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    White Corridor: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery
    Unavailable
    White Corridor: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery
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    White Corridor: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery
    Ebook351 pages5 hours

    White Corridor: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery

    By Christopher Fowler

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    From using crackpot psychics to cutting-edge forensics, Arthur Bryant and John May are famous for their maddeningly unorthodox approach to solving crimes that the ordinary police cannot. Now Christopher Fowler, “a new master of the classical detective story,”* brings back crime detection’s oddest—and oldest—couple to solve the ultimate locked room mystery.

    It’s an “impossible” crime—a member of the Peculiar Crimes Unit killed inside a locked autopsy room populated only by the dead and to which only four PCU members had a key. And to make matters worse, the Unit has been shut down for a forced “vacation” and Bryant and May are stuck in a van miles away in the Dartmoor countryside during a freak snowstorm on their way to a convention of psychics.

    Now, with Sergeant Janice Longbright in charge at headquarters, Bryant and May must crack the case by cell phone while trying to stop a second murder without freezing to death. For among the line of snowed-in vehicles, a killer is on the prowl, a beautiful woman is on the run from a man who seeks either redemption or another victim, and an innocent child is caught in the middle.

    Weaving together two electrifying cases, White Corridor is an unforgettable triumph—by turns hilarious and harrowing—as two of detective fiction’s most marvelous characters confront one of human nature’s darkest mysteries: the ability to deceive, deny, and destroy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateMay 29, 2007
    ISBN9780553903768
    Unavailable
    White Corridor: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery
    Author

    Christopher Fowler

    Christopher Fowler is the award-winning author of more than forty novels and short-story collections, including the Bryant & May mysteries and he is the recipient of the 2015 Dagger In The Library.

    Read more from Christopher Fowler

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    Reviews for White Corridor

    3.5/5

    177 ratings21 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Years ago, I read the first book in Fowler's Bryant and May series and didn't care for it at all, but always at the back of my mind, I thought there might have been extenuating circumstances. You see, I read Full Dark House while on my very first trip to the UK, and I'm pretty sure my brain was on sensory overload. I am very happy to announce that I thoroughly enjoyed this fifth book in the series, and now I'm wanting to catch up with all the adventures of these two men.One of the small things that was so enjoyable was that Fowler increased my vocabulary. It's not often that writers use words that I'm not familiar with (and may I also add that the built-in dictionary is one of the perks of owning an eReader). Both storylines worked together extremely well. Everyone at the Peculiar Crimes Unit is used to having Bryant and May on hand to solve the crimes, but this time Sergeant Janice Longbright is in charge, and she's petrified that she's going to make a hash of it all. Then there's the young mother and son running from the homicidal maniac while the wind howls and the snow piles up. Fowler lets readers see things from several different perspectives, and my mind really got a workout trying to piece together the clues for both crimes. As marvelous as the story is in White Corridor, the characters of Bryant and May are superb, especially if you like mysteries with flashes of brilliant humor. How old is Arthur Bryant? "Mr. Bryant is so old that most of his lifetime subscriptions have run out." One of the books in his office is Code-Breaking in Braille, and he planned the route to the psychics convention using a map printed in 1907. You'd never think in a million years that such a person could be any good at solving crimes or be allowed to get away with the things that he does. For the most part, John May is the slightly younger and steadier of the two, but at this stage of the game, May knows it's useless trying to rein in his determined partner. And as far as that "getting away with things" goes, as Fowler says in White Corridor, "The PCU got away with murder because few of their suspects ever did." And that's what it's all about, isn't it? Well, except for the fact that those two have a cell phone with a charge that seems to last till the end of time....I am thrilled that I gave this series a second chance. Now I have fourteen books to read in order to catch up. Happy reading for me!
    • 3/5
      In the filing cabinets opposite were secret details of cases no other unit in the country had the ability to unravel. The PCU had earned the right to handle the kind of investigations no-one in the Metropolitan Police force had the faintest interest in solving. They had captured demons and devils, phantoms and monsters; not real ones, of course, mostly deluded loners who believed themselves invulnerable to the law. Individuals who had stolen, blackmailed and killed for tenebrous, private purposes, to protect themselves, to hide truths, to destroy enemies. Murder, Arthur Bryant insisted, was invariably a squalid, sad business driven by poverty and desperation, yet the cases passed to the Peculiar Crimes Unit had often been marked by paradox and absurdity. Sometimes they were the dream cases other detectives fantasised about resolving, but Bryant and May chose their staff with care, employing novices who were knowledgeable social misfits, in the same way that computer companies sometimes hired the very hackers who had attacked their clients from behind bedroom doors.This was the fourth book in the Bryant & May series that I have read, and I found it an improvement on Seventy-Seven Clocks but not as good as Full Dark House or Ten-Second Staircase.I enjoyed the goings-on in the PCU's offices in London much more than the crime that Bryant and May stumbled across in a snow-bound traffic jam on Dartmoor.
    • 4/5
      White Corridor was my first Bryant and May mystery. I liked it very much. I didn't guess any of the secrets. If you don't like books with multiple viewpoints, this British whodunnit will not be to your taste. I found the Peculiar Crimes Unit interesting. The elderly detectives' ability to solve mysteries while trapped in a van in a blizzard impressed me.
    • 3/5
      Read this for my mystery book club. Jolly good read! The beginning chapters were a bit difficult, but the story finally came together. Really liked the churlish main characters.
    • 3/5
      Based on a review I thought I would enjoy this book which is the latest in the Peculiar Crimes series but the first I've read. I did enjoy the relationships between all the subjects and appreciated the sense of humor of the author. It was the storyline that I had trouble with. So I won't be reading anymore of the series.
    • 3/5
      The Peculiar Crimes Unit series has been entertaining in the past, but this book took a long, long time to set up. I put it aside a few times, but it was from the library, and I felt I should give it one more chance. So I finished it, but it's not my favorite in the series.
    • 2/5
      I am of two minds with this book - in some ways I think the mystery elements are some of the best in the series. There are two mysteries and both explore human nature with understanding and compassion. On the other hand, the eccentricities of Bryant & May and Bryant's disquisitions on this that or the other topic from the occult, to psychogeography to whatever other fixation he has is becoming tedious and I want to buy him a muzzle.
    • 4/5
      Mr. Fowler is one of the most imaginative writers I have ever come across and this novel is no exception. What a surprise ending! I'm sure many will love this one.
    • 4/5
      Not the best in the series but still a page turner at the end. Slightly,contrived structure with the characters separated
    • 5/5
      I'm doing a bit of catch up with this series, and so am reading/listening to them very much out of order. That doesn't seem to matter though, and I must attribute that in part to the narrator Tim Goodman who brings them very much to life. At times it causes some continuity problems, but they are not insurmountable.The elderly detectives Bryant and May have become stranded in a snow storm on a B road on their way to Cornwall. They are driving Bryant's landlady Alma's van to paranormal convention at which Arthur Bryant is meant to be giving a key note address. The PCU is being re-wired to accommodate new computers and it seems that no-one will miss the elderly detectives if they are away for a couple of days. They leave Janice Longbright in charge of the PCU in London, and their boss Raymond Land is none too happy when Oscar Cassavian, his boss, schedules a visit from the Princess Royal. The future of the PCU is very much on the line and an unfavourable report from the Princess Royal may take their funding completely away. Cassavian is just waiting for something like that to crop up.Meanwhile the death of a staff member occurs in the PCU mortuary and it seems likely that another member of staff may be the perpetrator. So Longbright consults with Bryant and May by mobile telephone. Meanwhile they discover that a driver in one of the stranded vehicles has also been murdered.Tim Goodman's narration of these stories is wonderful and Arthur Bryant in particular, the older of the two detectives, really comes to life. The author has a particular quirky sense of humour. He also fills the novels with off-beat antiquarianisms, mainly related to the history of London.. The character development is excellent too
    • 4/5
      Bryant and May solve crime while snowed in on a highway in Dartmoor! I was a little disappointed in the ending, moreso because this book had an unusually high amount of Meera and what's-his-name who won't stop hitting on her even though she's not interested but the writer has clearly decided that persistence is charming and I'm sure they'll eventually get together. I hate that trope.
    • 4/5
      This is the second book I have read by Christopher Fowler and both have been from his Bryant & May series. Arthur Bryant and John May are Golden Age Detectives in a modern world. They head the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU), London's most venerable specialist police team, a division founded during the Second World War to investigate cases that could cause national scandal or public unrest. It's an unusual and original set up, two crimes have to be solved and these are cleverly interwoven whilst Bryant and May are trapped far from London and their colleagues at the PCU. White Corridor contains more of Christopher Fowler's trademark humour, London history, some acerbic social insights, and a ripping yarn that gets progressively more compelling and exciting.
    • 4/5
      London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit was established to solve crimes that the regular police department couldn’t or wouldn’t solve. It was headed by Senior Detectives Arthur Bryant and John May, who are both past retirement age, and are known to use rather unorthodox methods and resources, including psychics and witches, to help them achieve their goals. The PCU is a very tight-group all fighting two common enemies: crimes and the strong desire of the police department to dissolve it.In WHITE CORRIDOR the pair are enroute to a psychics convention and become stranded in a terrific snowstorm. No vehicles can move on the crowded highway. Meanwhile, back at the office, one member of the staff is found dead in a locked room. There is a possibility of a second death as well. It is up to Sergeant Janice Longbright, to lead the investigation. Bryant and May can only assist by cell phone.The fifth in the PCU series, the story is, as always, well-written and enjoyable, with wit mixed into the story line. One of my favorite examples is a conversation between a boy and his mother: Referring to his croissant, Ryan states, “Only the French could invent bread that explodes when you try to eat it.” His mother replies, “I wanted a child, I got Noel Coward.” “Who’s Noel Coward?” Ryan asked.Some current philosophy also is included. While discussing the current state of education and discourse, Bryant states: “Through the proliferation of deliberately obscuring clutter, our access to hard information is being radically reduced. If you take away knowledge you create myth, not the old myths that help to underpin and elucidate the human condition, but ones with the more sinister purpose of increasing commercial gain.”And “I suppose the worst thing isn’t that there might be nothing after my death, but there might be nothing before it.”While there is some mention of previous books in the series, it is not necessary to read them first nor to not appreciate them when you go back and read them, which you likely will when you get hooked on the PCU series.
    • 4/5
      I started out not liking this book (I don't always "get" the Brits) but I stuck with it and ended up liking it very much. Very unusual elderly detectives and other quirky characters solves two crimes (one a locked room) in this clever and witty story. I think though, it would be better to start with the first in this series, as I was a little confused at times.
    • 4/5
      The Peculiar Crimes Unit is in danger of losing its funding, but that isn't all that's troubling the team. Bryant and May are trapped in a major snowstorm in the south of England, possibly with a homicidal maniac, and there may be the possibility that a unit team member has murdered of one of their own.This was not a particularly intricate mystery, but I found it a pleasant read which engaged the mind without sending it into convolutions. Fowler writes characters I enjoy reading about and leaves me wanting to know more.
    • 4/5
      Typical Bryant and May eventually. The beginning is a bit strange. I thought I'd picked up the wrong book. It eventually got around to the "Bryant and May" detective scenario and was a good read. Not as good as the "Clocks" novel.
    • 5/5
      An enchanting mystery, or rather two mysteries. One is a classic ‘locked room’ scenario and the other a serial killer haunts a line of snowbound cars occupied and stranded during a freak blizzard. There are passages that are so exactly ‘right’, like the visit by the feared Teutonic princess. London is a living character in the Bryant and May mysteries. A really charming cozy, and something much more.
    • 4/5
      White Corridor is installment number five in the Bryant and May series (aka the Peculiar Crimes Unit series). In this book, the author has given his readers two mainstay elements of classic mystery -- the locked-room murder (in which a member of the PCU is killed in a most impossible fashion so that suspicion points to the others) -- and weather so incredibly bad that it prevents our heroes Bryant and May from having any hope of returning to London to help with this crime. It wouldn't be so bad, but once again, someone is scheming to close down the PCU -- so the other members of the team have to solve the crime themselves and quickly. It doesn't mean that our favorite detectives are just sitting bundled up in the car waiting for the storm to pass...they also get involved when a truck driver is killed during the standstill traffic produced by the storm. What I liked about this book was precisely that we get to see the team at work without Bryant and May, but I just didn't think it was as good as the previous four. Normally I can't wait to dive right in...this time I could actually put the book down and do other things instead of sticking to it like glue. Dont' get me wrong...it's still quite good, quite quirky and the author's writing is great as always, but it just seemed to me that something was lacking here that is found in the other books leading up to this one series order-wise. I definitely recommend it to people who are following the series, and to people who want something rather different in their reading (you'll definitely find it in this set of books). Don't by any means start with this one or you'll lose a lot of backstory and character development from the others. Overall...a good read and a nice way to pass a few hours on a summer's day.
    • 5/5
      With 'White Corridor',Christopher Fowler brings us the fifth and the best in the 'Bryant and May' detective series.The two aging detectives are stranded far away from their London base in deep snow and howling blizzards. Here they become involved in a desperate hunt for a serial killer. Meanwhile at the 'Peculiar Crimes Unit',the rest of the peculiar members of the team are struggling with several problems of their own. One of them has died in a locked room situation and the remainder are under suspicion of having been involved. The unit is also ,once again,in danger of being closed down and in addition there is a visit threatened by a minor member of the Royal family. All of the characters who work in this strange department are depicted as flawed individuals and over and above the crime element it is in the lives and problems of those people that are perhaps the most interesting part of these stories. Fowler (as I have written in another review) can try to be too clever in his plots and solutions,but in this one he has got the mix just right.
    • 5/5
      The thought of two plot lines occurring in geographically separate places, yet the boys still have to work them out, seemed more than a book could handle comfortably. Fowler, as usual, accomplishes it, and presents us with characters to care about, as well as surprises when all seems understandable in one's mind. Brilliant.
    • 4/5
      The detectives get trapped in a blizzard with a serial killer while the office tries to solve its own murder and fend off a visit from royalty.