The most engrossing and exciting plot thus far. Some witchcraft clean otherwise. The narrator is, his usual, excellent. 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Best of all in series, so far. ( )

This is the (n-1)th book (as of 2021) in the Bryant and May series. I won't go into what the series is about (see the wikipedia entry for that). My main reason for enjoying the books is the authors writing style and the interactions between the two head detectives.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as some of the others in the series and the main is it seemed unbalanced. Normally Bryant and May act as a team: Bryant is the eccentric academic and May the level headed professional; with the rest of the PCU (Peculiar Crimes Unit) in supporting roles. In this one Bryant seems to do all the work and May is just another unit member. ( )

DNF. Just couldn't get into it. The protagonist was supposedly an eccentric but brilliant detective, but when he shot holes in the wall of the police station and then blew off the complaint of the department head I lost interest. The world has far too many insensitive, self-indulgent, oafs to spend time reading a story in which one is glorified. I was curious about the body hanging in the tree, and in the (overdone) ditzy women who discovered the body, but the lack of a anyone I wanted to root for in the first 50 pages was a sign to move on to something better. ( )

I absolutely adore this character oriented series. Yes, of course there are murders to be solved, but it is the way they are solved that is so original. They are, after all, called the peculiar crime unit, for more than one reason. Bryant is a hoot, this elderly man who refuses to retire, and has very unique associations with many of the underground characters that populate London. He is the bane of the home office, well the whole unit is, and they would like nothing better than to shut them down. They do, however, solve crimes, albeit in a very unorthodox, rule bending manner, that the other units cannot solve.

If you've ever watched the show House, now on reruns, Bryant is much like Dr. Gregory House. They both get results, keep their teams on their toes, in a sometimes very amusing way, and are vastly entertaining. This is a series I never miss, as it provides many chuckles and outright laughter. Just pure reading delight. Well, except for the murders, of course.

Narratioñ was by Tim Goodman and he was fantastic. ( )

When first a body is found hanging upside down in a tree surrounded by occult items and then another body is pulled from the River Thames with a cut throat, octogenarian police detectives Arthur Bryant and John May utilize their disparate skills to draw a connection. It turns out that the only thing these individuals had in common was a shared cab ride after a night of drinking - but there are several more people who shared that same cab and whose lives may therefore be in danger. Bryant and May will have to work the night shift to find the killer, who kills only at 4:00 AM, the lonely hour…. I love the Peculiar Crimes Unit series, and all of its quirky characters (yes, even Raymond Land, the nominal “head” of the unit), but this particular entry, the 17th, seems a little more melancholy and darker than usual, with not as much delving into the long and fascinating history of London as we usually hear about from Arthur. This is a series for which I would recommend starting at the beginning (“Full Dark House”), as the relationships and the fate of the Unit evolve and change over time, but if you’re a fan of sharp, sometimes funny and sometimes poignant writing, you’ll likely enjoy these two old gents and their accomplices; recommended! ( )