Fowler
is best known for his horror fiction. I'm not a horror fan,
so I’m glad he created this series or I would've never
discovered how talented he really is…
Peculiar
Crimes Unit works the odder mysteries - mysteries that seem
a tad supernatural. In this mystery Arthur Bryant is sure
the answer involves witchcraft, secret codes and an ancient
London myth. John May doesn’t really agree but vows
to risk his life and follow Bryant.
It all
starts with two children witch hunting, then an unusual death
at St. Bride's Church. The victim’s death is so odd
Bryant wants the case transferred to Peculiar Crimes. But
Oskar Kasavian (aka the devil) at the Home Office won’t
hear of it. He wants Peculiar Crimes to just disappear. When
Oskar calls Bryant and May to his office they expect a reprimand.
Instead he hires them to monitor his young Albanian wife.
She’s been acting strangely and can’t get along
with the wives of the other Home Office officials. (After
seeing these witches in action I wouldn’t either.) Needless
to say, the original case ends up in their hands as does the
murder of a journalist following Oskar’s wife. Both
cases get weirder and weirder, and this has Bryant looking
in to the supernatural aspects of it all. Meanwhile the rest
of the unit does their part and takes a beating for it –
literally.
I can’t
get enough of this Unit. It’s an eccentric group with
Bryant and Mays at the helm and everyone knows it but their
official leader, Raymond Land. This series has been labeled
thriller, horror, supernatural, cozy, police procedural, detective
novel, etc. The series is a bit of everything and each mystery
may be more of one than the other. But the one thing each
mystery has is a complex whodunit ready to be cracked. Read
the first in series and you’ll be hooked.
Reviews
of other titles in this series
Full
Dark House #1
The
Water Room #2
The Memory of Blood # 9 [review1]
[review
2] [review
3]
Invisible Code #10 [review
1] [review
2]
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