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Darkest Day
Jerry Gates is a receptionist at the Savoy Hotel. When one of her guests expires in the lobby, Jerry is drawn into a dark underside of London she never knew existed - a world of secret paintings, rising corpses, exploding commuters, mysterious guilds, and mechanical murder devices.
Aiding decrepit detectives Bryant and May, Jerry meets an appalling London family steeped in generations of blackmail and finds herself up against an ingenious, unstoppable evil that threatens the entire city. As the light's start going out all over London, Jerry remembers how scared she is of the dark...
Aiding decrepit detectives Bryant and May, Jerry meets an appalling London family steeped in generations of blackmail and finds herself up against an ingenious, unstoppable evil that threatens the entire city. As the light's start going out all over London, Jerry remembers how scared she is of the dark...
Paperback
First published April 7, 1993
59 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Fowler
264 books1,284 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Christopher Fowler was an English writer known for his Bryant & May mystery series, featuring two Golden Age-style detectives navigating modern London. Over his career, he authored fifty novels and short story collections, along with screenplays, video games, graphic novels, and audio plays. His psychological thriller Little Boy Found was published under the pseudonym L.K. Fox.
Fowler's accolades include multiple British Fantasy Awards, the Last Laugh Award, the CWA Dagger in the Library, and the inaugural Green Carnation Award. He was inducted into the Detection Club in 2021. Beyond crime fiction, his works ranged from horror (Hell Train, Nyctophobia) to memoir (Paperboy, Film Freak). His column Invisible Ink explored forgotten authors, later compiled into The Book of Forgotten Authors.
Fowler lived between London and Barcelona with his husband, Peter Chapman.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Christopher Fowler was an English writer known for his Bryant & May mystery series, featuring two Golden Age-style detectives navigating modern London. Over his career, he authored fifty novels and short story collections, along with screenplays, video games, graphic novels, and audio plays. His psychological thriller Little Boy Found was published under the pseudonym L.K. Fox.
Fowler's accolades include multiple British Fantasy Awards, the Last Laugh Award, the CWA Dagger in the Library, and the inaugural Green Carnation Award. He was inducted into the Detection Club in 2021. Beyond crime fiction, his works ranged from horror (Hell Train, Nyctophobia) to memoir (Paperboy, Film Freak). His column Invisible Ink explored forgotten authors, later compiled into The Book of Forgotten Authors.
Fowler lived between London and Barcelona with his husband, Peter Chapman.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 28, 2012
Brilliant, be aware though it was rewritten and published as 77 Clocks, avoid my mistake of paying for the same book twice
June 30, 2025
At times enjoyable, at times all a bit tedious, plus overall a lot longer than I wanted it to be. This I picked up cheap as a bit of a punt, and it did make for an interesting reminder of some of the authors I used to read a lot more (not quite Dean Koontz, maybe John Saul.. David Wiltse) in having more of a horror element and some supernatural aspects, plus 'sassy member of public gets drawn into solving a mystery alongside detectives' tropes too. Someone is brutally murdering members of a powerful family in/around London.. there are conspiracies afoot, plenty of twists, and unexpected and interesting aspects.
I just found it felt in need of editing. At times there were threads that I felt were silly and inconceivable, and forcing these in to the narrative meant that the pace was sometimes rushed and sometimes pedestrian (esp. when describing the main three or four protagonists and their personality quirks) giving it a bit of a trashy "..slow, slow, quick cliffhanger twist, slow, slow.." feel. Not unreadable, but not someone I'll seek out again.
I just found it felt in need of editing. At times there were threads that I felt were silly and inconceivable, and forcing these in to the narrative meant that the pace was sometimes rushed and sometimes pedestrian (esp. when describing the main three or four protagonists and their personality quirks) giving it a bit of a trashy "..slow, slow, quick cliffhanger twist, slow, slow.." feel. Not unreadable, but not someone I'll seek out again.
April 28, 2014
Yes, this stand-alone book was altered and shortened to fit into the author's Bryant & May series of novels (77-Clocks), but it is well-worth reading on its own.
I found it particularly interesting because it brings many of the series characters and incidents together for the first time. It is the "nursery bed" of the 12-volumne extended series. And Arthur Bryant, the oldest character in the stories, is amazingly physically activity in this novel, running here and there and ordering people about.
If you love/like these Fowler stories and why not, read this work and learn how a writer works, where his inspiration partially comes from and see how one piece of writing can shape a writer's future output to the good..
I found it particularly interesting because it brings many of the series characters and incidents together for the first time. It is the "nursery bed" of the 12-volumne extended series. And Arthur Bryant, the oldest character in the stories, is amazingly physically activity in this novel, running here and there and ordering people about.
If you love/like these Fowler stories and why not, read this work and learn how a writer works, where his inspiration partially comes from and see how one piece of writing can shape a writer's future output to the good..
August 18, 2019
Be aware: I may drop spoilers. This was an enjoyable book which is part detective story and part supernatural mystery. The story follows Richard Bryant and John May, two senior detectives who try and solve the strange series of murders surrounding the venerable and wealthy Whitstable family. Tagging along behind them is Jerry Gates, a teenage girl who takes an interest in the case and tries to assist the two old police detectives. The murders are strange and theatrical and the whole case peels apart like a very large onion. The detectives are used to the strange and peculiar in crime, but for the most part of the story make no head-way in the case,until very late in the book.
My issues with the book are the following; it moves very slowly. It's not a no-holds barred rollercoaster, but more of a slow Victorian mystery told in the murky mists of old and modern London. I felt there was very little character development, except for Jerry Gates, who is the best developed character in the story. The Whitstable family are almost one entity and all of them are snooty and annoying. Surely they can't all be bad?
Detectives May and Bryant sound like interesting characters and are diametrically opposed to one another. They have their own eccentricities, contacts and methods, but feel this could have been fleshed out further. There is no real villain in the peace and one is only rolled out towards the end to give the story a climax and decent ending.
On the whole, this is a great read and anyone traveling to London, who loves weird history and supernatural tales should read it. I just wish the characters were fleshed out more and some more drama was added. The story itself is very operatic, and I don't feel there was any real tension in the story-telling. A great story too calmly told.
My issues with the book are the following; it moves very slowly. It's not a no-holds barred rollercoaster, but more of a slow Victorian mystery told in the murky mists of old and modern London. I felt there was very little character development, except for Jerry Gates, who is the best developed character in the story. The Whitstable family are almost one entity and all of them are snooty and annoying. Surely they can't all be bad?
Detectives May and Bryant sound like interesting characters and are diametrically opposed to one another. They have their own eccentricities, contacts and methods, but feel this could have been fleshed out further. There is no real villain in the peace and one is only rolled out towards the end to give the story a climax and decent ending.
On the whole, this is a great read and anyone traveling to London, who loves weird history and supernatural tales should read it. I just wish the characters were fleshed out more and some more drama was added. The story itself is very operatic, and I don't feel there was any real tension in the story-telling. A great story too calmly told.
July 17, 2023
When several members of the same family are murdered in extraordinarily gruesome ways, elderly police investigators Arthur Bryant and John May, together with their newly-constructed experimental team, are given the task of catching the culprits as rapidly as possible. Young Jerry Gates, slumming it as a receptionist at the elegant Savoy Hotel, has the bad luck to witness two of the murders, and she is determined to solve the case herself, especially when the police seem to ignore her insights. As two parallel investigations go deeper into the arcane history of the family involved, their legacy and the strange ways of Victorian secret societies, the bodies continue to pile up, until it seems that there never will be a new day dawning for the targeted victims…. Before he was known for his brilliant Bryant and May mystery/paranormal series, Christopher Fowler was making a name for himself in the horror genre; this book may be the first introduction of Bryant and May, but it is not considered to be part of that series even though it manifestly is. I don’t read much horror these days, but this is a fast (but long) read and Fowler’s signature humor and obvious love of London shine through as much as they are evident in the later books. If you’re already a fan of Bryant and May, you’ll want to read this; if you’re a fan of horror, you’ll enjoy it too. Recommended.
December 28, 2019
This is the second book I've read by Fowler also featuring the rather unlikely Detectives, Bryant & May. Strangely, at fantasticfiction anyway, neither "Darkest Day" or "Rune" - the other I've read - is listed as one of the Bryant & May series but both as standalones. Otherwise the storyline, with one or two tweaks, of the two are pretty much identical.
This time, along with the help of Jerry, a seventeen-year old girl with a darkness phobia, the pair find themselves up against blackmail, violence & ritual murder. Throw in a conspiracy involving rare art, computers, a secret occult society & finally an old but obnoxious family who are being bumped off at an alarming rate & you have an entertaining read with a host of quirky characters & a nod towards the supernatural.
3.5 stars from me, would have been 4 but too similar in content to
"Rune"
This time, along with the help of Jerry, a seventeen-year old girl with a darkness phobia, the pair find themselves up against blackmail, violence & ritual murder. Throw in a conspiracy involving rare art, computers, a secret occult society & finally an old but obnoxious family who are being bumped off at an alarming rate & you have an entertaining read with a host of quirky characters & a nod towards the supernatural.
3.5 stars from me, would have been 4 but too similar in content to
"Rune"
February 19, 2023
La mia 4. Lettura dell'anno ☺️
Dal titolo e l'immagine della copertina sembra un horror, ma più che altro è un giallo con un tocco soprannaturale. Non mi è dispiaciuto, anche se mi aspettavo un bel horror 😅 appartiene ad una serie ma non essendo tradotti li altri libri in lingua italiana sarà l'unico libro letto di questo autore
Dal titolo e l'immagine della copertina sembra un horror, ma più che altro è un giallo con un tocco soprannaturale. Non mi è dispiaciuto, anche se mi aspettavo un bel horror 😅 appartiene ad una serie ma non essendo tradotti li altri libri in lingua italiana sarà l'unico libro letto di questo autore
May 20, 2018
Complex, layered whodunnit set lovingly in London with plenty of historical trivia (which I love) and investigated by older, sarcastic, smart detectives Bryant and May. I'm going to hunt down the rest of the series.
January 22, 2015
Last year's release of Christopher Fowler's "Full Dark House" brought his recurring characters, elderly police detectives Bryant and May, back to the forefront of his writing. With another four Bryant and May novels planned as his next releases, one of which is already available in hardback, and another due later this year, the thought took me back to their first novel in a "starring" role, the now twelve year old "Darkest Day".
Jerry Gates is from a successful London family. Much to their disgust, particularly her mother's, she has taken a job as a receptionist at London's Savoy Hotel. She's quite enjoying her job, until a guest collapses and dies in the middle of the lobby and then when another has his throat cut in the on site barber's salon. In between, the second man's brother throws acid over a painting in the Tate Gallery and then explodes on an Underground train.
It soon seems that someone has a vendetta against the Whitstable family, one of London's most established business families. One by one, family members seem to be getting killed, regardless of anything Bryant and May can do about it. It seems no-one knows who is killing them and no-one can work out why. Even the family themselves can't, or won't, give the detectives any indication that may help them solve the crime, even to save themselves.
The basis of the story is a very interesting idea. While it may not be wildly original in generic terms, the specific parts are very nicely done. The murders themselves are frequently a nice touch and often quite novel and the reason behind the mystery, when it becomes known, is not something I've ever seen elsewhere. Couple this with Fowler's love of the history of London's history and a nice sideline into Gilbert and Sullivan and it makes the theory behind the novel quite enticing for any murder mystery fan.
Unfortunately, the execution isn't nearly as well done as the idea might suggest or deserve. Although there are some pretty interesting and gruesome murders and parts of the premise are pretty nasty, this ends up being pretty much a fairly straight detective story. As a result, there is a lot of back story and this seems to take up a lot of time, when the most interesting parts are watching the crime unfold. If the parts that weren't part of the solution were twists or mis-directions, you might forgive the author for this, but most of them are merely background or feel like padding, which makes the story drag on for longer than it needs to and has the whole book feeling very slow paced. Indeed, it's almost twice as long as most of his other work and it feels even longer than that at times.
Fowler has not worked to any of his strengths with "Darkest Day". He has always been best at making the normal man look over their shoulder at what may be behind them by writing about things that could happen to them, but there's none of that here. While it's set in a modern London that could be inhabited by many of us, the situation is pretty fantastic and you can't see any of these things happening to or around you. Again, this may not be a bad thing if the author can keep you distracted from the unreality of the situation by ensuring it sweeps you away, but the pace isn't high enough and the problem not tricky enough for this to be true.
Of all the Fowler novels I have read, it has been the two that feature Bryant and May most heavily that have been the most disappointing. If he is to write several more, I can only hope they are either far better than "Darkest Day" or interspersed with Fowler writing to his strengths. If this is to be the standard of them, I can see me going off Fowler in a major way.
If you're a fan of police thrillers, there are a lot better ones around. I can recommend Mark Billingham or Ian Rankin's "Inspector Rebus" novels as better examples than Fowler. If you're a fan of horror, you'd be far better placed reading Fowler's other work, which is far, far better than this. I'd always recommend Fowler, but I can't recommend this. If you've discovered you're a big fan of Fowler's work, it may be worth a look for curiosity, but there's no other reason to read it.
I think that the author's own words about "Darkest Day" sum things up perfectly well. On his website, he says of the book "I was unhappy with the result" and you can see why.
This review may also appear under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
Jerry Gates is from a successful London family. Much to their disgust, particularly her mother's, she has taken a job as a receptionist at London's Savoy Hotel. She's quite enjoying her job, until a guest collapses and dies in the middle of the lobby and then when another has his throat cut in the on site barber's salon. In between, the second man's brother throws acid over a painting in the Tate Gallery and then explodes on an Underground train.
It soon seems that someone has a vendetta against the Whitstable family, one of London's most established business families. One by one, family members seem to be getting killed, regardless of anything Bryant and May can do about it. It seems no-one knows who is killing them and no-one can work out why. Even the family themselves can't, or won't, give the detectives any indication that may help them solve the crime, even to save themselves.
The basis of the story is a very interesting idea. While it may not be wildly original in generic terms, the specific parts are very nicely done. The murders themselves are frequently a nice touch and often quite novel and the reason behind the mystery, when it becomes known, is not something I've ever seen elsewhere. Couple this with Fowler's love of the history of London's history and a nice sideline into Gilbert and Sullivan and it makes the theory behind the novel quite enticing for any murder mystery fan.
Unfortunately, the execution isn't nearly as well done as the idea might suggest or deserve. Although there are some pretty interesting and gruesome murders and parts of the premise are pretty nasty, this ends up being pretty much a fairly straight detective story. As a result, there is a lot of back story and this seems to take up a lot of time, when the most interesting parts are watching the crime unfold. If the parts that weren't part of the solution were twists or mis-directions, you might forgive the author for this, but most of them are merely background or feel like padding, which makes the story drag on for longer than it needs to and has the whole book feeling very slow paced. Indeed, it's almost twice as long as most of his other work and it feels even longer than that at times.
Fowler has not worked to any of his strengths with "Darkest Day". He has always been best at making the normal man look over their shoulder at what may be behind them by writing about things that could happen to them, but there's none of that here. While it's set in a modern London that could be inhabited by many of us, the situation is pretty fantastic and you can't see any of these things happening to or around you. Again, this may not be a bad thing if the author can keep you distracted from the unreality of the situation by ensuring it sweeps you away, but the pace isn't high enough and the problem not tricky enough for this to be true.
Of all the Fowler novels I have read, it has been the two that feature Bryant and May most heavily that have been the most disappointing. If he is to write several more, I can only hope they are either far better than "Darkest Day" or interspersed with Fowler writing to his strengths. If this is to be the standard of them, I can see me going off Fowler in a major way.
If you're a fan of police thrillers, there are a lot better ones around. I can recommend Mark Billingham or Ian Rankin's "Inspector Rebus" novels as better examples than Fowler. If you're a fan of horror, you'd be far better placed reading Fowler's other work, which is far, far better than this. I'd always recommend Fowler, but I can't recommend this. If you've discovered you're a big fan of Fowler's work, it may be worth a look for curiosity, but there's no other reason to read it.
I think that the author's own words about "Darkest Day" sum things up perfectly well. On his website, he says of the book "I was unhappy with the result" and you can see why.
This review may also appear under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
February 27, 2017
Never a dull book with Bryant & May
December 17, 2012
On October 21st 1999, I finished a book called Disturbia by the same author. I liked the references to London.
This book is identical - and although I cannot remember the details from 5.5 years ago, there must be similarities as again we have a london setting and a secret society.
This book is overlong and all a bit Vincent Price/Hammer Horror/Theatre of Blood/Dr Phibes - which I think is an effect that the author is trying to achieve.
There is a family of upper class stereotypes who are being bumped off in the way of Gilbert and Sullivan operas by zombies. Trust me it works.
There a two policemen on the investigation - both clocking on and working for a semi secret police unit which reminded me of Derek Raymonds "ministry of unexplained deaths". One is a luddite, the other embraces technology.
As the family increasingly get offeed the investigations determine some sort of machine that can protect the interested of the family that is buried under the square mile. Its fucked and starts arranging the deaths of the family themselves.
This is, of course, all nonsense. And not very scary at all, despite the cover blurb.
But this is not the point. The point is London and this is fantastically invoked, covering many areas that I am coming to know well.
Rankin has Edinburgh and Fowler has London. One writes well, the other is a bit of a hack with a vivid imagination.
This book is identical - and although I cannot remember the details from 5.5 years ago, there must be similarities as again we have a london setting and a secret society.
This book is overlong and all a bit Vincent Price/Hammer Horror/Theatre of Blood/Dr Phibes - which I think is an effect that the author is trying to achieve.
There is a family of upper class stereotypes who are being bumped off in the way of Gilbert and Sullivan operas by zombies. Trust me it works.
There a two policemen on the investigation - both clocking on and working for a semi secret police unit which reminded me of Derek Raymonds "ministry of unexplained deaths". One is a luddite, the other embraces technology.
As the family increasingly get offeed the investigations determine some sort of machine that can protect the interested of the family that is buried under the square mile. Its fucked and starts arranging the deaths of the family themselves.
This is, of course, all nonsense. And not very scary at all, despite the cover blurb.
But this is not the point. The point is London and this is fantastically invoked, covering many areas that I am coming to know well.
Rankin has Edinburgh and Fowler has London. One writes well, the other is a bit of a hack with a vivid imagination.
April 26, 2009
I don't read horror...really I don't. I have never read a Stephen King book or even seen one of his movies but for some bizzare reason I started reading this book, finished it and even liked it very much. Maybe it was because it was Victorian macabre in modern-day London, I dont mind the odd gothic novel and am a big fan of Mervyn Peake...so maybe thats it.
January 12, 2018
I had to be read this version of the later rewrite, 77 clocks, because it had a supernatural element. I liked the story and I like Arthur and Mays as always, but it wasn't a very appealing supernatural aspect. I'm glad this author abandoned supernatural elements in the rest of this series.
September 22, 2015
Read is before Seventy Seven Clocks, it is the same story but written contemporaneously and shifting the perspective from just Bryant and May.
April 14, 2016
Darkest days is overrated. The book is more of a murder mystery than a horror. Anyone who likes murder mysteries its a good read.
June 16, 2016
Awesome... One of his best
July 21, 2016
A proto-Bryant & May book. Way too long and Jerry is just all too annoying. Her experience with the dodgy psychiatrist was also far too much of a cliche. A bit gross in parts but not scary at all.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews