London Bridge is Falling Down

Author/Guide: Christopher Fowler

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: It was the kind of story that barely made the news.

ISBN: B08NWVTCY6
Genre: Crime

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What you need to know before your trail

When 91-year-old Amelia Hoffman died in her top-floor flat on a busy London road, it’s considered an example of what has gone wrong with modern society: she slipped through the cracks in a failing system.

But detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit have their doubts. Mrs Hoffman was once a government security expert, even though no one can quite remember her. When a link emerges between the old lady and a diplomat trying to flee the country, it seems that an impossible murder has been committed.

Mrs Hoffman wasn’t the only one at risk. Bryant is convinced that other forgotten women with hidden talents are also in danger. And, curiously, they all own models of London Bridge.

With the help of some of their more certifiable informants, the detectives follow the strangest of clues in an investigation that will lead them through forgotten alleyways to the city’s oldest bridge in search of a desperate killer.

But just when the case appears to be solved, they discover that Mrs Hoffman was smarter than anyone imagined. There’s a bigger game afoot that could have terrible consequences.

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BookTrail Bryant and May’s London

The London featured in the Bryant and May books is really fascinating ad feature some of the lesser known spots with tons of history! The sense of place is very much central to the story here and it features heavily throughout the novel as a character in the story itself. So much care and attention to detail in this author’s crafting of London. Two geriatric investigators who take on the cases at the Peculiar crimes unit are something to be reckoned with and their view and experience of the city is a joy to read about. The Peculiar is close to King’s Cross so you’re right at the heart of the action.

“Most of London’s background goes unnoticed, from its Aberdeen granite kerb stones to the walls made of soft yellow bricks that chink and split neatly when you hit them with the edge of a trowel. But there’s one architectural feature everyone sees an nobody notices.”

It is everywhere hidden in plain sight. A typical example be found on King’s Cross Road, a two minute walk from the front door of the now doomed Peculiar Crimes Unit.