The Memory of Blood by Christopher Fowler

Bryant and May are back solving crime from a new London location for the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

Arthur Bryant is one of the most well developed characters in mystery fiction.

First Lines: “Arthur Bryant stood there pretending not to shiver.
He was tightly wrapped in a 1951 Festival of Britain scarf, with a Bloody Mary in one hand and a ketchup-crusted cocktail sausage in the other. Above his head, a withered yellow corpse hung inside a rusting gibbet iron.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘this is nice, isn’t it?’

Bryant isn’t one for technology:

“…as usual it was impossible to read Bryant’s thoughts. The detective’s phone bleeped, but by the time he’d removed the bits of string, rubber bands, coins, conkers, boiled sweets, keys and pencil stubs from his pockets, the caller had rung off. ‘Bugger, do you know how to retrieve a call?’ he asked. ‘I’m sure it must be in there somewhere.’

Bryant is long past retirement:

 ‘Pensioner is such an ugly word,’ said Bryant vehemently. “How quick we are to give everyone labels. In London, I like to think I’m regarded as an expert, an authority, a man with experience to impart…”
‘Don’t worry, Arthur, no-one’s expecting you to retire,’ May replied, reading his thoughts. ‘We all know you’ll die in harness.’

‘True. Hopefully I’ll be gazing down at a body with a knife in its back and just drop in my tracks, whereupon Banbury will draw a chalk outline around me and I’ll join my own cases.’

Read this mystery series for the unique and colorful characters.