This may be my favorite of the Peculiar Crime Unit series books yet. A locked room crime. The London theater world and the ultra rich. A gorey and sex filled play. Oh so many things to consider. Once again Arthur Bryant and John May lead their cohorts into a battle of sorts to find a killer. And now they are operating in high social circles which might impede an investigation. There were areas of London society where even the law was powerless. The gap between rich and poor was not just one of

Ninth in the Bryant & May quirky mystery series set in London and revolving around two detectives who should have retired years ago.My TakeIt's a dive into the history of Punch and Judy theatre, and it's fascinating as Salterton takes us back into its origins and purpose as well as who the cast is actually meant to represent. There's also a brief foray into censorship in London theatres by the Lord Chamberlain and historic bits of stage magic. It's very much like today when a new bit of technolo...

Review fro Badelynge.Christopher Fowler's wonderful creations, elderly detectives Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit are called in to investigate the brutal killing of a young baby taken from its cot in a locked room, shaken to death and callously thrown out the window. And on the floor next to the cot lies a life size Mr Punch doll. As ever Bryant dives into the esoteric aspects of the case while May employs solid police work. The book kicks off with some documents detailing the histor...

I am determined to read all the Bryant and May Peculiar Crimes Unit books!! This series is so delightful and is somewhat like the Nero Wolfe books in that the story is secondary to the perfectly drawn characters. The author is a master of the ingenious and slightly cock-eyed style of writing that makes each book a joy even if the plot is totally insane and could never happen in the real world.In this book, the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called into a case which seems to revolve around the historic

ehhhhhhhhh, it was cute but ... i think what happens with some of these series mysteries is that once you get past the initial surprise and delight of the funny characters and situations they start to feel empty. I felt that way with the fourth Flavia De Luce and I've felt that way with the past couple Bryant and Mays. And there used to be more character development in the early books, this one is just kind of a silly plot with nothing much else.

I enjoyed this mystery, felt it was one of the better ones, EXCEPT for a baby getting killed. I found that very disturbing, thus the lack of more stars.I enjoyed the history behind the Punch and Judy and the history of London Theater.Madame Blavatsky was a hoot. My favorite quote in the book was one of her fortunes: Nobody Does Yoga in Wales. There was also another murder not really relating to the case. It is a definitely to be continued thread.

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I'm beginning to lose patience with our beloved old guy detectives. In this novel I do not approve of the murder victims, except one of them, and when that one dies, I wish he had died in a much more horrible fashion, and more slowly.And it really bothers me how crucial details are kept away from readers until the last minute. But, I'll give one extra star because at least the killer had been a suspect all along, not some stranger who was never in the story until being miraculously presented as

This was just as good as usual except for the actual culprit. The journey as usual was fascinating.

Wonderful wonderful Bryant and May novel! One of the best and I'm reading A LOT of them. This one involves puppets!!A digression: I LOVE PUPPETS. (I'll stop with the caps now.) As a young girl and well into my teens I had about 60 puppets. Store-bought, hand-made, including some marionettes. (One an 'expensive' marionette my sister bought for me in Italy. Hooray!) I wrote plays for them, staged them with my best friend - she had about 20 puppets of her own - and it all makes up some of the best,...

I'm surprised that this is only the fifth of the Bryant and May books I have read. The Peculiar Crimes Unit takes on London's drama circle when the first death of an infant kicks off a series of more to be solved if not prevented. The the two main crime solvers are always at odds but the team relies on one of them coming to the rescue at the end with the grand solution. Government officials play a part in misleading and aiming to bring the PCU to its end, but that is not how it all works out.Ori...

This is the first book I've read in the series (#8), and I enjoyed it enough to now go and start from the beginning. Two seemingly doddering detectives in London head up the PCU (peculiar crimes unit): Bryant (a real eccentric) and May. This murder mystery is set in the world of London Theater and puppetry, two things that I'm very interested in, so that is what interested me in the first place. There are enough twists and turns, and non-linear thinking, leading to the end, that it kept me engro...

The Peculiar Crimes Unit delves into the world of the theatre as they investigate the death of a baby removed from his cot, strangled and thrown out of the window of a room locked from the inside while downstairs the launch party for a new play has assembled numerous members of a theatre company, all of whom are now suspects. Examining the body and what little evidence was left behind, it soon becomes apparent that the crime scene was an elaborately staged display meant to indicate that the chil...

Always on the verge of being shut down by those who see them as embarrassments, the PCU manages to pull themselves together once again. One of the most engaging detective teams in modern fiction.

Bryant and May solve it once again!

Enjoyed both the mystery and the eccentric characters that brought the story to life!

Fowler’s descriptive and diological wit continue to make the Bryant and May series a delight. Never knowing where Bryant’s next quirky move or friend will take the reader is only magnified by his Sherlockian revelation of the tales villain. What fun!

First Sentence: The following undated document appeared on Wikileaks and is now the subject of a government investigation. During the cast party, someone has murdered the theater owner’s infant son. The bedroom is locked from the inside and neither blood nor fingerprints are found; only the life-sized puppet of Mr. Punch, lying on the floor. A cast of characters is always helpful, but usually not very inventive. From Page One, it is clear this will not be your usual read with your usual charac...

I'm reading this for the second time to put it into the sequence properly.I'll review it again later. Well, the third time, then.Puppets are always a little disturbing, like clowns. We don't have the tradition of Punch and Judy here, perhaps because we don't have entertainments on our beaches, not even donkey rides. Funny that.In this series something may look eerie or supernatural but it is finally explained in "normal" terms, so we don't really believe that Mr. Punch could have killed the baby...

I thought hooray, another Peculiar Crimes Unit book to take away the taste of stupid formula thrillers and self-righteous political preaching masquerading as novels.Seriously. I'm having a good baseball season and a really good trout season, but reading season has been rough lately.Anyway, I'm giving this one four stars mostly out of loyalty to Mr. Fowler, who stubbornly insists on writing books for adults. (As opposed to adult books, which nobody does anymore. Alas.)It's a little creaky. The ma...