Seventy Seven Clocks is the third to feature his irascible duo, Bryan and May. This time they are on the trail of a gang of Indian thugs who are murdering their way through a thoroughly unpleasant English upper class family. The job falls to the Peculiar Crimes Unit to try and stop the killing spree and find out the reason for the Whitstable family being targeted.
This time the book is set in the winter of 1973 the era of the 3 day week and power cuts when Ted Heath’s government couldn’t cut the mustard any more. In fact, the themes of darkness and light form the core of the story. At the core is an amoral cabal formed by the James Whitstable in 1882 to protect his business interests in England and around the world.
Can’t go into too much detail without giving away the plot though. Suffice to say that Bryant and May haven’t change their ways or methods of detection. At the outset they are separately investigating the vandalism of a Pre-Raphaelite painting in a special exhibition at the National Gallery and the mysterious death of a lawyer at the Savoy Hotel. Soon after a link to the two events is established and the story takes off from there.
Each of the deaths is carried out in a mysterious, arcane manner. For examples, the lawyer dies as a results of venom from a Cottonmouth snake, William Whitstable blows up in a tube train, a tiger is released in one family’s house etc. In fact, I’m surprised that there are any members of the Whitstable clan left by the end of the book.
This series seems to get better and better as it goes on and I’ve certainly noticed that my reading pace has picked up from one book to the next. Luckily, I’ve been lent the next one to read when I want. Unfortunately, I think that is the last for the time being :-(
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