Seventy-Seven Clocks

Seventy-Seven Clocks (2005) Christopher Fowler
A Bryant and May Mystery

I picked this up at The Bookshelf’s Clarence sale. The name intrigued me, and the back cover sounded interesting, although I wasn’t quite sure what London’s Peculiar Crimes unit was, other than something that sounded fascinating.

It’s 1973 and the Peculiar Crimes Unit has just been established. Bryant and May have left Bow street to work at a unit that allows them to work in their own ways. One of the first cases is of a lawyer who dies in the lobby of the Savoy. Nothing seems particularly unusual about the case until the autopsy.

This is the third book in the series (I’ve just ordered the first two), but I didn’t particularly feel like I was missing too much history and backstory. (Though I have to admit that Bryant’s oddities are more referred to than seen in this story. We’re told he has unusual methods and eccentricities, but I didn’t see anything too untoward. But then I also read supernatural mysteries, so it could just be me.

The storytelling and the writing are very good, although I have to admit that I was occasionally confused as to what on earth was going on. Because the confusion seemed a part of the story–for the read to feel the confusion that the detectives were feeling as they continued to unravel the case.

The book was also amusing, with lots of enjoyable banter between the two partners. I’m a big fan of banter and witty repartee. Though I do have to admit I’m glad I’m reading this, rather than watching it, because it is far better to read about 70s styles than to actually have to see them.

However, there was one thing that bothered me. The story is set in 1973, and an American character uses the phrase pissed. I don’t think he was supposed to mean drunk, since that’s British and not at all American, but I thought at that time the phrase more properly should have been “pissed-off” rather than just pissed. It just threw me because initially I thought the character was using pissed for drunk, which was completely wrong, but pissed as in angry didn’t seem right to me either. It’s not important, but my initial misreading threw me out of the story entirely, and then the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.

Though I freely admit that I was three in 1973, and not up on all the current slang.

I very much enjoyed Seventy-Seven Clocks, and am looking forward to reading this first two books when they arrive, and definitely plan to loan this book to my grandmother.
Rating: 7/10

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