{"id":300,"date":"2006-08-19T20:51:17","date_gmt":"2006-08-20T03:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=300"},"modified":"2021-06-03T15:38:23","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T19:38:23","slug":"the-water-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/300","title":{"rendered":"The Water Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Water Room<\/a><\/em> (2004) Christopher Fowler<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The second Bryant & May mystery, The Water Room<\/em> takes place a month or so after the events of Full Dark House<\/em>–at least the current day events. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is being rebuilt, and during the reconstruction, the unit is at loose ends, and two separate cases fall into the hands of Bryant and May. Benjamin Singh comes to Bryant when he finds his sister dead in her basement. She is sitting in a chair dressed to go out in a chair–and drowned. And an old flame of May’s calls him and asks him to check on her husband–she’s afraid that he’s getting himself into trouble. So to keep the new officers in the unit busy and out of the hands of the main force to keep the unit from being repurposed. <\/p>\n

Although this is the second book in the series, it’s the third book I’ve read, and so the recurring themes were more noticeable. In every book, the unit is in flux–they’re moving or setting up and the offices are in chaos. Bryant is continually insecure about his job. May refuses to act his age.<\/p>\n

The thing I noticed this time is that in some ways May is just as eccentric as Bryant. He doesn’t acknowlege his age, which isn’t so strange, except for the fact that he doesn’t like his granddaughter to call him Grandpa. Which them makes the whole thing suspect. There’s nothing wrong with keeping young and keeping up with the latest technologies, but the denial of one’s age isn’t necessarily a healthy thing. <\/p>\n

Though even with that he still is nowhere near as eccentric as Bryant.<\/p>\n

But what I found most fascinating about this book was the idea of the underground rivers beneath London. I mean, subsuming all those waterways under the city. Are things really as Christopher Fowler describes them? With shunts and gates and emergency waterways? Arches and shunts all decorated even if no one will see them? The whole idea is fascinating. Maybe when I get bored I’ll look up more on the underground rivers of London.<\/p>\n

I am definitely enjoying this series, and look forward to the next book coming out in paperback.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Water Room (2004) Christopher Fowler The second Bryant & May mystery, The Water Room takes place a month or so after the events of Full Dark House–at least the current day events. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is being rebuilt, and during the reconstruction, the unit is at loose ends, and two separate cases fall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,8,291,42],"tags":[256,255,257],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-mystery","category-paper","category-police","tag-bryant-may","tag-christopher-fowler","tag-peculiar-crimes-unit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-4Q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":696,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/696","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":0},"title":"White Corridor","author":"Michelle","date":"October 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"White Corridor (2007) Christopher Fowler Once again the Peculiar Crimes Unit is in danger of being closed. After Raymond Land decided to close the until for a week's vacation, a member of the unit is found killed, while Bryant and May are on their way to one of Bryant's spiritualist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/White-Corridor.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2790,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2790","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":1},"title":"Bryant & May Off the Rails","author":"Michelle","date":"February 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Bryant & May Off the Rails (2010) Christopher Fowler I have to admit, I put off reading this book for several months, and once I picked it up, put it down several times before I could actually get into the story. This has absolutely nothing to do with the story,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Bryant-and-May-Off-the-Rails.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1529,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1529","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":2},"title":"Victoria Vanishes","author":"Michelle","date":"December 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Victoria Vanishes (2008) Christopher Fowler The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) has changed Oswald's retirement party to a wake, and on the way home Bryant sees a woman who is later discovered murdered. Unfortunately for him, he sees her across from a pub that hasn't existed in decades. Unsurprisingly, the PCU\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Victoria-Vanishes.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":299,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/299","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":3},"title":"Full Dark House","author":"Michelle","date":"August 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Dark House (2003) Christopher Fowler A Bryant & May Mystery Full Dark House is the first Bryant & May mystery. An explosion destroys the Peculiar Crimes Unit, and Arthur Bryant is believed to have been inside. In order to discover the course and cause of the bombing, John May\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/Full-Dark-House.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1980,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1980","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":4},"title":"Bryant & May on the Loose","author":"Michelle","date":"September 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Bryant & May on the Loose (2009) Christopher Fowler At the close of Victoria Vanishes, the PCU was disbanded, the staff placed on leave, and Bryant remains at home, barely able to get out of bed and slowly slipping away. However, the accidental discovery of a body by a staff\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Bryant-and-May-on-the-Loose.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":345,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/345","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":5},"title":"Ten Second Staircase","author":"Michelle","date":"February 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ten Second Staircase (2007) Christopher Fowler Ten Second Staircase is the fourth Bryant and May mystery. A controversial sculptor is found dead in one of her pieces, and the only witness describes an impossible killer. Meanwhile, Raymond Land has complained one too many times about the PCU (Peculiar Crimes Unit)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Ten-Second-Staircase.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}