Bryant & May: Oranges and Lemons is the 17th outing for the Peculiar Crime Unit's own odd couple Arthur Bryant and John May written by Christopher Fowler. Due out 12th Jan 2021 from Penguin Random House on their Ballantine imprint, it's 464 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This series as a whole has been and continues to be my favorite humorous police procedural. The humor is pervasive and the plots are always intelligent and wonky at the same time - so outlandish the solutions of the mysteries seemingly must have a paranormal bent, but they resolve with cleverly mundane skullduggery and "mystery fair play". They're delightful.
I'm a healthcare worker and my days the last year have been filled with stress and sadness. Reading is my escape and a lifeline for myself and many of my colleagues. This was a welcome break in an otherwise hectic time. It's an ensemble cast, so it was great to get a look-in on the returning characters. The author is undeniably talented with character driven plots and really witty repartee and the book flowed along at such a good pace and was so intricately put together that it was a joy to read.
Each of the books works well as a self contained unit, so while I do recommend reading the entire series as a whole, it's not necessary to have done so to enjoy this volume. This would make a superlative choice for readers of crime fiction, police procedurals, and British crime. Wonderful book. Five enthusiastic stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
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