Book Review: Full Dark House

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Full Dark House     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Christopher Fowler
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Bantam, Jun 2004, $24.00, 368 pp.

Detective Sergeant Janice Longbright learns from long time Detective John May that an explosion killed his peer Detective Arthur Bryant. John and Arthur first met when the Peculiar Crimes Unit was established in 1940 and they investigated a weird murder of a dancer at the Palace Theatre. That case with its odd occult like feel forms the start of a long time friendship and partnership.

Now both octogenarians, it appears that Arthur was writing his memoirs when a six decades old bomb from the World War II Blitz exploded and killed him. John, who had talked to his buddy just prior to his death, finds a design of the Palace amongst the ruins of Bryant’s residence. Was his partner killed because someone wants the sixty plus years old crime to remain cold or was this just an accident caused by the victim’s own absent minded brilliant lifestyle? John believes murder has occurred and he plans to prove it.

FULL DARK HOUSE is a terrific police procedural that uses an occult like homicide from 1940 as the motive for a modern day killing. The story line is driven by the octogenarian John and to a degree supplemented by his long time detective partner Arthur though the latter is dead and appears more as either flashback thoughts or the victim. The sleuthing is fabulous and the support cast realistically add depth to the hero, but when all is said and done this novel belongs to dedicated John, who somewhat obsessed in solving his pal’s death hopefully is around for a decade or two solving more London murders.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner