office is Code-Breaking in Braille, and he planned the route to the psychics convention using a map printed in 1907. You'd never think in a million years that such a person could be any good at solving crimes or be allowed to get away with the things that he does. For the most part, John May is the slightly younger and steadier of the two, but at this stage of the game, May knows it's useless trying to rein in his determined partner. And as far as that "getting away with things" goes, as Fowler says in White Corridor, "The PCU got away with murder because few of their suspects ever did." And that's what it's all about, isn't it? Well, except for the fact that those two have a cell phone with a charge that seems to last till the end of time....

I am thrilled that I gave this series a second chance. Now I have fourteen books to read in order to catch up. Happy reading for me! show less

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 show more 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. show less

With 'White Corridor',Christopher Fowler brings us the fifth and the best in the 'Bryant and May' detective series.
The two aging detectives are stranded far away from their London base in deep snow and howling blizzards. Here they become involved in a desperate hunt for a serial killer. Meanwhile at the 'Peculiar Crimes Unit',the rest of the peculiar members of the team are struggling with several problems of their own. One of them has died in a locked room situation and the remainder are under suspicion of having been involved. The unit is also ,once again,in danger of being closed down and in addition there is a visit threatened by a minor member of the Royal family.
All of the characters who work in this strange department are show more depicted as flawed individuals and over and above the crime element it is in the lives and problems of those people that are perhaps the most interesting part of these stories. Fowler (as I have written in another review) can try to be too clever in his plots and solutions,but in this one he has got the mix just right. show less

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.

This fifth in the series is a lot better than books 1, 3, and 4, although it doesn't for me come up to the standard of the second Bryant and May novel, The Water Room. Be that as it may, the story is rather more varied than the last couple of volumes, with definite and separate plot strands: B & M are stranded in a snowdrift in the west country and have to help their London colleagues by phone who are trying to solve an unexpected death that has come too close for comfort the ancient pathologist attached to the PCU, Oswald Finch, who was about to retire. The unit is also investigating the death of a young woman found in a shop doorway; an apparent drug overdose, but with more mysterious aspects. Meanwhile, Madeline, a young woman with show more an abusive ex-husband has taken her young son to France for a holiday but all is not well as she attracts the attention of a man who murdered his mother, who then follows her back to England where all three are stranded in the same blizzard where May and Byrant are trapped. And of course the unit is under threat of closure, this time through a ruse their arch enemy Kasavian has arranged, where a royal visitor will descend and no doubt be offended by some aspect of the PCU.

I liked this story because it had some good twists. Unlike the last couple of volumes, I didn't work out at least part of the solution or, as in The Seventy-Seven Clocks, find it totally unbelievable (though I suppose hints are dropped that The Seventy-Seven Clocks was mostly made up by Arthur Bryant). White Corridor has suspense, drama and I didn't guess the solution to the various strands before the characters worked it out; this time, it was all a surprise and I think it would probably pay re-reading to see exactly how it comes out once you know the solutions. Not quite up to The Water Room, which I loved, but a well deserved 4 stars. show less

London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit was established to solve crimes that the regular police department couldn’t or wouldn’t solve. It was headed by Senior Detectives Arthur Bryant and John May, who are both past retirement age, and are known to use rather unorthodox methods and resources, including psychics and witches, to help them achieve their goals. The PCU is a very tight-group all fighting two common enemies: crimes and the strong desire of the police department to dissolve it.
In WHITE CORRIDOR the pair are enroute to a psychics convention and become stranded in a terrific snowstorm. No vehicles can move on the crowded highway. Meanwhile, back at the office, one member of the staff is found dead in a locked room. There is a show more possibility of a second death as well. It is up to Sergeant Janice Longbright, to lead the investigation. Bryant and May can only assist by cell phone.
The fifth in the PCU series, the story is, as always, well-written and enjoyable, with wit mixed into the story line. One of my favorite examples is a conversation between a boy and his mother: Referring to his croissant, Ryan states, “Only the French could invent bread that explodes when you try to eat it.” His mother replies, “I wanted a child, I got Noel Coward.” “Who’s Noel Coward?” Ryan asked.
Some current philosophy also is included. While discussing the current state of education and discourse, Bryant states: “Through the proliferation of deliberately obscuring clutter, our access to hard information is being radically reduced. If you take away knowledge you create myth, not the old myths that help to underpin and elucidate the human condition, but ones with the more sinister purpose of increasing commercial gain.”
And “I suppose the worst thing isn’t that there might be nothing after my death, but there might be nothing before it.”
While there is some mention of previous books in the series, it is not necessary to read them first nor to not appreciate them when you go back and read them, which you likely will when you get hooked on the PCU series. show less

In the filing cabinets opposite were secret details of cases no other unit in the country had the ability to unravel. The PCU had earned the right to handle the kind of investigations no-one in the Metropolitan Police force had the faintest interest in solving. They had captured demons and devils, phantoms and monsters; not real ones, of course, mostly deluded loners who believed themselves invulnerable to the law. Individuals who had stolen, blackmailed and killed for tenebrous, private purposes, to protect themselves, to hide truths, to destroy enemies. Murder, Arthur Bryant insisted, was invariably a squalid, sad business driven by poverty and desperation, yet the cases passed to the Peculiar Crimes Unit had often been marked by show more paradox and absurdity. Sometimes they were the dream cases other detectives fantasised about resolving, but Bryant and May chose their staff with care, employing novices who were knowledgeable social misfits, in the same way that computer companies sometimes hired the very hackers who had attacked their clients from behind bedroom doors.

This was the fourth book in the Bryant & May series that I have read, and I found it an improvement on Seventy-Seven Clocks but not as good as Full Dark House or Ten-Second Staircase.

I enjoyed the goings-on in the PCU's offices in London much more than the crime that Bryant and May stumbled across in a snow-bound traffic jam on Dartmoor. show less