Crime thriller set in London (an incendiary mixture …)
- Book: The Burning Man
- Location: London
- Author: Christopher Fowler
The Burning Man is, I am slightly embarrassed to report, the first Bryant and May detective novel that I have read (and there are eleven others…). Arthur Bryant and John May are detectives in London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit – a body set up during WW2 to investigate cases that could cause ‘national scandal or public unrest’. And they both have elements of policing in WW2 about them… they are old fashioned coppers in a modern world. A great deal of the pleasure in the book comes from trying to understand the complex relationship between the two of them, and the equally complex relationship between the two of them and the modern London police force. They, and the Peculiar Crimes Unit, are anachronisms. They clash with authority, they refuse orders, and yet they solve crimes. It is hard – and this in one of the joys of the book – to work what is meant to be serious and what is meant to be amusing. The names, Bryant and May (as in the UK match manufacturer), are obviously a joke – especially for detectives investigating murders where fire is a key part of the plot. And it is hard to take the Peculiar Crimes Unit seriously… Yes, somewhat oddly, much of the story rings true or at least plausible. It is a real page turner. A young homeless man is burnt to death during anti capitalist riots in the City of London, and other very violent ’incendiary’ murders follow. A corporate banker is tarred and feathered, and dies in the resulting fire in a shop in Brixton market. A, thankfully unconscious, ’charity’ entrepreneur is killed in his Belgravia flat when a replica of a red hot medieval torture mask is forced onto to his head – and his flesh chars. I could go on, but you probably get the idea…(and we don’t want too many spoilers…). The book moves at pace, and the denouement is both surprising (in that I hadn’t seen it coming) and also very clever.
The Burning Man is a perfect book for TripFiction to review. Location is so important. Christopher Fowler is a Londoner through and through, and his love for the city and its ways is wonderful to behold. Christopher lives in the newly re-developed Kings Cross area – where the somewhat decrepit offices of the Peculiar Crimes Unit are also located. He captures brilliantly the changed and changing feel of the locale. But he is equally at home in the twisted back alleys of the City, the market in Brixton, or in a posh mansion block in Belgravia. The Burning Man is very much a London book – and Christopher clearly knows his way around.
Very definitely a good and exciting read, and ideal for anyone visiting London (providing they don’t scare too easily!)
This review first appeared on our blog where the author talks about “his’ London.
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