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We begin with John May reading the sort of letter from his doctor that no one wants to get and with Arthur Bryant writing the sort of letter, his resignation from the Peculiar Crimes Unit, that no one expects him to write. Both elderly detectives suddenly seem old. But before the pair can exit the scene, there is a series of murders of the sort that really only they and the Unit can solve. Several respectable, if bibulous, middle-aged women have been killed in busy pubs and no one has seen a thing. Indeed, Bryant, on his way home from an alcohol-fuelled wake for the deceased pathologist Oswald Finch, passed one of them outside a pub called The Victoria Cross just before she died. But when he goes back to the scene, he discovers that the pub does not exist, its space occupied by a seedy supermarket. Arthur, who has been worried about losing his memory, now worries that he is losing his mind. It does not take the pair too long to discover who is killing women in pubs but longer to find him and longer still to find out what lies behind his murderous activities. Their investigation takes them on a thrilling pub crawl through some of the odder (and genuine) pubs in London and the sorts of goings-on that take place in them - line-dancing, speed-dating, phobia support groups, and the like. Like the earlier books in this marvellously quirky series, the true star here is London - London as palimpsest, on which each age has left its mark without ever truly eradicating what came before. It is a city of secret places, pagan survivals, medieval menaces, and swiftly flowing unseen streams. Our detectives may not know every secret, but they know whom to ask and where to go to find them out. THE VICTORIA VANISHES was originally intended as the final outing for the venerable detectives and thus the tone here is mournful and elegiac. As ever, the Home Office is trying to shut the unit down; as ever, it is seen as anachronistic in the mean new London of drug users and knife-wielders. At the end of the book, Arthur thinks about his memories of London over a long life: "He remembered so much that the weight of it all made him tired." Time to let it go, he concludes. Although I am absolutely delighted that Christopher Fowler has acceded to the demands of fans and publisher and will be bringing out a seventh Bryant & May early next year, a small part of me agrees with Arthur. THE VICTORIA VANISHES is a perfect conclusion to a wonderful series. Perhaps it is time to let it go.
Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, October 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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