The Victoria Vanishes

By: Christopher Fowler

Write A Review

Hardcover | 30 June 2008

Sorry, we are not able to source the book you are looking for right now.

We did a search for other books with a similar title, however there were no matches. You can try selecting from a similar category, click on the author's name, or use the search box above to find your book.

London pubs are meant to be safe places where anyone can sit quietly with a drink, but not anymorea One night, Arthur Bryant sees a drunk middle-aged lady coming out of a pub in a London backstreet. The next morning, she is found dead at the exact spot where their paths crossed. There's a bizarre twist; the street itself appears to have changed, for Bryant is convinced that he saw the public house as it looked over a century before. The elderly detective has already lost the funeral urn of an old friend. Could it be that he's losing his mind as well? It becomes clear that a number of other women have lost their lives in London pubs. A silent, secret killer is at work, striking in full view...and yet nobody has a clue how or why, or where he'll attack next. The likeliest suspect seems to be a mental patient with a reason for killing. But knowing who the killer is and catching him are two very different propositions. As they send their new team out on the hunt for a madman, the octogenarian detectives of the Peculiar Crimes Unit prepare themselves for the pub crawl of a lifetime, and come face to face with their own mortalitya

Industry Reviews

The staff of the Peculiar Crimes Unit search for a killer working out of London's pubs, including a nonexistent one, while they parry the usual threats to the PCU's existence.Only a week after the untimely death of pathologist Oswald Finch (White Corridor, 2007), the members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit face a challenging new riddle. Who's meeting a series of middle-aged women in public houses and giving them lethal injections, and why? Most of the sodden witnesses they question had no idea what was going on under their noses, but one observer - Arthur Bryant, the PCU's own senior detective - vividly recalls seeing Carol Wynley outside the Victoria Cross just before she was killed. The only problem with his evidence is that it can't possibly be true, since the Victoria Cross was demolished in 1925. Is Bryant, who's already mislaid the funeral urn containing Oswald Finch's mortal remains, losing his marbles? Or did an establishment that's been gone for 83 years suddenly return for a one-night encore? While Bryant, his longtime partner John May, DS Janice Longbright and the rest of the crew are struggling to answer these questions, they must deal with the arrival of Sgt. Jack Renfield, a stolid officer whose rule-bound approach could spell the end for the PCU, and the news that their building has been sold out from under them and they have to be out in the morning.Learned excurses on pubs, conspiracy theories and the blood of Christ keep the pot boiling, though the answers this time aren't as satisfying as the wildly inventive questions. (Kirkus Reviews)

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

Orders over $89.00 qualify for free shipping.

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.