First
Sentence: From Raymond Land to All Staff: So, it’s
a new beginning for us.
The Peculiar Crimes Unit is now under the jurisdiction of
the City of London and, as usual, their new top boss would
like to see an end to the group. However, two crimes are keeping
them in the game. A young man appears to see a body rise from
a grave and claims it spoke. Have Resurrectionists returned?
But what did the young man see that resulted in his murder
a few days later? Someone stole the seven ravens, symbol of
the British Empire, from the Tower of London. Only Bryant
could discover a link between the two crimes.
How wonderful that Fowler includes a cast of characters, in
the form of a staff roster, at the beginning of his books.
And, right from the start, we are treated to the wonderful
voice and humor of Flower. It’s a rare treat when an
internal memo can be amusing.
It’s nice to have a true ensemble cast of characters,
which each playing a significant role in the story and each
being fully developed. Although the primary characters are
James May and Arthur Bryant—what a wonderful relationship
that is--Bryant took the lead here. He seems to have mellowed
bit and we learn much more about his past, which is quite
lovely, but we did not lose any of that which makes him so
delightful. However, all the relationships are so well drawn,
the characters transform into being actual people to the reader.
Fowler’s voice, wit and dialogue are such a pleasure
to read…”Why have you got a house brick in there
[Longbright’s handbag]?’ “Under British
law you can’t stop a suspect with a weapon but you might
be allowed to hit him with something that would naturally
be in your hand at the time,”…. “PC Biggs
folded her arms. No honest citizen should ever do anything
that makes a police officer stand back and fold her arms.”
There is also a delightful scene of the pathologist being
thrust into a very different role than that to which he is
accustomed. Flower is very good at doing the unexpected.
There is one small criticism and that is the inclusion of
portents. Portents are really, really annoying, unnecessary
and, rather than create suspense, have the opposite effect.
They are also somewhat insulting to the reader as it’s
as though the author assumes the reader won’t continue
otherwise.
The Bleeding Heart is very clever with wonderfully
logical explanations of crimes which seemed so odd. It is
an absolutely delightful book.
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