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The Victoria Vanishes: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery (Bryant and May #6)
It’s a case tailor-made for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. A lonely hearts killer is targeting middle-aged women at some of England’s most well-known pubs—including one torn down eighty years ago. What’s more, Arthur Bryant happened to see one of the victims only moments before her death at the pub that doesn’t exist. Indeed, this case is littered with clues that defy everythin
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Hardcover, 326 pages
Published
October 28th 2008
by Bantam
(first published 2008)
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(showing 1-30)
The Peculiar Crime Unit Mysteries tend to be like Russian nesting dolls: there are layers within layers within layers. And one of the layers is always the Home Office effort to find a way to put the Unit out of business for good. Why? Well...it simply doesn't conform to anyone's idea of a government authority (nor was it ever intended to).
In this episode, it appears that middle aged woman are dying in London pubs---but are they in fact being murdered. If so, by whom and why? Now this would seem ...more
In this episode, it appears that middle aged woman are dying in London pubs---but are they in fact being murdered. If so, by whom and why? Now this would seem ...more
The closure of many historic pubs in London inspired the author to write the sixth Bryant and May mystery. Octogenarians Arthur Bryant and John May are the senior detectives of the Peculiar Crimes Unit. After four women fall over dead in the pubs around London, they suspect a serial killer. Meanwhile, there is a danger that the Peculiar Crimes Unit might be shut down by headquarters.
The mystery is told with a quirky British humor. Lots of historical information about London is woven into the plo ...more
The mystery is told with a quirky British humor. Lots of historical information about London is woven into the plo ...more
Another very enjoyable read about the wonderful Arthur Bryant and John May, the elderly detectives from the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London and their quirky crime-solving methods. A police procedural with a slant like no other I have read, I love the eccentric characters and that peculiarly British sense of humour. The City of London is the jewel in the crown of the Bryant and May series, and I wish that I still lived there so I could visit the pubs mentioned in the text and appreciate their inte
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Bryant and May are a pair of geriatric detectives working the mysterious streets of London, taking the time to puzzle over crimes whose patterns are not immediately obvious, finding connections that might be missed by a policeman working the beat and looking to meet his targets. In this, the first I've read in the series, their Peculiar Crimes Unit faces closure, their health deterioriates, and a man is murdering women in the middle of crowded pubs.
Bryant and May are similar in many ways to Holm ...more
Bryant and May are similar in many ways to Holm ...more
I think I've just run out of steam on this series. Tapping out.
THE VICTORIA VANISHES (Pol. Proc-Bryant & May-London-Cont) – VG+
Fowler, Christopher – 6th in series
Doubleday, 2008, UK Hardcover – ISBN: 9780385610681
First Sentence: She had four and a half minutes left to live.
Pathologist Oswald Finch is dead, May has been diagnosed with a tumor on his heart and Bryant has submitted his resignation letter. On his way home from Finch’s wake, Bryant notices a woman going into a pub. The woman is later found dead and when they go to investigate, the pub is gon ...more
Fowler, Christopher – 6th in series
Doubleday, 2008, UK Hardcover – ISBN: 9780385610681
First Sentence: She had four and a half minutes left to live.
Pathologist Oswald Finch is dead, May has been diagnosed with a tumor on his heart and Bryant has submitted his resignation letter. On his way home from Finch’s wake, Bryant notices a woman going into a pub. The woman is later found dead and when they go to investigate, the pub is gon ...more
I must start this review by stating that I had not read any other Christopher Fowler books, including the 5 preceding PCU books. With that in mind, I think this book would have been more satisfying had I read the prior books in the series.[return][return]Jumping in at book 6 is never ideal, but some authors set you up well to do so. In this case I felt a little blind. There were a fair bit of characters in the book being referred to by first or last name and little in the way of character traits
...more
Dec 24, 2015
Sarah
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
a,
crime-mystery-thriller
I enjoyed this 6th novel in the series much better than the earlier ones, perhaps because the plot had more interesting twists and turns, or because I'm more attached to the various recurring characters, or even because of the History of London Pubs bonus. OK, maybe some details are rather far-fetched (Christ's blood, the Ministry of Defence conspiracy etc), but who cares? It has gradually become a delightfully quirky series with charming, eccentric characters and irresistible little tidbits abo
...more
If you like a classic British cozy, this has all the right stuff. Good characterization and a satisfying mystery. It has a bit of humor, too, which made it an entertaining read.
2 stars. I should not have to skim a book to endure getting through it at all as I did with this one. I have never made a habit of skimming.
Frankly, this book gives the effect of the author's having had a thesaurus on hand that he pulled out every half-hour or so just for fun whilst writing, to inject some obscure term - I have a wide and somewhat eclectic vocabulary and always have had, even more so as an adult than as a child, but within the first hundred pages even I had to stop to check a di ...more
Frankly, this book gives the effect of the author's having had a thesaurus on hand that he pulled out every half-hour or so just for fun whilst writing, to inject some obscure term - I have a wide and somewhat eclectic vocabulary and always have had, even more so as an adult than as a child, but within the first hundred pages even I had to stop to check a di ...more
#6 Bryant & May "Peculiar Crimes Unit" mystery set in London. When a middle-aged woman dies in suspicious circumstances in a London street, Arthur Bryant recognizes her, having seen her entering a pub the evening before as he was walking home half-soused from Oswald Finch's wake. The problem comes when he and his partner John May go to find the pub and find that not only is it not there, but it hadn't been there since sometime in the 1800's.
When several other middle aged-women die in simila ...more
When several other middle aged-women die in simila ...more
Jan 15, 2017
Helen
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
modern-mystery,
fiction
I think this is my third time through this and really enjoyed it.
If you spotted a pub one evening and then came past the spot the next day only to find that there was no pub, only a grocery store what would you think? If you knew you had been drinking a fair bit before seeing the pub would that affect your thinking? The more Arthur Bryant thinks about it the more he feels something weird is going on, especially since he saw a woman cross the street and enter the pub, a woman found dead later on ...more
If you spotted a pub one evening and then came past the spot the next day only to find that there was no pub, only a grocery store what would you think? If you knew you had been drinking a fair bit before seeing the pub would that affect your thinking? The more Arthur Bryant thinks about it the more he feels something weird is going on, especially since he saw a woman cross the street and enter the pub, a woman found dead later on ...more
My second book in the Bryant and May series was just as entertaining and educational as "Off the Rails." In this mystery, someone is murdering middle aged women in the pubs of London. As one of the last safe places for people to meet, this comes to the PCU (Peculiar Crimes Unit) to solve. Fortunately, the murderer is leaving a trail of obscure clues. The puzzle is pieced together. Unfortunately, the murderer is killed before a confession is made. Case closed. But the book is only 2/3's over. Bry
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Mar 23, 2016
Pam Baddeley
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
crime-fiction
Sixth in the Bryant and May series and almost as good as the Water Room, my favourite, so I would rate this 4.5 stars.
It commences shortly after The White Corridor. The Peculiar Crimes Unit throws a wake for their late pathologist, whose death formed one of the threads in the previous book. On the way home, Arthur Bryant, the most eccentric of the unit's two elderly detectives, notices a woman going into a pub. When she is later found dead in the street, it turns out that she was murdered, but B ...more
It commences shortly after The White Corridor. The Peculiar Crimes Unit throws a wake for their late pathologist, whose death formed one of the threads in the previous book. On the way home, Arthur Bryant, the most eccentric of the unit's two elderly detectives, notices a woman going into a pub. When she is later found dead in the street, it turns out that she was murdered, but B ...more
I read this on the plane home from UK and wish I'd read it there or before going. An intricate and eccentric mystery by someone who knows London by heart and loves the place. This one concentrates on the pubs and makes you want to visit them one by one. Seriously! Just don't get murdered in one if you can help it.
Other fabulous Fowler mysteries include The Water Room (featuring the real life underground waterways of London as major factor in the plot) and an excellent book whose name I'm blankin ...more
Other fabulous Fowler mysteries include The Water Room (featuring the real life underground waterways of London as major factor in the plot) and an excellent book whose name I'm blankin ...more
My first and last Peculiar Crimes Unit book. On the positive side, I enjoyed the tour of London pubs (which are listed in the back, along with their addresses), some of the London trivia, and some of Bryant's comments on life. The best line in the book is, "When I was a kid we had to go to the circus if we wanted to see the fat lady and the tattooed man. Now they're all over the place."
On the negative side: while the plot is stand-alone, there is a lot of time taken up with back-story for the me ...more
On the negative side: while the plot is stand-alone, there is a lot of time taken up with back-story for the me ...more
Reminiscent in more ways than one of Edmund Crispin's classic mystery THE MOVING TOYSHOP: not just in its basic premise - someone witnesses a crime at a location that somehow turns out never to have existed when he goes back to investigate - but in the way the author appears more interested in riffing on traditional notions of British eccentricity than constructing a coherent or believable mystery. As is often the case with Crispin himself, I'm not convinced anyone could guess whodunit based pur
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Mar 16, 2013
edifanob
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
my-books,
2016-reads
Somehow I managed to finish the book in between preparation for holiday.
This is the fifth Bryan & May book I read and I liked it as much as the previous ones.
The characters alone are awesome and I mus say the end of the story shocked me.
Fortunately I know that there are more books. Without this information the would have ended really sad for me. That may show how much I love and care of the characters.
The title of the book is well reflected and the appendix show how much time and effort the ...more
This is the fifth Bryan & May book I read and I liked it as much as the previous ones.
The characters alone are awesome and I mus say the end of the story shocked me.
Fortunately I know that there are more books. Without this information the would have ended really sad for me. That may show how much I love and care of the characters.
The title of the book is well reflected and the appendix show how much time and effort the ...more
It is VITAL to your enjoyment of previous books not to read this one out of order.
This is a definite return to form after the “White Corridor” which I personally found underwhelming.
As usual the plot it well thought out and the ending quite sad. In fact if I did not know there were more books in the series, I would have seen this as 'The End'.
Highly enjoyable and recommended.
What tv show can I link this to,,,,,,,,,,,I guess “Spooks”
I enjoyed this look into the world of a very offbeat group of detectives who don't get your usual cases. Their cases all fall under the category of totally bizarre which no one else seems to want to solve. This is the 6 book in this series. Here they are trying to piece together who is killing the lovelorn of the cities in the pubs. Even one that hasn't existed in many years. Thus the name of the books The Victoria Vanishes. I love these funny unique mysteries.
A light and fluffy murder-mystery. Hard to get into, easy to put down and unmoved to pick it back up. Characters were like-able enough but I didn't really seem to care what trials and tribulations they went through. An easy read but one I wouldn't bother with again.
This is one of my favorites in this series. The story seemed a little tighter with less wheel spinning. As usual the characters are the best part of the book. They are all more or less eccentric. There are some surprises.
I have to admit I picked this book up at the library because I liked the cover and fell utterly in love with the Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries. It's a nice blend of mystery and a walking tour history of London's pubs. After finishing I had to go back and read the entire series.
Excellent Bryant and May.
Eh. The whole resolution just seemed preposterous. It felt as if Fowler was more interested in giving (an admittedly interesting) history lesson on London pubs than spinning a story.
Sixth in the Bryant & May crime series and revolving around two too-old detectives too stubborn to retire in London, England.
In 2009, The Victoria Vanishes was nominated for the Dilys Award and the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
My Take
This has been a very confusing story with all the flips and flops between Theseus, Masters, Kasavian selling the building, where all the women worked, what they did, and the killer's purpose. It is leavened by Fowler's sense of humor and all the personal ...more
In 2009, The Victoria Vanishes was nominated for the Dilys Award and the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
My Take
This has been a very confusing story with all the flips and flops between Theseus, Masters, Kasavian selling the building, where all the women worked, what they did, and the killer's purpose. It is leavened by Fowler's sense of humor and all the personal ...more
It wouldn't be fair for me to give this a rating, because I didn't get far enough into it.
The first chapter was great, but then we moved to the PCU and I found it too hard to plough through.
Three things discouraged me from reading further. One was that this was so obviously a book in the middle of a series - too many references to a past case. Then there was the lame characterisation straight out of a Carry On movie. I felt the book was trying to hard to be "humorous". Finally, the discovery ...more
The first chapter was great, but then we moved to the PCU and I found it too hard to plough through.
Three things discouraged me from reading further. One was that this was so obviously a book in the middle of a series - too many references to a past case. Then there was the lame characterisation straight out of a Carry On movie. I felt the book was trying to hard to be "humorous". Finally, the discovery ...more
Likeable characters who (mostly) like each other. The story is unbelievable but also unpredictable, and I didn't manage to guess most of it.
I've picked up a couple mysteries at the little free library, and I feel like the others have been trying to be the thing that this one is; comfortable and a little sweet, but still suspenseful and a little unsettling. If I saw more in the series, I'd pick them up (unlike the other mysteries I've read recently, whose authors have been added to my blacklist)
I've picked up a couple mysteries at the little free library, and I feel like the others have been trying to be the thing that this one is; comfortable and a little sweet, but still suspenseful and a little unsettling. If I saw more in the series, I'd pick them up (unlike the other mysteries I've read recently, whose authors have been added to my blacklist)
The PCU is always interesting and different. As usual, there are unexpected twists and layers to the story, and the characters are always entertaining. I wish this one was a bit longer, I read it a little too quickly!
This was a good, not great read. I enjoyed the characters Bryant and May, and am getting better acquainted with the rest of the team. Fowler throws in a lot of literary references that are easy to miss, but a pleasure to recognize.
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Christopher Fowler is an English novelist living in London, his books contain elements of black comedy, anxiety and social satire. As well as novels, he writes short stories, scripts, press articles and reviews.
He lives in King's Cross, on the Battlebridge Basin, and chooses London as the backdrop of many of his stories because any one of the events in its two thousand year history can provide ins ...more
More about Christopher Fowler...
He lives in King's Cross, on the Battlebridge Basin, and chooses London as the backdrop of many of his stories because any one of the events in its two thousand year history can provide ins ...more
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Bryant and May
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“I hate the endless admonishments of a nanny state that lives in fear of its lawyers. While colonies of dim-witted traffic wardens swarm about looking for minor parking infringements, nobody seems to notice that our very social fabric is falling apart.”
—
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“The traffic system needs a complete rethink," mused Bryant as the unit's only allocated vehicle, a powder-blue Vauxhall with a thoroughly thrashed engine, accelerated through Belsize Park. "Look at these road signs. Ministerial graffiti."
"It's no use lecturing on the problem, Arthur. That's why your driving examiner failed you thirty-seven times."
"What makes you such a great driver?'
"I don't hit things.”
—
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More quotes…
"It's no use lecturing on the problem, Arthur. That's why your driving examiner failed you thirty-seven times."
"What makes you such a great driver?'
"I don't hit things.”
