Bryant and May: The Burning Man by Christopher Fowler

Yo guys!

Joe here, back with another review for you all!

Sorry about not reviewing as often, I’ve been super busy with Uni stuffs, work (ugggh) and reading! J

Today I’m going to be reviewing Christopher Fowler’s book ‘Bryant & May: The Burning Man’.

Here’s a little bit of the blurb to get you intrigued!
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London is under siege. A banking scandal has filled the city with violent protests, and as the anger in the streets detonates, a young homeless man burns to death after being caught in the crossfire between rioters and the police.

But all is not as it seems; an opportunistic killer is using the chaos to exact revenge, but his intended victims are so mysteriously chosen that the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to find a way of stopping him.

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The publisher sent me this e-book as part of a Book Blog Tour and an honest review.

I’m not a huge reader of the Crime/Thriller/Detective-type of books, so when I accepted taking this on I did find myself hesitating, mostly because I haven’t really had an experience within this genre, the only Investigative/Crime/Detective-type of book that I’ve actually read is ‘Braineater Jones’ which is a zombie-detective book.

I have to say that this book so far is great!

The Burning Man is the 12^th book in the Bryant and May series, so from that I did go into it with a tad bit of scepticism, as I didn’t think I would understand certain things involved in the book or understand references.
That was quickly disproven the further I ventured into the book, characters were ‘re-introduced’ with tiny little details from past books, stories were told that had deviated from the past books and mishaps had been brought up.

The way the author did this was generally quite amusing though, he didn’t write it in a kind of condescending tone which made you feel ashamed to not have read the previous books, instead he would just drop a few sentences here and there like Bryant’s Tibetan Skull that he kept his sandwiches in. The author really added a nice light feel for the reader that allowed them to picture previous events that had occurred at the PCU or with the team. Plus, it did make me really-really intrigued to learn how some of these things happened, I may just be picking up the rest of them!

The story for me was very dark and quite gritty, which fitted the setting of London and Guy Fawkes perfectly. The way the story developed aswell seemed to become very edgy in terms of crimes and the way the PCU were being treated by the superiors. This generally made it very captivating.

As you can see from a few statements above; I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

The story was so captivating and intriguing from page one, that I must have read almost half of it in a day; this isn’t to say it’s a quick read, being over 500 pages it surely isn’t! It is, however, a fun and superb read; the chapters are around I would guess 7-8 pages long each which is quite short but there is so much detail and the words are so beautiful that it really got you into a rhythm-like read, telling yourself you’ll stop after chapter X and then reading non-stop to chapter Y.

From the get-go the story is very packed but in a good way; it is packed with such descriptive and beautiful writing that allows for each chapter to become memorable. There was so much raw emotion that you could tell had gone into writing it, that the emotions that riveted out of the book and into your mind were so profoundly real; at points I was on the verge of laughter, chuckling, holding back tears and feeling immense suspense and tension.

There were some points in this book were I was utterly shocked by the books little curveballs that would catch you off guard and contemplate everything you learned so far. Another great thing is that the story was so very linear, but in a intelligent and simplistic way appealing to people who aren’t that much of an avid reader to be able to float along with the book.

The characters in this book that were ‘re-introduced’ (or introduced, whichever way you look at it) were described very well and they become very connected to myself as a reader.

I generally loved the idea of having two elderly (woops, sorry, I mean ‘mature’) gentlemen as the main characters; it brought a more quirky and eccentric side to this story. I reckon if the author did use the stereotypical middle-aged man as the main, then this story wouldn’t be as connectable. I do have to admit though; Bryant was such an amazingly developed character, I just loved how he ‘bossed’ everyone around as if he was the chief of the PCU not just a detective, I also loved his quick-wit and his vast informational rants he would use to describe his findings.

The ‘Sub-Characters’, like DuCaine and Branbury, were really well developed aswell! I don’t really like calling them ‘Sub-Characters’ but they weren’t in the same ratio of the book as Bryant & May. Never the less! They were great characters and I loved their own personalities and their own little quirks.

Overall, I have to say that I really-really enjoyed this book!
There was so much to take in, but everything was so clear and precise because of the author’s superb wording!

I would definitely recommend this book to people (which I have been doing for the past two days to anyone who as much as glances at a Crime book) I am totally going to check out the previous books aswell!
Thank you so much for Christopher Fowler and his publishers for sending me a copy of this book!

Thank you for reading this review!
Joe J