The Peculiar Crimes Unit is being closed down again, and Bryant finds a case that will keep them open. An elderly woman, Mrs. Hoffman, is found dead in her apartment of malnutrition. Someone has called the people who used to deliver meals and told them not to come. However, Bryant and May believe it was murder. The woman used to work for the government security. There is some connection with a man who worked for the American Embassy who hit and killed an Embassy employee while intoxicated. It turns out that the woman worked with two other older women who were in charge of something called the London Bridge. The three women all owned statues of London Bridge, and Bryant found Mrs. Hoffman's in the garden (it had been missing from her window sill). Parts of the story seem to be rediculous and funny, but parts about the treatment of the old women is very sad.

Then, several of Bryant's former informers began to be killed as well as one of the other old woman and an accountant they used. Even after Bryant & May find the current killer, there are some mysteries deeply buried with the spies of both US and Britain! And, we aren't sure if the PCU is really closed down for good.

London Bridge is Falling Down: Byrant and May by Christopher Fowler is a detective novel about, of all things, the Peculiar Crimes Unit. It is about a small group of people working together to solve. . . peculiar crimes. Life, this one, for instance, which is a woman who appears to have died of neglect, which is true, but the neglect seems purposeful: her apartment is clean (except the dust that has gathered since her death), there is no food in the entire place, there is no sign of anything personal. Very odd, just the thing for this group of eccentric and dedicated detectives. Then they learned they had been paying her for years. They searched with the neighbors, the care people, the social services people, all who stated that her care had been cancelled by a relative. Who, they didn't know. The meal delivery that had been arranged just fell by the wayside. Until Bryant found a small state of the London Bridge in the back yards, as if it had been heaved from the window. Then he found a packet of photos that had been overlooked by whomever had cleaned the house out. Now he had something to work with. By the way, they were investigating this murder by natural causes because if they didn't have an open case, they were being shut down.

I have come late to the party as this the twentieth book in the series, and the first I have read. I am certain this is a series not given to starting in the middle, although Fowler did manage to catch me up on many of the quirks of the unit. This is a story about the government, OUR government, who is willing to trade the lives of little old ladies to get something they want, and they are not even sure what it is. Worse yet, they are trading with a drunk driver and murderer. They were an interesting lot with interesting thought processes and interesting contacts. In many ways they were a throwback, at least this story was. If you like quirky this is the book for you. It was a good, if obscure mystery, full of twists and turns. Certainly worth the read.

I was invited to read an e-ARC of London Bridge is Falling Down by Bantam, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #bantam #christopherfowler #londonbridgeisfallingdown

Oh the twists and turns and complications! The death of an elderly woman from starvation and dehydration sparks something in Arthur Bryant, who is clawing at ways to keep the Peculiar Crimes Unit going. Turns out, Amelia once worked for the PCU and she's not the only one at risk. What is the meaning of London Bridge? And what's the connection with Cranston, the loathsome man who ran down a woman and now is enmeshed in the case? So hard to review this one (or even describe it) without spoilers but know that every time you think you know what's happening, you, like Bryant, do not. One of the nicest things about these novels are the small moments and the characters- the spark of Land (just wait), Fatima, young Sidney, and of course Bryant and May. And all of Bryant's contacts! Know that the CIA portion of this is not valid but the rest is so delightful that it didn't matter. It's a puzzler. And a great read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I have hope for the future from the last pages and the afterword.

I've been aware of the Bryant and May mystery series for quite some time, but London Bridge is Falling Down is the first one I've read. It's also, or so the ending suggests, the final volume in the series. I can happily report that, not only are 17 more volumes available for new-to-the-series people like me, this final volume is perfectly comfortable as a stand-alone read. So while one can search all the titles out to be read in order, starting from any random spot in the series is also a solid reading strategy for these books.

Here's what I enjoyed most about London Bridge is Falling Down: it offers both a compelling mystery and hilarious social commentary. Sort of like that old peanut butter cup commercial where guy-with-peanut-butter bumps into other-guy-with-chocolate and they realize that having both at once is genius. I like a laugh in my mysteries, but too often getting that laugh feels like an either/or proposition: laugh OR well-plotted mystery, but never both. Bryant and May are definitely a peanut butter cup quality team.

The story and the cast of characters are complex enough that they're not worth trying to summarize, but, trust me, you'll be able to follow what's going on and will enjoy doing it. When you need a bit of pick-me-up reading, Bryant and May are good folks to turn to.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

In this perhaps (but hopefully not) last installment of the Bryant & May: Peculiar Crimes Unit series, we learn a lot more about the murky past of the PCU, even as they face an uncertain future. The Home Office has finally succeeded in its intent of dismantling the unit, and is stripping the building at Caledonian Road of anything remotely government-funded even as the remaining officers glumly face the spectre of unemployment. Having the unconventional posting on their CVs has made them undesirable to the rest of British policing; plus none of them really want to acknowledge the fact that their beloved team is finally meeting its end, the stated enthusiasm of Chief Raymond Land for retirement on the Isle Of Wight notwithstanding.

So everyone perks up considerably when Detective Chief Inspector Arthur Bryant comes up with a solution. As their unit may not be officially closed while they still have a case active, he requisitions a sheaf of current files from the forensic pathologist they share with the city, and sets the team to figuring out whether any of these seemingly innocuous, if unfortunate, deaths were actually murder. No one really expects to make much investigative hay out of these records, till Bryant zeroes in on the unattended death of Amelia Hoffman, an elderly woman who died alone of starvation in her pristine flat.

The case causes a minor sensation when the press gets wind of it -- how could the British social net have so thoroughly failed a poor old pensioner? -- but only Bryant has the vision to see that something even more sinister is afoot. Soon, the entire team is digging into Mrs Hoffman’s life, not only from just before she passed but also from decades earlier when she worked in British intelligence. Bryant is able to deduce quite a bit about her from the few photographs that the team manages to discover:

QUOTE
‘These two, the grey-haired woman and Mrs Hoffman. They’ve known each other for a long time, at least thirty years. The younger annoyed-looking one is a vegetarian living in Central London, comfortably off, intelligent, likes a drink and a show. Very patriotic. They probably all worked together at some point. When Mrs Hoffman ran out of money the other two topped her up. Old friends then, but their ages are a decade apart at least, which means they didn’t meet at college. Mrs Hoffman was religious and once worked in a circus.’

[His colleague] Dan looked doubtful. ‘Where do you get all that from, Sheer-Luck Holmes?’
END QUOTE

It’s never luck, of course, when it comes to Bryant. His keen eye for detail and his ferocious intellect combine with his wide-ranging network of informants to help him make connections almost anyone else would miss. But what will he do when all the evidence points to a secret relationship between himself and Mrs Hoffman, who possessed explosive information that more than one person would kill to gain access to?

Inasmuch as this series is a love letter to London, this book in particular serves as an encomium to our favorite eccentric, if exasperating detective. Bryant is facing the end of his career while needing to investigate not only its beginning but also the connections and motives that have underpinned almost all his efforts to date. It’s a fascinating deep dive into who he truly is and why he persists in his work despite being long past the age of retirement:

QUOTE
And what could be said of Arthur Bryant that had not already been uttered in anger, disbelief or devotion? His brain was as young as his body was old, his manner was rude, his behavior unpredictable, but his eyes showed kindness and curiosity. He had a creased, comfortable face, boisterous dentures and the physical elegance of a bin bag. How was it possible, everyone wondered, for him to remain so resolutely optimistic in the winter of his life? Bryant knew that the world belonged to those who did not do as they were told, so he never did. He took the view that evil would triumph if good people did nothing, so he always did something.
END QUOTE

But the Peculiar Crimes Unit isn’t just one man, and the personal and professional struggles of the rest of our delightfully offbeat crew each get their turn in the spotlight as they wrestle with this chapter in their careers. Perhaps the most intriguing to me was the involvement of newest member Sidney Hargreaves, who brings a very 21st century sensibility to the proceedings.

I really do hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of the PCU. Despite the pessimism of Bryant’s editor Simon Sartorius, there is always room for comic crime capers on the bookshelves of discerning readers, with Christopher Fowler’s books themselves having long been on the forefront of the subgenre. Here’s to many more tales of our intrepid heroes as they solve seemingly impossible crimes, in most entertaining fashion.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing- Ballantine, Bantam for an advanced copy of the latest book in this mystery series.

Two decades into the Adventures of Bryant and May and the rest of the Peculiar Crimes Unit, author Christopher Fowler can still hold the reader's interest with facts on a variety of different subjects, care about a diverse group of slightly different characters and write a plot that is both thrilling and cleverly crafted. In Bryant & May: London Bridge Is Falling Down, Fowler looks back at London during the war, the creation of the Peculiar Crimes Unit itself, and what the future might hold for this British stalwarts.

Starting with the unconventional death of a older woman with possible ties to British intelligence efforts both during and after World War II, a death that no one sees more than a failure of the system, a system that is failing all around in this new London. The Unit, facing closure and severance, first begin an investigation as a way delaying their inevitable end, before discovering that the woman's end really was murder, and a ghastly one at that. With both blundering and cleverness ties are discovered between the victim and the Unit's oldest member Arthur Bryant, and the creation of the Unit. Using his mind, when it can be trusted, and his legion of back street irregulars and odd fellows, the detectives find that their enemy is not just a clever killer, but the CIA, MI6 and their own entrenched police bureaucracy.

The cast is a wonderful collection of oddities, who separately might be at a loss but together can accomplish great things. Each one has a chance to shine, or fade into the background, nothing staid about any of them. Facts are dropped about London, history, science, magic and all the beauty that exists in a city that no one pays any attention to, or even cares. Knowledge, no matter from science to death metal is celebrated, and worthy of study and respect.

These books have changed quite a bit over the years, matured I guess is a good way of putting it. London, has always been a character, here it's failings are more apparent, both society and in the City itself. There might be some changes for this series, but characters like these will live forever. Christopher Fowler is a very talented writer who I have been following for a very long time, and I'm eager to see where he takes this series next.

Another great story in the peculiar cases if Bryant and May. I love this series, as it is allways so much fun to read. The characters have became my good friends with time

Writing: 4/5 Characters: 4/5 Plot: 4/5
Another beyond convoluted, arcana rich, episode of Bryant & May. In this installment, the two old (or rapidly decaying in one instance) colleagues and their merry band of the Peculiar Crimes Unit are once again battling to keep their unit alive. Given that the building has been gutted, their equipment retracted, and they’ve been told they are out of jobs, it isn’t going well. However, leveraging a loophole requiring all open cases to be closed before the unit can be officially shut down, Bryant gloms onto the case of a 91-year old lady found starved to death in her apartment. Blamed on a communication breakdown in social services, it turns out to be anything but. The merry chase that ensues involves the CIA, a Latvian national, a set of secret files, MI6, agents left over from Bletchley and of course, Bryant’s motley crew of “experts” ranging from psychics to anarchists to reformed academic sewage engineers to OCD ridden book restorers. It’s a fun and often confusing ride with rich veins of British history pumped throughout. Some fun pokes at Millenials too.

A nice quote about (mis)information spreading like disease: “There’s a nice traditional feel to the way diseases circle the earth. Information has the same spread pattern. It expands parts from a central starting point, burning through the crowded hot spots, bypassing those in isolation, guarded by super-spreaders.”

The little old lady known as Alice Hoffman is already dead when this book begins, but that doesn’t mean she’s not very much an active actor in the plot. When Arthur Bryant calls her natural-causes-attributed death suspicious, as a ruse to avoid the forced shutting-down of the PCU (for the umpteenth time), he stumbles on the perfect case for the unit. I don’t know why everybody has to be persuaded that Hoffman’s death actually is murder, given that Bryant is always right about these things, and the obvious clues from her apartment. But after awhile, the team is forced to go along, as they discover that Alice was a member of a secretive government group long ago, and her death may be connected to her work. The plot thickens, involving old colleagues of Alice, and a lurking threat from the CIA.

This is a long book, with a lot of the plot taken up with the team trying to find out about Alice’s past, which nearly everyone they talk to seems to want to deflect them from. It slogs a bit at times, with lots of lengthy exposition. But maybe also in part because this is the first in the series for a long time that I’ve read rather than listened to. Tim Goodman, who performs the audiobook narration for the series, is just so great, especially in his voicing of the odd and curmudgeonly Arthur Bryant, that the books feel lively and fast-paced.

As always in this series, the book is packed with fascinating bits of London history. And in this case, Fowler throws in some good stuff about New York as well.

Toward the end of the book, I came to realize that the plot in this case is less important than the opportunity it gives Arthur Bryant to look back on the history of the Peculiar Crimes Unit, the many eccentrics who form its irregulars, and the unit’s constant remit to protect the lives of Londoners—whether they appreciate it or not. There is a feeling of affection and warmth that wraps around the characters, despite the astonishing body count of this particular book in the series.

Though several reviewers have called this the last in the series, I have my doubts. Christopher Fowler himself says in the Author’s Note that he may have a surprise for us. And he once before closed a book in a way that made it appear to be the end, and that was several titles ago. Let’s wait a year or so and see what happens. But if there isn’t another book in the series, I am grateful for a truly enjoyable two decades of stories.

How can you review a book in a series that is totally unique? It's almost impossible to describe the Peculiar Crimes Unit cases -- part history, part mayhem, part witchery and all out entertaining. The characters are astounding, particularly the oldest and possibly cleverest member Arthur Bryant. And the plots are like nothing you've read or heard of before.

This one involves some mysterious deaths of older women whose common thread is some clandestine op work in the past -- which also involves the PCU.

The series has been under threat of extinction since forever. The London powers that be don't like their methods or their blatant disregard of conventions -- but they certainly do get results.

Several of these books have felt like they are possibly endings -- but the author promises in a note at the end that he has more surprises up his sleeve. Let's certainly hope so. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Peculiar Crimes Unit is still in desperate straits, they've all been given the push and the unit is closing down for sure this time. Naturally the thing for them to do is to find a death that doesn't look like murder and prove that it was. Easy for Mr. Bryant but everyone else has to be convinced that this is going to work so well that the unit will be brought back to life. Along the way to a resolution we get a full helping of favorite characters from past books as well as the CIA and MI6. Heady and rarified atmosphere for the unit to work in.

This story goes back to a full measure of brain teasers, an abundance of historical and modern London and interactions between the members of the unit. I enjoyed trying to figure this one out and was not even within a sniff of the right solution.

I've seen reviews saying this is the final book of the series. Perhaps those reviewers missed the message from the author in the Acknowledgements section. I prefer to take Christopher Fowler at his word and wait to see what the surprise is he might be concealing up his sleeve.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam and NetGalley for an e-galley of this novel.

As usual, I loved the latest Bryant & May book by Christopher Fowler! I had some time on my hands these last couple of months and decided to reread some of my favorite books. Bryant & May were first on my list. It was a lot of fun rereading these and I read them in order this time. (Not that you need to do that) Anyway, London Bridge is Falling Down became available while I was in the middle of my reading. It was so nice to finally read this book - all the references to previous stories, cases, and characters was still fresh in my mind and that made this book even more fun to read. The stories in London Bridge were fascinating, as usual. Don't want to say more or give away any plot details. If you are a fan, just read it! And if you have never read a Bryant & May mystery - try it. Hopefully, there will be plenty more to enjoy...

"The brilliant duo of Arthur Bryant and John May uncovers a nefarious plot behind the seemingly innocuous death of an old lady - and when the case leads them to London Bridge, it all comes down on the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

When ninety-one-year-old Amelia Hoffman dies in her top-floor flat on a busy London road, it’s considered an example of what has gone wrong with modern society: she slipped through the cracks in a failing system.

But detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit have their doubts. Mrs. Hoffman was once a government security expert, though no one can quite remember her. When a link emerges between the old lady and a diplomat trying to flee the country, it seems that an impossible murder has been committed.

Mrs. Hoffman wasn’t the only one at risk. Bryant is convinced that other forgotten women with hidden talents are also in danger. And, curiously, they all own models of London Bridge.

With the help of some of their more certifiable informants, the detectives follow the strangest of clues in an investigation that will lead them through forgotten alleyways to the city’s oldest bridge in search of a desperate killer.

But just when the case appears to be solved, they discover that Mrs. Hoffman was smarter than anyone imagined. There’s a bigger game afoot that could have terrible consequences."

Pardon if I've made this joke before but it's too good to pass up.... It's a wonderful day when there's a new Bryant and May!

This is the last Bryant and May book, we've been told, and it's a wonderful end to the series. The Peculiar Crimes Unit has been closed once again, but this time, it looks like it's going to stick. Bryant, naturally, finds a way to keep the unit open, by claiming what appears to be a case of elder neglect which led to a woman's death by starvation.

The case is so much more than that, and involves alphabet agencies on both sides of the pond. We see the beginnings of the PCU, and get glimpses of Arthur Bryant as a young agent. All of Bryant's "sources," AKA 'crackpot friends," make a showing, and Bryant and May protect a secret that's been hidden since just after WWII.

It's bittersweet. We see London, Bryant, his weird and wonderful friends, and all the members of the PCU in their final case. They've grown together and apart over the years, as members have come and gone. Land, who has evolved from burned out civil servant to almost a leader of the team (well, of a sort, anyway), helps keep the team afloat, even though he's clueless as ever about the investigation. Longbright's daughter has joined the team and has assumed the position of Bryant's protege, but she doesn't have as much to do in this book as in others. The same holds true for May. It's mostly about Bryant, and his love affair with life and London, and that's as it should be, this time.

As Bryant and May dig in to the past, more deaths occur in the present. Someone is killing people associated with the Bryant and the PCU, and the team fear that Bryant may be next. The secret everyone is dying to protect has international ramifications, and if it gets out, no one will be safe.

I hope that, even though there will be no new cases for Arthur and John, that maybe we'll get some old cases in short story form.

Highly recommended.

I received an advance copy from Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This review, and reviews for other titles, appears on Goodreads and my book blog: https://redhatcatreviews.com.

senior-citizens, senior-sleuths, situational-humor, verbal-humor, false-information, family, friendship, law-enforcement, cryptography, multigenerational, murder, murder-investigation, inconvenient-people, eccentric, spies, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, detective, England, London*****

The Peculiar Crimes Unit???
Yes, it appears to be overlong AT FIRST. AND it SEEMS to have an irrelevant beginning. AND Bryant and May are so ancient that they noticed the "girls" working at Bletchley Park. BUT their sheer doggedness and meticulous attention to fine detail takes this from a seeming attack on the NHS care of the elderly to a truly diabolical murder plot!
This purports to be the end of series, but since it is my introductory read I have the delight of going to the beginning!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam via NetGalley. Thank you!

London Bridge Falling Down by Christopher Fowler. This is the 20th and unfortunately the last of the Bryant & May detective series. Two points to begin with: (1) this was the 1st of the Bryant & May books I have read and I am sure I missed some points but it is possible to start with the last and (2) I have already begun to correct my ways and have ordered the 1st four books.
Arthur St. John Aloysius Montmorency Bryant and John May are the two key detectives in the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London. Bryant is very old (perhaps) about 80 yrs. And May in no spring chicken as well. Together with the other members of the unit they one or another solve the murders mystery.
Coming late, I do feel I am missing something as I would if I tried to do a crossword puzzle for a setter who I knew nothing about his clues. In this case Bryant to say the least is a reader of very eclectic books and has a very unusual set of friends who he turns to for help to understand what may be the reason for the crimes happening.
Mr. Fowler lives and loves London and the city takes a major role in this book and no doubt all the others. Although I am an American, we lived in the UK and pre-covid frequently went to London so it is like walking along with an old friend.
I can not recommend these books more highly than to say I will end up with all 20 books as well as audio readings of all that are available. Lastly Fowler’s web site is a treat and worth spending time there reading his musings and occasional rants on many wide and varied topics.

I enjoyed this latest.Fowler PCU mystery but….it was awfully long (430 pages), repetitive and featured an unconvincing and somewhat confusing solution. But…it was full of Fowler’s great sense of humor and colorful characters, an elegaic conclusion and is definitely worth reading

Who wouldn’t love Arthur Bryant and John May, London Chief Detectives of the Peculiar Crimes Unit , a name that hits the mark. The PCU are now given a limited time in which to find an open case to solve or be permanently shut down. So begins the search for a “fake” crime investigation, but is the one they dig up actually fake?
Amelia Hoffman, 91, who has been left uncared for, is found in her home long after her demise. She becomes “their salvation case”: a woman perhaps long involved with intelligence services.
The detectives bumble around, curse, complain, lie, hide, bullheadedly persevere, and necessarily pervert justice, just as well as they seek to enforce it.
As the befuddling investigation stumbles along, a history of secret intelligence in the ranks from top to bottom in secret governmental activities is detailed and captivating. As the PCU trails retired laboratory scientists, handlers, angry former undercover contacts, Amelia (if that is her real name) becomes more of an enigma.
The team is in pursuit of three endangered, elderly sharp-minded women protecting a national secret with the code name London Bridge. What is it? And that’s what the reader gets to find out.
There is a kind of deliciously droll, tongue in cheek narrative, as well as the descriptive, almost poetic landscapes, the apt profiles of a gaggle of eccentric, engaging characters, and historical anecdotes laced with wonderful turns of phrase.
At the same time, there are conspiracies and challenging issues of to whom or what does one owe allegiance- the past? the state? the truth?- no matter what the consequences might be.
Appearances are deceiving, but no one should underestimate Bryant, May and team..
As Bryant states: “I would dig into the past to increase my understanding of the present.”
The ending: just Wow!

We've been lucky as readers since 2003 when Christopher Fowler gifted us with his first Bryant and May novel. Since then it has become the quintessential British mystery series. London Bridge Is Falling Down is a habile finale to the Bryant and May books. This cunningly crafted addition to the series brings it full circle. It's a battle between alphabet agencies as our heroes from the PCU challenge the CIA (among others). You'll laugh. You'll cry. And, as always with Fowler, you'll be entertained. Bryant and May belong to the ages now because their London is as richly rewarding as the one Sherlock Holmes occupied. #BryantMayLondonBridgeIsFallingDown #NetGalley.

This book was sent to me by Netgalley on Kindle for review. It is full of mystery and intrigue with a theme that is unique…London Bridge…the characters are familiar and looking out for each other as they solve the mystery. Try this one.