Ten Second Staircase: A Peculiar
Crimes Unit Mystery (Peculiar Crimes
Unit Mysteries) by Christopher
Fowler
As Good As Always
It’s a crime tailor-made for the Peculiar Crimes Unit: a controversial artist is
murdered and displayed as part of her own outrageous installation. No
suspects, no motive, no evidence—but this time they do have an
eyewitness. A twelve-year-old claims the killer was a cape-clad
highwayman atop a black stallion. Whoever the killer really is, he seems
intent on killing off enough minor celebrities to become one himself. As
“Highwayman Fever” grips London, Bryant and May, along with the newest
member of the Unit, May’s agoraphobic granddaughter, April, find
themselves sorting out a case involving artistic rivalries, sleazy sex affairs,
the Knights Templars, feuding street gangs, and a decades-old crime

spree that split up their partnership once before—and threatens to end it
again…with murder.
Personal Review: Ten Second Staircase: A Peculiar Crimes Unit
Mystery (Peculiar Crimes Unit Mysteries) by Christopher Fowler
When in comes to the classic British locked room mystery, the stuff that we
associate with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, there is no contemporary
writer more adept than Christopher Fowler. And "Ten Second Staircase" is
one of his best.
While the aging and eccentric detective duo of John May and Arthur Bryant
are no Holmes and Watson, they are certainly more unusual, at least as
entertaining, and in many ways more interesting given the depth and
complexities of Fowler's multiple story lines which transcend and
sometimes overpower the core mystery. Cleverly conceived and elegantly
written, "Ten Second Staircase" delivers a head-scratching whodunit while
plumbing deep issues of morality, vigilantism, and restless youth. If this
seems like a lot to swallow for a simple mystery, the talented Fowler pulls it
off while maintaining his patented British tongue-in-cheek humor balanced
with genuine suspense.
In this installment, an obnoxious artist is found dead, floating in her own
piece of outrageous "art". The only eye witness to the apparent murder is
a young teenager, visiting the gallery with his private school class. But the
lad's description of the killer - a man on horseback dressed in the garb of
an early 18th Century highwayman - stretches credibility and leaves the
May/Bryant team with scant evidence and little to go on. When other
minor - and annoying - celebrities start meeting grisly demises of their own,
with reports of the "highwayman" in the vicinity, it appears a serial killer is
on the loose. But rather than cowering in fear, Londoners view the killer
more like a rock star, a modern day Robin Hood-like figure doing the city a
service by clearing out some of the human vermin. Meanwhile, the
improbable crew of May and Brant's "Peculiar Crimes Unit" are again
under attack, sabotaged by their oily leader, Leslie Faraday, and highly in
risk of being shut down at the hands of a heavy-handed thug hired by the
home office.
Through a complex series of plots and subplots, Fowler shows no
impatience - much like his cranking protagonists - in weaving his way to
another satisfyingly bizarre conclusion. Intelligent, savvy, and insightful,
Fowler's May/Bryant series in one which deserves more acclaim and a
broader following. If you haven't discovered these guys yet,do yourself a
literary and entertaining favor and make the acquaintance here.
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