London's Glory by Christopher Fowler

London's Glory is a collection of Bryant and May short stories, and as someone completely unfamiliar with the characters and the series, I was a little worried as to whether I'd be able to understand everything (the mysteries, I was pretty sure I could understand. It was the number of references to other books in the series I was worried about), but I really didn't have anything to worry about.

The book starts with an introduction on crime novels. Just from the introduction alone, I got two book recommendations: The Notting Hill Mystery and Margery Allingham. But, it seems like the author doesn't really like Agatha Christie, because it's hard to connect with her characters and all that defines Poirot is "some Euro-pomposity, an egg-shaped head, 'ze little grey cells' and a moustache." As someone who's a fan of Agatha Christie, this made me wonder if I was going to get on well with Bryant and May.

But we got into the stories, and I found myself having a good time. Bryant and May are a pair of grumpy and not-so-grumpy elderly detectives (although I'm not quite sure how their defining characteristics differ from Poirot's defining characteristics - they don't seem any realer to me, if that makes sense) investigating all sorts of strange cases. Each case is preceded with a note from the author about that story, which was a nice touch. For the most part, once I started getting into the rhythm of the book, all I wanted was the story and I tended to skip over the author's notes.

 I devoured everything except the last section, which was an introduction to the series. For some reason, it didn't really appeal to me. I did, however, really like the list of books that was used as a reference - if any are available for loan in my library, I might just pick it up.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.