Boring.
Starting with 20ish pages where the author rambles on about the blood and gore of current police procedurals and how unimaginative and similar they are to one another, Then you have to read the beginning of each story, which is mostly the author bragging,
The stories are fine but I’m hard pressed to call them "peculiar" in any way, shape, or form. The main characters are not well-developed, they are basically 2 crotchety old men. Nothing about these stories stands out except that they are mercifully short. I’m glad I got to read this book for free, as I would’ve been very upset had I paid money for it.

I've enjoyed many of the Bryant and May books. I wasn't sure about this series of short stories, but to my delight I found I enjoyed it quite well. It included both entertainment and information about the history of London that I've come to expect in the novels.

Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit are London’s craftiest and bravest detectives—and there’s no better pair to solve the city’s most confounding crimes. In this riveting eBook collection of mystery short stories, available together for the first time, Christopher Fowler takes Bryant and May on a series of twisting adventures and brings readers behind the scenes of his beloved novels.

Includes a preview of Christopher Fowler’s new Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery, Bryant & May and the Burning Man!

In “Bryant & May in the Field,” a woman is found with her throat slashed in a snowy park, yet the killer managed to escape without leaving any footprints. In “Bryant & May and the Nameless Woman,” a businessman drowns in the pool of a posh club, and the only suspect is a young woman who remains almost too calm during questioning. And in “Bryant & May Ahoy!” the pair go on holiday on a friend’s yacht in Turkey, but Bryant realizes there’s something fishy about their fellow passengers. From London’s grandest mansions to its darkest corners, from the Christmas department of Selfridges to a sinister traveling sideshow, there’s no scene too strange for the Peculiar Crimes Unit and the indefatigable detectives at its helm."

I would comment on the book if I wasn't soo obsessed with figuring out where I've seen that type before... grumble grumble... must figure it out.

I managed to get well into this one without realizing it was part of a series. Normally a stickler for reading books in order, I felt really lost in this one. The storyline and characters were interesting, and although I felt like I needed all the background I missed, I was never bored by the book. I'll be going back and starting the series from the beginning, and I know I'll enjoy this one more when I read it again in the proper order.

What a fun read! I've had my eye on this particular series for awhile, but never got around to actually take a look.

Arthur Bryant and John May are London's most well-known detectives. The author has put together 10 mystery short stories for our reading enjoyment.

While the stories were good, the best part, to me, was the author's ramblings before, between, and after the stories. It's really insightful as he shares where his ideas came from.

I read the first three or four of the Bryant & May series years ago, but hadn't kept up with the more recent installments. So I was excited to see that Christopher Fowler was publishing a book of short stories about the elderly detectives' exploits. This was a great reintroduction to the characters for me, and a reminder of what's so fun about the series: grumpy-old-man Bryant and debonair, secretive May are the perfect foils for each other, and the range of stories here allows Fowler to play with his characters in ways that a novel doesn't really allow.

Some of the stories felt a little gimmciky/contrived to me, although in some cases Fowler is very clear that he intends to be gimmicky--as in trying his hand with a locked-room mystery, or a country-house mystery a la Agatha Christie.

For readers who are new to the series, this collection could either be a tantalizing entree into the novels, but others may be confused by the jumps around in time and other context that readers familiar with the books will have. Certainly, Fowler fans will find much to enjoy here, especially in the author's preface and short introductions to each story. These provide a lot of backstory about where Fowler gets his ideas, how he thinks about the characters and their development, and other details that will delight longtime readers,

I really enjoyed this book. It's a collection of short stories (11), and part of the Bryant & May series. I've never read any of the full length novels in this series but I'll be looking for them. Set in London, England, these two older detectives solve their crimes through good old legwork, interviews and heavy duty thinking. I never figured out the mystery before they did, the stories were well written and logical. I liked both the gentlemen characters, they are different but likable.