I enjoyed this latest installment in the long running series about the Peculiar Crimes Unit and their lead detectives, Bryant and May. This time, the crimes stem from the seemingly accidental death of a young boy due to a freak accident, and the unit is brought in to solve the death of his mother in a private London garden.

Following his recovery from the dementia-like condition which had beset him in the last couple or so books, but still having the odd hallucinatory lapse due to the medical treatment he continues to undergo, Bryant is on top form here, with his odd diving off into all sorts of seeming irrelevancies about the history of London, which yet enrich the story and contribute to his solution to the sequence of murders. Leg work also plays a part as put in by the other members of the unit. As with all books in this series, it is the journey that is the important thing, yet the eventual answer was also a surprise as the story kept me guessing. The only thing that held this back from a 5 star rating for me was that the continuing subplot of the unit continually being threatened with closure and having to solve a case to head that off, is getting a bit too much of a routine. But a well deserved 4 stars. ( )

Lots of information about London the I enjoyed. Well worth reading for the background information. Christopher Fowler is a darn good writer. ( )

The latest (as of 2017) in the Bryant & May series. B&M are two eccentric policemen in London. They are the lead detectives in the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) which investigates strange crimes that fall outside the purvey of the regular police. There are a lot of mythological and horror elements to the books, but the crimes are always explained by non-mythological explanations.

In Wild Chamber there is a murder in one of London’s many urban parks. As the book progresses more, seemingly similar, murders occur with puzzling connections between the victims. The PCU’s nemesis in the London bureaucracy wants to close the parks and direct the public outrage on the PCU to try to close them down.

Much of the humor in the books comes from the interactions between B&M and their colleagues and the public. Bryant is extremely eccentric, dressing and behaving oddly, and spouting arcane facts. The books are filled with weird but interesting cultural facts about London and its history.

There are over two dozen book in the series so far. I really love this series and Wild Chamber was one of my favorites. I would heartily recommend any of the books in the series. Most of the books can be read as standalone novels, but a couple are best read as pairs (see the Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryant_%26_May) on the series for more information). ( )

Interesting story

This author seems to focus more on past history and events rather than the actual crime.
I admit to skipping over these parts that I felt were insignificant to the story.







( )

This is an OK addition to the series. Author Fowler expands on a "closed room" murder mystery and has the Peculiar Crimes Unit investigate it. Detectives Bryant and May lead the PCU team as the sleuthing takes them to several parks and gardens in central London. It's a lacklustre outing and seemed overlong to me. Even the bureaucrats wanting to close down the PCU seemed distracted. ( )