What I'm Listening to...Seventy-Seven Clocks

Christopher Fowler's 'Seventy-Seven Clocks' is the third in the Bryant and May series. They are a pair of elderly policemen in the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London. The first in the series, 'Full Dark House' mostly took place in Blitz-time London whereas the second, 'The Water Room', was modern day. 'Seventy-Seven Clocks' takes place in 1973, the year of blackouts and 3 day weeks.

I love listening to these books as for a start they are really witty and the pair have a great repartee and secondly there's a lot of information about London and its history. The plots tend to be convoluted, but I just enjoy the ride.

On the Clipper website you can listen to a sample which has Bryant explaining what 'Peculiar' means.

Synopsis: "The odd couple of detection - the brilliant but cranky Arthur Bryant and John May of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit - return in a tense, atmospheric new thriller that keeps you guessing right to the end. This time the detectives are up against a series of bizarre murders that defy human understanding - and a killer no human hand may be able to stop.

A mysterious stranger in outlandish Edwardian garb defaces a painting in the National Gallery. Then a guest at the exclusive Savoy Hotel is fatally bitten by what appears to be a marshland snake. An outbreak of increasingly bizarre crimes has hit London - and, fittingly, come to the attention of the Peculiar Crimes Unit."