Christopher Fowler Seventy-Seven Clocks

Seventy-Seven Clocks

Christopher Fowler

Bantam, Dec 2005, $6.99, 528 pp.

ISBN 0553587153

In 1973, at London's Savoy Hotel, elderly lawyer Maximillian Jacob apparently fell asleep in the lobby; desk clerk Jerry Gates goes to wake him, but instead Maximillian is choking and soon dies. The coroner reports that the deceased most likely died from a snake bite.

Police detectives Arthur Bryant and John May investigate Jacob's death, to ascertain whether it was an accident or a homicide, but soon other strange deaths occur that leave no doubt that a murderer is on the loose. The next victims die from a toxin mixed into makeup and a tiger. Besides the odd murder weapons, and no clear motive or any obvious opportunities, the two cops link the victims to the Whitstable family, and that brood's ties to the Alliance of Eternal Light, but who is doing the killing remains a mystery.

The third Bryant-May police procedural is a long way from its predecessors (see FULL DARK HOUSE and THE WATER ROOM) as this time a biographer asking how they joined the New Scotland Yard's Peculiar Crimes Unit, leads to a look back at the case. The action-packed storyline is filled with red herrings, and several intriguing twists pulled off by key secondary characters like the hotel desk clerk that keep readers' attention throughout the thriller. Though the resolution seems too much of a stretch, fans of the series will appreciate this fine entry from the salad days of a strong eccentric sleuthing partnership.

Harriet Klausner