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Ten Second Staircase

Author: Christopher Fowler
Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group (P)
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł6.62~~
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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

6 reviews
Sales Rank: 1398166

Media: Paperback
Pages: 368

ISBN: 0553385569
Dewey Decimal Number: 823
EAN: 9780553385564
ASIN: 0553385569

Publication Date: September 30, 2008 (In 40 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - Ten-second Staircase (Bryant & May 4)
•	Mass Market Paperback - Ten Second Staircase (Bryant & May Mysteries)
•	Hardcover - Ten Second Staircase (Bryant & May Mysteries)
•	Hardcover - Ten-second Staircase
•	Paperback - Ten-second Staircase (Bryant & May 4)

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•	The Water Room
•	Full Dark House
•	White Corridor (Bryant & May 5)
•	White Corridor (Bryant & May 5)

Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...

1 out of 5 stars

Utter rubbish, Save your money January 13, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

I'm afraid I have to disagree with the three rave reviews posted here. This book is abysmal -- badly plotted, poor grammar, shoddy characterisation, "explanations" that defy belief wedged in whenever the author knows he's departed too far from any connection with Planet Earth. There's a tiresome underlying assumption (which should have died long before the end of Tony Blair's first term of office) that left wing is good and right wing is bad, and a ludicrous reliance on the strange idea that children at an expensive private school must necessarily be seized of anomie and weltschmerz causing them to court immortality through a series of pointless murders. What is most inexcusable in a book of this sort is that the solution is screaming at the reader for the last 100 pages and I defy anyone over the age of six not to have worked it out long before the last tedious paragraph has expired limply on the page. The Acting Head of the Peculiar Crimes Unit is pressing for the employment of Bryant and May to be wound up. I can only cry "Amen -- and as soon as possible".

5 out of 5 stars

More mysteries illuminated... August 29, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Once again the wonderful Bryant & May continue to light up the page with a modern day twist on the Highwayman as folk hero leading to possibly the series' best denouement so far.

Add this to plot strands and sub-plots involving ancient religious orders, agoraphobic family members, feuding street gangs and the resolution of a case first mentioned in Roofworld and you'll find this very hard to put down.

5 out of 5 stars

superb flight of forensic fiction August 27, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Actually it's far better than simple forensic fiction. The totally brilliant Bryant and May [the two detectives] don't so much strike a light in the murky world of London's darkening mysteries, as illuminate the essential qualities which make this series one of the truly great detective series. If you love London, English mysteries, seeing things from new perspectives, like English eccentrics, but above all want a cracking good read, then Ten Second Staircase is for you.

This is the third Bryant and May novel about the Peculiar Crimes Unit which I have read one after another. That shows that they are terrific thought provoking adventures, as well as first rate crime stories.

Read it, buy it, enjoy it.

5 out of 5 stars

Immortality, at any cost? October 27, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I am so glad that after the very disappointing Seventy Seven Clocks Christopher Fowler is back on form in no uncertain terms.

London once again provides an elegant backdrop to his latest novel. We are in the world of minor celebrity which is cleverly entwined with the capitals myths, including the 'bete noir' of the PCU, The Leicester Square Vampire. Janice Longbright once again adds glamour to the unit and May's grand daughter rescued in the previous novel joins the team.

There are few modern writers whose love of the city shines through in such a way, Christopher Fowler should be applauded for showing us London in all its guises, both good and evil.

5 out of 5 stars

Another great Fowler novel September 16, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Ten-second Staircase is another of the Byant and May mysteries.
It is possible to read these novels individually, but I would recommend starting at the beginning so that you can fully appreciate all the characters and understand the references that run throughout the series.

If you haven't read a Christopher Fowler novel before I would recommend 'Darkest Day' or 'Full Dark House' as an introduction to Bryant and May, or 'Disturbia' if you just want a brilliant novel.

In The Ten-Second Staircase a controversial artist has been drowned in her own installation (a tank filled with formaldehyde and a number of aborted foetuses!!) The only witness to the crime is a young schoolboy who was sketching in the room at the time of the murder. He says the crime was committed by a Highwayman on a horse...
Following this a number of minor celebrities are also murdered and each time the witnesses claim to have seen a Highwayman.

Soon London is in the grip of Highwayman- fever, with the gutter press claiming that he is a hero. Will Bryant and May be able to discover the true identity of the Highwayman and stop any further killing?

This is a really typical Fowler novel. Quirky, good fun and creepy in all the right places. He also throws in a few bits of London trivia along the way (For example, I now know why Georgian railings often have pine cones adorning them)

As usual, highly recommended.