In Christopher Fowler's "The Victoria Vanishes," the London-based Peculiar Crimes Unit investigates the case of a mysterious killer who targets women, seemingly at random, in English pubs. Arthur Bryant and John May, who are senior detectives and long-time partners, for many years have used their esoteric knowledge, unique skills, and willingness to skirt the law to solve unusual and confounding crimes. Both men are past retirement age and it shows. May, who is the more grounded of the two, is ailing and scheduled for surgery; Arthur's memory, vision, and hearing are all gradually deteriorating and he is considering retirement.
Meanwhile, both men still care deeply about their mission: "to deal with crimes that could cause civil unrest and political embarrassment," as well as with those arcane matters that no ordinary detective would have the imagination and expertise to tackle successfully. Unfortunately, the top brass at the Home Office has long tried to shut the PCU down. To hasten the unit's demise, a stickler for procedure named Jack Renfield has been named the PCU's Duty Sergeant. He smugly declares, "I'll be putting a curb on some of your more illegal habits...making sure there are no more of your famous breaches of conduct."
When Arthur witnesses a woman walking into a pub called the Victoria Cross, he believes that he has unearthed a clue to a series of killings could conceivably terrorize the city's female population. However, he later discovers that the Victoria Cross has not existed for over seventy-five years. Is this a sign that he is losing his mind at last? Why would someone kill women in pubs at all, a place where there are witnesses galore? Even when the PCU's team closes in on a suspect, Bryant suspects that the situation is far more complex than any of them could have imagined.
The most entertaining aspects of this novel are its intelligent humor and amusingly sarcastic and witty dialogue. I laughed until I cried at the irreverent eulogy delivered by Bryant at the wake of the late, unlamented Oswald Elias Finch, the PCU's former pathologist who died in his own morgue. Bryant drunkenly ticks off the deceased's less attractive qualities: "No sense of humour, no charm, friendless, embittered, stone-faced and bloody miserable, on top of which he stank." For some unaccountable reason, Bryant has the job of disposing of the dead man's ashes, an assignment which proves to be a bit too much for the sloshed detective.
Fowler celebrates the unique character of London, a place steeped in both history and eccentricity. He has created a wonderful cast of characters in the PCU: Sergeant Janice Longbright, a lonely woman who has sacrificed a social life for her career and is beginning to regret it; Meera Mangeshkar, a tough female cop who grew up on a council estate; the ethereal April, John May's granddaughter, a recovering agoraphobic who is superb at assembling and interpreting police reports, evidence, and witness statements; twenty-eight year old Giles Kershaw, a brilliant Eton graduate who is stepping into Finch's shoes as the unit's new pathologist; and Dan Banbury, a hacker who uses his considerable abilities as the PCU's "IT guy and crime scene manager." Each of these individuals has a role to play and, although they bicker at times like any family, they have grown to care deeply about one another.
The book's sole flaw is the mystery itself. For quite a while, the novel moves along briskly, building up a fair amount of suspense, but the implausible and anticlimactic conclusion falls flat. Nevertheless, fans of this series should read "The Victoria Vanishes" for its colorful descriptive writing, inventiveness, and veneration of London's fascinating ambiance. Fowler appreciates life's vagaries as well as the importance of maintaining a bit of skepticism even when things appear to be as plain as the nose on your face.
