Going Underground...

If you enjoyed Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May Off the Rails (my review) and/or are interested in knowing more about the London Underground then you might want to pick up train enthusiast and crime writer Andrew Martin's recently published Underground Overground:

Official blurb: This is an entertaining and enlightening social history of the world's most famous underground railway. Why is the Victoria Line so hot? What is an Electrical Multiple Unit? Is it really possible to ride from Kings Cross to Kings Cross on the Circle line? The London Underground is the oldest, most sprawling and illogical metropolitan transport system in the world, the result of a series of botch-jobs and improvisations. Yet it transports over one billion passengers every year - and this figure is rising. It is iconic, recognised the world over, and loved and despised by Londoners in equal measure. Blending reportage, humour and personal encounters, Andrew Martin embarks on a wonderfully engaging social history of London's underground railway system (which despite its name, is in fact 55 five per cent overground). Along the way he attempts to untangle the mess that is the Northern Line, visit every station in a single day - and find out which gaps to be especially mindful of. "The London Underground" is a highly enjoyable, witty and informative history of everything you need to know about the Tube.

I haven't read it yet as the library's sole copy has a long waiting list but I do plan to one day.

Review: Bryant & May Off the Rails by Christopher Fowler (audio book)

Bryant & May Off the Rails by Christopher Fowler read by Tim Goodman, Whole Story Audiobooks, April 2011, 9 CDs, ISBN: 9781407472713

Bryant & May Off the Rails is the eighth in this series which features London's Peculier Crime's Unit (the PCU) headed up by London's two most ancient detectives Arthur Bryant and John May. Fast friends but with completely different ways of working.

Off the Rails pretty much follows on directly from the tragic end to On the Loose. The PCU have one week to find the elusive killer, Mr Fox, a chameleon who is drawn to King's Cross Station. If they don't solve the case then they'll be shut down.

A second case is presented to them when a young woman is pushed down a flight of stairs in King's Cross Station and a sticker is left on her back. This sticker leads the team to the Karma bar and on to a house in Bloomsbury full of students. When one of the students impossibly disappears off a late-night underground train then pressure is increased on the remaining students as Arthur becomes convinced one of them is behind the disappearance.

The fascinating history of the London Underground is imparted to the listener via Mr Bryant and the security team at King's Cross. All sorts of legends and rumours as well as hard facts are presented and of course there's a field trip down there by Bryant and May. After much surveilling of suspects and attempts at magic tricks by Arthur, all routes finally lead to King's Cross in a dramatic ending where murder is thwarted by a most unlikely source.

This is another good entry in this innovative and informative series which mixes history with laughs. There is a late scene with "Acting Temporary Head of the PCU" Raymond Land which made me snort loudly on the train, delivered in such a dead-pan way by the always excellent Tim Goodman. Land also makes some attempt to clear up how old the two senior detectives are as he reckons that Arthur has moved the first case, Full Dark House, back by 15 years. Arthur disputes this so we are none the wiser.

Christopher Fowler is possibly the UK's answer to Fred Vargas, both take events which appear to be supernatural and provide rational explanations and both Bryant and Vargas's Adamsberg have very unorthodox ways of getting to the truth.

Read another Euro Crime review of Bryant & May Off the Rails.

More reviews of Christopher Fowler's books can be found on the Euro Crime website.