Review: Seventy-Seven Clocks (Peculiar Crimes Unit #3)
Gaby Meares
This third instalment in the Peculiar Crimes Unit series is way too long at 496 pages. It is also way too unbelievable and convoluted. A good edit would have made this a 4 star book. However, if you’ve read the previous two books, you’ll enjoy the development of the relationship between the main characters Bryant and May, and the wonderful cast of support citizen detectives they seem to attract to their Unit.
I enjoyed the many references to 1970s culture. An exchange between May and Bryant, where Bryant refers to a band called Concrete Blimp, and May replies ‘I assume you mean Led Zeppelin’ had me laugh out loud.
Bryant often sprouts words of wisdom, which in a real person would drive you nuts, but on the page sound sage and wise. My favourite: ‘We spend our youth attempting to change the future, and the rest of our lives trying to preserve the past.’ True? True!