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Bryant and May and the Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler (view source)
Revision as of 13:08, 16 August 2020
, 13:08, 16 August 2020no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Bryant and May and the Invisible Code
|author=Christopher Fowler
|publisher=Bantam Books
|date=June 2013
|amazonukwebsite=<amazonuk>0857500953<http:/amazonuk>|amazonus=<amazonus>0857500953</amazonus>|website=www.christopherfowler.co.uk|video=
|summary=Old fashioned sleuthing by old fashioned sleuths. Ageing detectives Bryant and May are denied an interesting dead body and obliged instead to look into the sudden anger management issues of the wife of a senior civil servant. Witches, curses and codes.
|cover=0857500953
|aznuk=0857500953
|aznus=B008846ZTA
}}
Never judge a book by its cover? Oh come on... Doesn't that do a huge disservice to the army of graphic designers designing those covers? To be fair, the designers don't get the final say and we've all read things that didn't do what they said on the tin, but I think it's time we started giving a bit of credit to those that do.
For those who, like me, haven't come across Bryant and May before: where have we been? This is the tenth in the series of tales starring Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit.
Peculiar Crime number 1 , in this case , is the witch who walked into church and, for no apparent reason, dropped dead. I say ''no apparent reason'', but there were two young witch-hunters in the doorway cursing away like mad.
The second peculiarity, though technically not a crime is that our less-than-dynamic duo being hired by Oskar Kasavian, senior civil servant at the Home Office whose usual pastime is trying to shut the unit down and who is currently particularly tetchy on account of Bryant's recently published memoirs. Kasavian's beautiful young Albanian wife, Sabira, is suddenly acting very strangely.
Bryant is intrigued by the first case. Being told that it's out of their jurisdiction isn't going to stop him investigating - especially when a second death enters the equation.
The caper follows what I expect is the usual esoteric route with Bryant ignoring all the rules, wandering off into the bowels of the British Library and consorting with witches of his own. Along the way , there is gentle trundle through bits of British history and the surviving class system, which would be funnier but for the need to explain them for the benefit of the young, the foreign or simply the less-well-read.
Of course, there's a CSI to do the Sherlock Holmes deducing that among the obvious height and stuff the dead man who lived in the apartment concerned ''likes his women young. He has serious commitment issues because of his brain-damaged four -year -old daughter.''
It's the kind of book that you will either love or simply ''not get''. It is one of life's simple pleasures: a merry little jaunt with no real purpose beyond allowing the writer and the reader to have some fun.
I love the idea of ''builders will be fine'' as an answer to what kind of tea one would like. It's a usual response in my office and only becomes amusing when the conversation takes place in Claridges.
Favourite character name has to be ''Fraternity DuCaine''. Favourite description: ''like Judge Jeffreys with a gastric complaint.''
If you enjoy it, you will not only ''not mind'' that the whole catalogue is very similar (I'm guessing)... You will positively expect it to be so. I'm off to find out.
If you like your crime laced with humour, why not head further afield and try a trip to India for [[The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall]]. [[Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May Books in Chronological Order]]
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