WHITE CORRIDOR represents an advance on the formula of previous Bryant and May books and doesn't depend so directly on their Alistair Sim like charms and the mere fact of their being so old and stubborn. Instead author Christopher Fowler bifurcates the space of the novel into four "white corridors," each with its own puzzle. Two of these dominate most of the detective work. In one, we follow the story of Madeline Gilby, a grocery checkout girl and single mother of a restless young son Ryan. Madeline flees an abusive husband and tries to find life again in the south of France, along the Riviera, in the off season. In the warmth of the sun, Madeline comes back to life and responds to the amorous advances of Johann, sort of a Karl-Boehm-in-Peeping-Tom kind of stud who murdered his mother way back when after enduring a childhood of torment and abuse. Uh-oh, not the perfect guy for Madeline, who has incidentally tried developing her psychic powers to weaken men under the guidance of London's notorious chiseler Kate Summerton.
In the second storyline Bryant and May decide to leave the Unit for a holiday in which they plan to attend a psychics convention in the wilds of England, but the worst snowstorm ever to hit a detective story strands them on a lonely stretch of highway in conditions too perilous to proceed further in. The delicious warmth and sun of the Riviera in the first section here gives way to bonechilling cold and a creeping terror as a madman is apparently stalking the snowbound cars one by one and committing terrible murders whenever his fancy calls him. Will Bryant and May be next?
In the third plot, back home at the PCU, crotchety forensic nut Oswald Finch is found horridly murdered inside his own morgue, and all the doors locked from within. Without their two chiefs, the pressure drops on the younger members of the unit, charged with clearing up the case before the visit of a minor royal princess and a judgmental entourage out to dismantle the archaic PCU. This threat to the PCU doesn't have as much built in suspense as Fowler must think it does, for really, who cares, but in all other respects WHITE CORRIDOR is an immense improvement over last year's TEN SECOND STAIRCASE, with interesting characters, a rollicking Steve Coogan like humor, the most picturesque writing this side of William Trevor, and a genuinely new locked room problem.
I wound up giving Christopher Fowler a lathering last year when STAIRCASE, his "Highwayman" novel, failed to meet my impossibly high standards. Mr. Fowler wrote me a forgiving note that touched me, and now I regret having written from my high horse. I asked him if he were a Buddhist, since in my limited experience who else would have gotten up so amiably after having his arse kicked to the curb, but Fowler replied that he wasn't a Buddhist, only an Englishman LOL.
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Top reviews from other countries
jady
Two go to Devon and just about Survive
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 29, 2019
Mark Pack
Another great outing for Bryant and May
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 18, 2011mippit
bryant and may detectives
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 27, 2020
