91 year-old Alice Hoffman died alone in her top floor flat. Social services say she slipped through the cracks in a failing system. But detectives Arthur Bryant & John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit have their suspicions. Mrs Hoffman was not as innocent as she appeared. A former government security expert, she had once worked for their own unit, but there's no-one left who can remember her. And when they uncover a link between her and a diplomat desperate to leave the country it begins to look as if someone might have committed an impossible murder.
But Mrs Hoffman wasn't acting alone. Arthur Bryant is convinced that a group of talented women have been working together for decades and now the others are in danger. With the help of some of his more certifiable contacts and historical experts, he and John May embark on an investigation that will lead them down forgotten alleyways to riverside buildings and on to the city's oldest bridge. But just when the case appears to have been solved and unit chief Raymond Land can congratulate everyone on ending a threat to international security, the detectives discover that they've been the victims of the biggest deception of all. For even after her death, Mrs Hoffman would prove too clever for them . . .
Bryant & May's twentieth anniversary case brings an ending and a new beginning to London's most peculiar crimes unit and all who work there.
In every detective's life there are cases that can't be discussed. Now Arthur Bryant has decided to open the files on eleven of these previously unseen investigations. The first-ever collection of Bryant & May stories not only sheds light on eleven classic cases but also contains everything you need to know about the two octogenarian detectives and the Peculiar Crimes Unit.
The Thames is London's most important yet neglected artery. When a young woman is found chained to a post in the tide, no-one can understand how she came to be drowned there. That's only part of the problem; Bryant's deteriorating condition prevents him from handling the case. To make matters worse, May makes a fatal error of judgement that knocks him out of action. In an adventure that's as twisting as the river, will there be anything left of the Peculiar Crimes Unit when it's over?
Two teenagers who see a dead man rising from his grave. And if that's not alarming enough, one of them is killed in a hit and run accident. Soon it seems death is all around and Bryant and May must confront a group of latter-day bodysnatchers. More graves are desecrated, further deaths occur, and when Bryant is blindfolded and taken to a secret society, he realises that this case is more complex than even he had imagined.
A banking scandal has filled the city with violent protests, and a young homeless man burns to death after being caught between rioters and the police. But all is not as it seems; an opportunistic killer is using the chaos to exact revenge. Arthur Bryant and John May soon find their investigation taking an apocalyptic turn as the case comes to involve the history of mob rule, corruption, punishment and the legend of Guy Fawkes.
The members of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit are on the case again when a dog walker is found dead. The method of the death is odd... the killer had no way in - or out - and the dog is nowhere to be seen. But the 'hows' and 'whys' of the murder are not the only mysteries, and it seems very likely that the killer is preparing to strike again.
London’s wiliest detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, are back on the case in this fiendishly clever new mystery. And when a cemetery becomes the scene of a crime, neither secrets—nor bodies—stay buried.
Romain Curtis sneaks into St. George’s Gardens one evening with his date, planning to show her the stars. A centuries-old burial ground, the small, quiet park is the perfect place to be alone. Yet the night takes a chilling turn when the two teenagers spy a strange figure rising from among the tombstones: a corpse emerging from the grave. Suffice it to say that wherever there’s a dead man walking, Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit are never far behind.
As the PCU investigates the sighting, a second urgent matter requires their unusual brand of problem-solving. Seven ravens have gone missing from their historic home in the Tower of London, and legend has it that when the ravens disappear, England will fall. Bryant has been tasked with recovering the lost birds, but when Romain is suddenly found dead, the two seemingly separate mysteries start to intertwine and point to a plot more sinister than anyone could ever imagine.
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.
Using their network of eccentric contacts, elderly detectives Arthur Bryant and John May hunt down a murderer who adopts incendiary methods of execution. But they soon find their investigation taking an apocalyptic turn as the case comes to involve the history of mob rule, corruption, rebellion, punishment and the legend of Guy Fawkes.
At the same time, several members of the PCU team reach dramatic turning points in their lives - but the most personal tragedy is yet to come, for as the race to bring down a cunning killer reaches its climax, Arthur Bryant faces his own devastating day of reckoning. 'I always said we'd go out with a hell of a bang,' warns Bryant.
Two small children - playing a game called 'Witch-Hunter' - place a curse on a young woman eating lunch in a church courtyard. An hour later the woman is found dead. Then a society photographer is stabbed to death in a nearby park and suddenly a link emerges between the two cases. As the members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit investigate, they realise that the case might not just end in disaster - it might also get everyone killed.
The death of a child and what seems to be a murderous puppet make a perfect case for Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit. As John May and his team interrogate the suspects, Arthur Bryant heads into the secret world of illusions and stagecraft. As a second impossible death occurs, the detectives uncover forgotten museums and London eccentrics. The stage is set for a race against time with a surprising twist...
Internationally best-selling author Christopher Fowler dazzles audiences with his mastery of impossible-crime mysteries-and with the exploits of his beloved, odd-couple detectives Arthur Bryant and John May. Here, the eccentric investigators delve into London's lore-infused subway to catch a killer. "Fowler has few peers when it comes to constructing ingenious and intricate plots."-Publishers Weekly, starred review
Arthur Bryant, John May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit are on the trail of an enigma: Mr Fox. His identity is false, and his links to society are invisible. Their search takes them into the vast labyrinth of the Underground, a subterranean world full of legends and ghost stations. Edging closer to what lies beneath the city, are Bryant and May about to uncover something truly bizarre?
The most enigmatic detectives in British crime fiction since Holmes and Watson return in their eighth wickedly entertaining and intriguing investigation...
