London Bridge Is Falling Down (Bryant & May / Peculiar Crimes Unit) by Christopher Fowler
Review by Ernest Lilley
Bantam Hardcover / eBook  ISBN/ITEM#: 9780593356210
Date: December 7, 2021

Links: Author’s Website / Amazon Link / Show Official Info /

If you’re not familiar with the PCU (Peculiar Crimes Unit) of the London police force, this is either the best or worst place to start. As the cover copy says, “Bryant and May’s twentieth-anniversary case brings an ending and a new beginning to London’s most peculiar crimes unit and all who work there.”

Now, you may think that starting at the end, as I did, is crazy, but in this case, it’s perfect. Though this is far from the first time that the PCU has been threatened with being closed down, this time it’s for real, and even Arthur Bryant, the unit’s legendary senior detective, can’t stop it. He can, however, stall it for a little while so that he can come up with an exit strategy that leaves the team with options.

That stalling takes the form of calling up the PCU’s favorite coroner and asking what he’s got handy on the slab, which leads to an investigation of a little old lady who appears to have died of natural causes in her immaculate flat. Undeterred by appearances, Arthur and the team forge ahead, only to discover not only was this murder but that it’s just the first of more, all somehow tied to something from the past. Something code-named London Bridge, a secret kept by three women who would rather die than let it be revealed.

The past figures heavily in this twisty investigation both because that’s the way Arthur works, by tasking his widespread network of informants, all brilliant corkscrew minds in their own right, as he digs for a connection between the increasing body count. Before it’s done he’ll have to face down the CIA and the Home Office as well as rogue elements left over from Cold War espionage, and will ultimately find that the investigation comes full circle to the PCU itself.

London Bridge is Falling Down is both a tour-de-force and a tour of past cases which manages to close a chapter in this long-running series and pave the way forward for London’s most peculiar crew of crime stoppers.

Highly Recommended.