Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery Hardcover – December 2, 2014

First Sentence: From Raymond Land to All Staff: So, it’s a new beginning for us.The Peculiar Crimes Unit is now under the jurisdiction of the City of London and, as usual, their new top boss would like to see an end to the group. However, two crimes are keeping them in the game. A young man appears to see a body rise from a grave and claims it spoke. Have Resurrectionists returned? But what did the young man see that resulted in his murder a few days later? Someone stole the seven ravens, symbol of the British Empire, from the Tower of London. Only Bryant could discover a link between the two crimes.How wonderful that Fowler includes a cast of characters, in the form of a staff roster, at the beginning of his books. And, right from the start, we are treated to the wonderful voice and humor of Flower. It’s a rare treat when an internal memo can be amusing.It’s nice to have a true ensemble cast of characters, which each playing a significant role in the story and each being fully developed. Although the primary characters are James May and Arthur Bryant—what a wonderful relationship that is--Bryant took the lead here. He seems to have mellowed bit and we learn much more about his past, which is quite lovely, but we did not lose any of that which makes him so delightful. However, all the relationships are so well drawn, the characters transform into being actual people to the reader.Fowler’s voice, wit and dialogue are such a pleasure to read…”Why have you got a house brick in there [Longbright’s handbag]?’ “Under British law you can’t stop a suspect with a weapon but you might be allowed to hit him with something that would naturally be in your hand at the time,”…. “PC Biggs folded her arms. No honest citizen should ever do anything that makes a police officer stand back and fold her arms.” There is also a delightful scene of the pathologist being thrust into a very different role than that to which he is accustomed. Flower is very good at doing the unexpected.There is one small criticism and that is the inclusion of portents. Portents are really, really annoying, unnecessary and, rather than create suspense, have the opposite effect. They are also somewhat insulting to the reader as it’s as though the author assumes the reader won’t continue otherwise.“The Bleeding Heart” is very clever with wonderfully logical explanations of crimes which seemed so odd. It is an absolutely delightful book.THE BLEEDING HEART (Pol Proc-Bryant and May-London-Contemp) – VG+Fowler, Christopher – 11th in seriesDecember, 2014

"The Bleeding Heart" is the 13th book in the series on London's (fictional) Peculiar Crimes Unit, but it's the first one I've read. I bought it because of a good review in the newspaper. It's the somewhat meandering story of how a series of murders are tied together, and in that regard it's much the same as many good crime novels. The plot gradually thickens, and watching it slowly congeal is entertaining, not boring. But what makes this book fun is the author's gift for dialog, including some wonderful tongue-in-cheek humor.Examples: "Most of the time sin and ill fortune surrounded her...until she sometimes longed for the release that eternal sleep would bring. On other days she cheered up a bit and went to bingo." Or this line, spoken by the Chief Warder at the Tower of London regarding a theft at the Tower: "`Don't let anyone know... My head will be on the block if they're not found quickly.' It was an unfortunate turn of phrase, given the setting."Or this exchange at midnight between a plump, sweating 60 year old funeral director and a constable, spoken in a night-darkened cemetery where the constable has noticed him digging up a grave: "`It's not how it looks', Ron Rummage began lamely... `How do you think it looks?' PC Briggs was intrigued to know. `I'm a funeral director,' said Rummage. [Constable:] `A bit late to be working, isn't it? Do you need the overtime?'"When we're not being entertained by the dialog, there's the plot, which wanders, but not too far, between seemingly disconnected crimes. The lead detectives are the intelligent and apparently normal John May and his partner, the brilliant and completely wacky Arthur Bryant. Bryant is a little too wacky for my taste, even for an English detective story, and he consults some even more bizarre unofficial experts in his quest to understand the evidence he uncovers. He seems to know every crackpot in London; he has his own Rolodex of people who are refugees (or exiles) from "CSI: London." Thus he goes to a screwball former Bletchley Park cryptologist to crack a computer code. Bryant's circuitous logic sometimes seems a lot more circuitous than it needs to be to make the point that's he the opposite of a lineal thinker. And some of the secondary characters are drawn more as caricatures than as real people, although to be fair, I haven't read any of the previous 12 books, in which some of them may have been fleshed out more.Despite these annoyances, the plot is entertaining and dialog makes this a delightful book, 1 part good detective story and 1 part spoof on good detective stories. I'm going to get more books from this series and learn more about the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

This eleventh book in Christopher Fowler's series about the Peculiar Crimes Unit is as enjoyable as any of the earlier volumes. The two (very) elderly eponymous detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, are back along with their regular supporting cast.This time they set off to investigate an apparent case of a dead man rising from his grave and the disappearance of the ravens from the Tower of London. As ever with Fowler's novels, there is a very strong London background to them, with both its geography and its history heavily featuring in the plot.The Bleeding Heart continues the evolution of Arthur Bryant into a more conventionally eccentric character. In some previous novels he seemed to have mystical-like qualities - especially with the IT errors his presence could produce - and he also took magic and mysticism seriously. This time out his eccentricities require no supernatural abilities and he is becoming nearly as sceptical of the witches and assorted others as his long-standing partner John May always has been.The plot twists and humour are a joy as ever, even if the caricature of modern management speak - Orion Banks, newly given responsibility for the Peculiar Crime Unit - is little different from 1,001 other similar caricatures. Bryant, May and the rest, however, are very much something out of the ordinary and their characters continue to develop in interesting ways. Although the book can be read free-standing, it is best read in sequence therefore to fully appreciate the character development and some of the cross-references.Tim Goodman, once again, does wonders with the audio book version. He's a brilliant narrator.

Christopher Fowler returns with another excellent book in his Bryant & May series, "The Bleeding Heart". The books are part police-procedural and part homage to the city of London and its people. Readers of the series can't help but learn from Christopher Fowler's writing, while enjoying his peculiar "take" on society.The "PCU" (Peculiar Crimes Unit) is a red-headed step-child of the London Metropolitan Police Department. Its charge is to solve crimes that basically the more conventional police don't want to get involved in. There are ten or so cops, along with one gender-changed cat, "Crippen", who make up the PCU and they work together, using unconventional methods to solve unconventional crimes. The plot of "The Bleeding Heart", which includes suicides, hit-and-run deaths, murders by cross-bow, as well as the supposed thievery of the ravens from the Tower of London, is, in the end, less interesting than the personalities of both the criminals and the crime solvers. Of particular note are the two senior-detectives - men in their 70's and 80's - Arthur Bryant and John May. They have worked together for 40 years and their pairing has honed their instincts for solving crimes that would have baffled more conventional cops.Christopher Fowler does such a good job at writing his "Bryant & May" series that each new book is a treat. The reader returns to old friends - Bryant and May - as well as their fellow PCU officers, in the magical city of London.

I’ve been reading Christopher Fowler novels for years now and they account for some of my happiest reading hours. Yet again, he’s produced another great story around the Bryant and May characters. This time a teenage couple believe they see a reanimated corpse in a small London square and one of them is subsequently killed in a hit-and-run.If you haven’t read any of the Bryant and May books before you could read and enjoy this, but it would probably be better to start from the beginning of the series as the character development is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the books. This time we learn more about Renfield and his background and we get a healthy dose of Longbright (which I was incredibly thankful for!)The only depressing thing is that I’ll have another long wait until we get the next installment 

I've read the Bryant & May series from the beginning and enjoyed most of them. However, the last couple of novels were not of the high standard of the previous ones - they were too much concerned with government cover-ups and unlikely conspiracies which made them hard going at times. With this episode, however, Fowler has allowed our two heroes to get back to what they do best - stripping away the esoteric trappings surrounding a case and revealing a denouement which keeps the reader guessing until the very end. Bryant's knowledge of the city he loves is allowed to shine through without slowing down the action and the explanations he gives are satisfying and credible, within the structure of Bryant & May's world. A cracking read which left this reader, at least, already looking forward to the next book in the series.

After the last book, I wondered where this one might take us.A new focus and hierarchy is introduced which worked well, and underlying it the central characters and the wider team are developed still further. With some indication that this is the penultimate book in the series, it's going to be sad to see the end, in more ways than one.In the meantime this contains the usual smatterings of interesting London history, which adds to the atmosphere and makes the books just that little bit more special. An excellent plot, well carried, and entertaining throughout.I, for one, will be sad to see then end...