Review: Ten Second Staircase (Bryant & May #4)
Gaby Meares
This is the fourth outing in the Bryant and May series. It sees our octogenarian detectives faced with a number of ‘impossible’ murders. There appears to be nothing to link all the victims apart from their being celebrities of questionable ethics who have fallen from grace in recent times. As May says to Bryant at the first murder scene: ‘I’m sure you must be very excited. On a purely investigative level this one’s right up your street. Impossible death, single point of entry, no motive, no suspects, and a single witness who reckons the culprit was a man on a horse.’
Apart from the ongoing investigations, the Peculiar Crimes Unit again find themselves under threat of being closed down by the powers that be. As you follow the arcane methods used, particularly by Arthur Bryant, it’s not surprising! There is also the added complication of John May’s grand-daughter joining their team as part of a new law enforcement training initiative. John feels particularly protective of April as he feels responsible for her mother’s death.
The joy of reading this series is to be found in the humour and the tidbits of knowledge that you didn’t know you wanted to know, until you read it! For example, this wonderful exchange between Bryant and May:
Bryant: I won’t remember the names of pop stars. I’d prefer to keep my memory filled with useful data.
May: But how useful is the data you store? You know precisely how many Thames crossings there are between Teddington Weir and the Tower of London…
Bryant: Of course, twenty-eight, everyone knows that…
May: and you told me why there are metal pinecones on top of half of the railings in London…
B: the Georgians adopted the pinecone as an architectural motif because it was the Roman symbol of hospitality, that’s common knowledge…
M. But it’s not, don’t you see? Most people we deal with don’t give a monkey’s fart about such architectural idiosyncrasies. Why should they? Such things have no relevance to their lives
B. Rubbish. The details of everyday living enrich us all.
M. But they’re not useful. The majority is more interested in finding aspirational rose models amongst celebrities…
B. Your utilitarian attitude is very taxing.
Do you know where the saying ‘Bull in a china shop’ comes from? Apparently ‘in the early part of the seventeenth century, drunken herdsmen used to stampede their cattle on the way to the market at Smithfield, just for a laugh. The beasts used to rampage into shops and houses, hence the expression’. Who knew?
As a homage to Conan Doyle’s Baker Street Irregulars, John May calls upon a group of London misfits who have certain sort-after skills, whom he has dubbed the Haphazards. It’s this sort of nod to the genre’s canon that enriches the reader’s experience.
And what makes these two men work together so well? ‘John May…had successfully remained in contact with both his feelings and the tumbling mess of humanity surrounding him. In a sense, he was his partner’s only link with the outside world. In return, Bryant gave him something he never had: a sense of his place in the invisible world that lay beyond facts and statistics, a connection to the vanishing past.’
The final reveal of the identity of the murderer who has been dubbed the Highwayman is unexpected, and very disquieting. It was certainly unexpected.
Highly recommended.