Full Dark House: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery (Paperback)

FULL DARK HOUSE is an excellent example of this. There are elements of mystery (ala Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie), police procedurals, horror, history and suspense aplenty here. There is also Fowler's trademark quirkiness. One never knows what to expect. So it is that while FULL DARK HOUSE is the first of a projected series of mysteries featuring Arthur Bryant and John May, it deals with their first, and last, case.

We learn over the course of FULL DARK HOUSE that Bryant and May have a long history together. They met up as the result of the establishment of the London Peculiar Crimes Unit in 1940, at the height of the German bombing of London. The founding of PCU occurred partly from necessity and partly for publicity. Given the frequency of the bombing to which the London populace was subjected, the actions of some of its citizenry became more and more bizarre, resulting in what was referred to with British understatement as "peculiar crimes." Bryant and May, assigned to the unit, became friends; their personal and professional relationship has lasted over 60 years, with Bryant's unorthodox methodology and May's more traditional police work complementing each other nicely.

Fowler begins FULL DARK HOUSE in modern London with ... well, a bang, literally, when the headquarters of the London Peculiar Crimes Unit explodes with Arthur Bryant in it. May is aware that his partner, in the days preceding his demise, had been poking around in the files of their very first case and that somehow he apparently awakened the spirit of a murderer who has now eliminated one of them and seems determined to take the life of the other. May begins retracing Bryant's movements in the few days preceding the explosion, examining Bryant's cryptic, almost indecipherable notes and recalling the events of their first active case in November 1940.

Bryant and May were brought to London's Palace Theater to investigate the bizarre death of a dancer on the eve of the presentation of a controversial production of "Orpheus in Hell." There was initially the possibility that the death might have been an accident; yet, as more deaths occur, by increasingly violent means, the two men were drawn to the conclusion that they are dealing with a cunning, unknown killer with a diabolical motive. As May reviews the events that occurred decades before against the backdrop of war-torn London, he gradually comes to realize that an individual from that investigation has unexpectedly and inexplicably reappeared to wreak havoc once again.

Fowler does a breathtaking job of recreating war-torn London from without and within the Palace Theater, capturing not only the stoic resignation of the public to the horrific bombing but also the theatrical elements of the era. Fowler's descriptions of the theater, from the staging areas, the offices and the costumes to the actors themselves, are simply incredible. While he obviously conducted an incredible amount of research in the writing of this book, that fact does not fully credit Fowler's almost magical ability to transport the reader back in time, to make the passages in the novel read as if they were diary entries written as the bombs fell.

The conclusion of FULL DARK HOUSE is also nothing less than wonderful. I had to take a bit of license here not to reveal it, but I doubt anyone reading FULL DARK HOUSE will object; the journey here is the equal of the destination. Fowler also liberally sprinkles cryptic references to other historical Peculiar Crimes Unit cases, enough so that his readership can expect several more volumes of Bryant and May mysteries in the future.

FULL DARK HOUSE is an ambitious and challenging beginning to what will hopefully be a long-running series.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub