John Chapel is a statistician's dream: he's twenty-nine, has a loving wife and son, a comfortable home, and a promising career. Then he meets the stunningly beautiful, mysterious Ixora, and his life starts to change disturbingly. He first sees her running across the rainswept steps of Waterloo Station. When they meet again, Ixora denies having been there. Odder still, John discovers her in a film containing exactly the same sequence. So begins a dreamlike relationship that escalates into a nightmare. Despite his good intentions, John finds himself embarking on a passionate affair. But violence and death track the ill-fated couple as John risks his home, his career and his life to save Ixora from a horrific destiny. Now the subject of a police investigation, he finds himself trapped in a vortex of spreading evil which may claim his very soul... First published in the early 90s, Red Bride confirmed Fowler's place at the vanguard of modern horror fiction.
“Traditional mystery buffs with a taste for the offbeat will relish British author Fowler's wonderful second contemporary whodunit featuring the Peculiar Crimes Unit and its elderly odd couple, Arthur Bryant and John May.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) How can an elderly recluse drown in a chair in her otherwise dry basement? That’s what John May and Arthur Bryant of London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit set out to discover in a city rife with shady real estate developers, racist threats, dodgy academicians, and someone dangerously obsessed with Egyptian mythology. Linking them all is an evil lurking in London’s vast and forgotten underground river system—a killer with the eerie ability to strike anywhere, anytime, without leaving a clue. It’s a subterranean case of secrets, lies, and multiple murder that defies not only the law, but reason itself. Can Bryant and May bring a killer to the surface and stop the dark tide of murder before it pulls them under, too? “A clever twist on the traditional police procedural . . . The real thrill here is the delightful duo in the starring roles, two fresh and unusual characters who manage to breathe new life into an established genre in which it’s getting harder and harder to find anything genuinely fresh.”—Booklist “Humorous, engaging.”—Kirkus Reviews
It’s the classic locked-room mystery—a member of the Peculiar Crimes Unit killed inside a sealed morgue populated only by the dead and to which only four PCU members had a key. To make matters worse, the Unit has been shut down for a forced “vacation,” and Bryant and May are stuck in a van in the Dartmoor countryside during a freak snowstorm. Now they’ll have to crack the case by cell phone while trying to stop a second murder without freezing to death. For among the line of trapped vehicles, a killer is on the prowl, a beautiful woman is on the run, and an innocent child is caught in the middle….
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May off the Rails. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is no more—disbanded, finished, kaput. After years of defying the odds and infuriating their superiors, detectives Arthur Bryant and John May have finally crossed the line. While Bryant takes to his bed, his bathrobe, and his esoteric books, the rest of the team takes to the streets looking for new careers—until one of them stumbles upon a gruesome murder. Now the Unit is back for an encore performance—in a rented office with no computer network, no legal authority, and a broken toilet. They’ve got until the end of the week to solve a mystery with links to gangland crime, the 2012 London Olympics, and a half-man, half-stag creature that’s carrying off young women. It’s the kind of case that Bryant and May live to solve . . . and it could be the one that finally kills them.
“The most delightfully, wickedly entertaining duo in crime fiction.”—The Plain Dealer When a prominent politician is crushed by a fruit van making a delivery, the singular team of Arthur Bryant and John May overcome insurmountable odds to reunite the PCU and solve the case in this brainy new mystery from acclaimed author Christopher Fowler. On a spring morning in London’s Strand, the Speaker of the House of Commons is nearly killed by a van unloading oranges and lemons for the annual St. Clement Danes celebration. It’s an absurd near-death experience, but the government is more interested in investigating the Speaker’s state of mind just prior to his accident. The task is given to the Peculiar Crimes Unit—the only problem being that the unit no longer exists. Its chief, Raymond Land, is tending his daffodils on the Isle of Wight and senior detectives Arthur Bryant and John May are out of commission—May has just undergone surgery for a bullet wound and Bryant has been missing for a month. What's more, their old office in King’s Cross is being turned into a vegetarian tapas bar. Against impossible odds, the team is reassembled and once again what should be a simple case becomes a lunatic farrago involving arson, suicide, magicians, academics and a race to catch a killer with a master plan involving London churches. Joining their team this time is Sidney, a young woman with no previous experience, plenty of attitude—and a surprising secret.
Edgy, suspenseful, and darkly comic, here is the first novel in a riveting mystery series starring two cranky but brilliant old detectives whose lifelong friendship was forged solving crimes for the London Police Department's Peculiar Crimes Unit. In Full Dark House, Christopher Fowler tells the story of both their first and last case—and how along the way the unlikely pair of crime fighters changed the face of detection. A present-day bombing rips through London and claims the life of eighty-year-old detective Arthur Bryant. For his partner John May, it means the end of a partnership that lasted over half-a-century and an eerie echo back to the Blitz of World War II when they first met. Desperately searching for clues to the killer’s identity, May finds his old friend’s notes of their very first case and becomes convinced that the past has returned . . . with a killing vengeance. It begins when a dancer in a risque new production of Orpheus in Hell is found without her feet. Suddenly, the young detectives are plunged in a bizarre gothic mystery that will push them to their limits—and beyond. For in a city shaken by war, a faceless killer is stalking London's theaters, creating his own kind of sinister drama. And it will take Arthur Bryant’s unorthodox techniques and John May’s dogged police work to catch a criminal whose ability to escape detection seems almost supernatural—a murderer who even decades later seems to have claimed the life of one of them . . . and is ready to claim the other. Filled with startling twists, unforgettable characters, and a mystery that will keep you guessing, Full Dark House is a witty, heartbreaking, and all-too-human thriller about the hunt for an inhuman killer.
A race against time turns into a rollicking scavenger hunt through London lore in this classic thriller from the award-winning author of the Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries starring Bryant & May. When the city hits midnight, everyone becomes equal, and anything can happen. It’s 2 a.m. and Vincent Reynolds is running for his life through the storm-swept streets of London. The working-class reporter has discovered an explosive secret, and he’s determined to tell the world—as long as he stays alive until sunrise. His adversary: an English gentleman obsessed with puzzles, playing his deadliest game. His allies: a motley crew of insomniacs, misfits, and street people. His only hope: to solve a series of ten lethal challenges that will lead him from dusk to daybreak, through the night life of a secret city hidden even to its own inhabitants. Look for Christopher Fowler’s fantasy and horror classics, now available as ebooks: CALABASH | DISTURBIA | PSYCHOVILLE | RED GLOVES | ROOFWORLD | SPANKY
In this stylish Faustian horror novel from the prize-winning author of the Peculiar Crimes Unit series featuring Bryant & May, a young man learns firsthand the perils of dealing with the devil. With a dead-end job, a miserable family, and no romantic prospects, twenty-three-year-old Martyn Ross has a rotten life—until he meets his own personal demon. A Spancialosaphus Lacrimosae, or “Spanky” for short, he’s Martyn’s diabolically handsome alter ego, a tuxedoed charmer who’s willing to share his wild world of wine, women, and wealth . . . for a price. Under Spanky’s tutelage, Martyn gains confidence, career success, even a girlfriend. He’s living the good life. But like all demons, Spanky expects something in return. And it has nothing to do with Martyn surrendering his soul. In fact, quite the reverse . . . Look for Christopher Fowler’s fantasy and horror classics, now available as ebooks: CALABASH | DISTURBIA | PSYCHOVILLE | RED GLOVES | ROOFWORLD | SPANKY
Christopher Fowler’s latest collection contains fourteen stories in new formats that have never been published in print collections, including a play, two SF tales, a historical-supernatural story, some that began life inside other novels, only to be cut or rewritten, and morphed into tales like ‘The Scent Of Roses’, together with several that have not seen the light of day in any form. Now they all have finally found their place in Frightening...
Devilishly clever" Val McDermid on Strange Tide She sees everything, but can never tell anyone... a wickedly compulsive thriller from the bestselling author of the Bryant & May series. At a beautiful villa near Nice in the south of France, Hannah Carreras works as a maid. Under strict instructions never to speak to the guests, she blends into the background – but she sees everything. Including the mistress Summer, lounging by the pool awaiting the arrival of her married lover, Steve. When Steve finally shows at the villa – with his family unexpectedly in tow – Summer has vanished. Steve claims he never saw her. But Steve's wife is no fool: she knows there's something going on. Whose tiny bikini lies by the pool? Whose perfume is in the bathroom? Before long, the local police start asking questions, and the villa's occupants have something to hide. Only Hannah, always listening, watching, saw broken glass and blood on the patio the day Summer disappeared. Only Hannah thinks she knows what lies are being told...
His memoir captures life in suburban London, as it has rarely been seen, through the eyes of a lonely boy who spends his days between the library and the cinema, devouring novels, comics, cereal packets, anything that might reveal a story. A rich and astute evocation of a time and a place recalls a childhood at once eccentric, and ordinary!
Two chilling volumes are better than one! This collection of twenty-five mystery, horror, and fantasy short stories by award-winning author Christopher Fowler includes a pair featuring Bryant & May, the disreputable detectives from his beloved Peculiar Crimes Unit series. Red Gloves: Volume One escorts readers to the high streets and back alleys of London, where deceptively ordinary events such as an evening out at a local pub can lead to ghastly consequences. Spirits, monstrosities, death, revenge, redemption—it’s all in a night’s work for the shadowy hands reaching out to seize the unwary. Red Gloves: Volume Two offers a macabre tour around the world. Despite the exotic locations, the fates here are no less terrifying. As innocent travelers wander far from home for a vacation in the Far East or a trip to the French Riviera, they find themselves confronting their deepest, darkest fears—as well as profound epiphanies. Look for Christopher Fowler’s fantasy and horror classics, now available as ebooks: CALABASH | DISTURBIA | PSYCHOVILLE | RED GLOVES | ROOFWORLD | SPANKY
It’s a crime tailor-made for the Peculiar Crimes Unit: a controversial artist is murdered and displayed as part of her own outrageous installation. No suspects, no motive, no evidence—but this time they do have an eyewitness. A twelve-year-old claims the killer was a cape-clad highwayman atop a black stallion. Whoever the killer really is, he seems intent on killing off enough minor celebrities to become one himself. As “Highwayman Fever” grips London, Bryant and May, along with the newest member of the Unit, May’s agoraphobic granddaughter, April, find themselves sorting out a case involving artistic rivalries, sleazy sex affairs, the Knights Templars, feuding street gangs, and a decades-old crime spree that split up their partnership once before—and threatens to end it again…with murder.
A man obsessed with Dracula pursues a legendary lost edition of the classic vampire book in this chilling story from the author of the Bryan and May Mysteries. Carter, one of the world’s leading experts on Dracula, owns many editions of Bram Stoker’s novel, maybe even as many as his well-heeled rival, Mikaela Klove. But one thing has always eluded him: the chance to examine the possibly apocryphal blue edition of Stoker’s seminal vampire tale. If it actually exists, the elusive edition is rumored to contain a different ending and a never-before-published chapter tantalizingly set in Dracula’s personal library. Determined to read it for himself, Carter travels to Transylvania, where the rumored treasure might be hidden. But once there, he’ll need to work with his nemesis to solve the mysterious puzzle—or risk an endgame neither he nor Mikaela can afford to lose. Drawing on his renowned flair for the outré, Christopher Fowler—an author “in the first rank of contemporary mystery writers”— reimagines Stoker’s lost chapter and intersperses it with an unforgettable journey through Transylvania. Reconciliation Day is a delightfully suspenseful novella perfect for fans of the Peculiar Crimes Unit novels (Publishers Weekly). The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.
It's the late 1970s and 20-something Christopher Fowler is a film freak, obsessively watching lousy films in run-down fleapit cinemas. He longs to be a famous screenwriter and put his dreams on the big screen. And so he heads for Wardour Street, Britain's equivalent of Hollywood. But he's made a spectacular mistake, arriving just as the nation's filmmakers are falling to their knees, brought low by the arrival of video and the destruction of the old movie palaces. The only films being made are smutty low budget farces and TV spinoffs and instead of being asked to write another 'Bullitt', he's churning out short films advertising boilers and nylon sheets. Somehow, against the odds, he finds success - although in a very different guise to the one he expected. From the sticky Axminster of the local cinema to the red carpet at Cannes, Film Freak is a grimly hilarious and acutely observed trawl through the arse-end of the British film industry that turns into an ultimately affecting search for friendship and happiness.
Welcome to Soho, London's creative square mile, a bedlam of business and backstabbing, where dreams are manufactured and office workers get off their faces. A place where being a celebrity means treating every day as your last. Movie executive, Richard Tyler, is strung out, stressed up and sinking fast. He owes money to film-freak thugs, thanks to debts stacked up by his card-charging girlfriend, who has been shagging his belligerent boss, who has just fired him. Could things get any worse? During one particularly hypertense evening Richard drops dead in the middle of a fashionable Soho bar. What happens next mortifies his friends and horrifies his enemies, as Richard's lifestyle of power-lunches and parties changes overnight into a fast-track trip into career hell...
A suburban horror classic from the prize-winning author of the Peculiar Crimes Unit novels starring Bryant & May, Psychoville reveals the truth about housewives, bloodstains, and the damage one can inflict with a steam iron. England, 1985. When the cruel and heartless hand of urban planning forces fourteen-year-old Billy March and his family to abandon their home in London and relocate to quiet, residential Invicta Cross, Billy holds out hope for a fresh start. Instead, his entire family is methodically and tragically abused by their petty, hostile neighbors. Though Billy eventually befriends a young girl as damaged as himself, he never forgets those humiliations—nor can he forgive them. 1995. Invicta Cross has just been voted “Britain’s Favorite New Town” . . . and a stylish young married couple has just moved in. Glamorous, charismatic, and wealthy, they’re instantly popular with the locals. Then a strange series of coincidences begins. As one neighbor after another goes missing, no one suspects that the perfect couple in Balmoral Close might know more than they let on—until a suspicious reporter sets out to discover the truth. Look for Christopher Fowler’s fantasy and horror classics, now available as ebooks: CALABASH | DISTURBIA | PSYCHOVILLE | RED GLOVES | ROOFWORLD | SPANKY
An early Peculiar Crimes Unit case from 1969 London finds a younger Bryant and May struggling to protect a playboy star witness and solve a murder mystery at an old-fashioned manor house estate.
It’s a case tailor-made for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. A lonely hearts killer is targeting middle-aged women at some of England’s most well-known pubs—including one torn down eighty years ago. What’s more, Arthur Bryant happened to see one of the victims only moments before her death at the pub that doesn’t exist. Indeed, this case is littered with clues that defy everything the veteran detectives know about the habits of serial killers, the methodology of crime, and the odds of making an arrest. Now, with the public on the verge of panic and their superiors determined to shut the PCU down for good, Detectives Bryant and May must rise to the occasion in defense of two great English traditions—the pub and the Peculiar Crimes Unit. That’s easier said than done. A lost funeral urn, the eighteenth-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, the Knights Templars, the secret history of pubs, and the discovery of an astounding religious relic may be enough to convince one of the pair to take back his resignation letter. But with Bryant consulting a memory specialist and May encountering a brush with mortality, do the Peculiar Crimes Unit’s two living legends have enough life left to stop a murderous conspiracy…and a deadly cupid targeting one of their own.
The Peculiar Crimes Unit has solved many extraordinary cases over the years. Some have been forgotten, others hidden, a few lost down the back of the Unit sofa—until now. . . . “The most delightfully, wickedly entertaining duo in crime fiction.”—The Plain Dealer Arthur Bryant remembers these lost cases as if they were yesterday. Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember yesterday, so newly revealed facts come as something of a surprise—to everyone, really, not least an increasingly exasperated John May. Here you will discover the truth about the diva and the seventh reindeer, learn how a consul’s son came to be buried in the Unit’s basement, and understand why a corpse might end up in a swamp of Chinese dinners. There’s an ordinary London street corner that’s prone to strange accidents, and the Post Office Tower plays host to some ghoulish Halloween goings-on—but how a forgotten London legend could be responsible for an apparently impossible death is anybody’s guess. Each of the PCU’s oddest characters has a part to play—and the long-suffering Detective Sergeant Janice Longbright reveals a mystery of her very own. Twelve crimes in all, solved without resorting to modern technology (possibly because nobody knows how to use it). Expect misunderstood clues, mislaid evidence, arguments about Dickens, various churches and pubs, and, of course, the usual disorderly conduct from the investigative officers laughingly called England’s Finest!
With a Foreword by Joanne Harris. June Cryer is a shopaholic suburban housewife trapped in a lousy marriage. After discovering her husband?s infidelity with the flight attendant next door, she loses her home, her husband and her credit rating. But there?s a solution: a friend needs a caretaker for a spectacular London high-rise apartment. It?s just for the weekend, and there?ll be money to spend in a city with every temptation on offer. Seizing the opportunity to escape, June moves in only to find that there?s no electricity and no phone. She must flat-sit until the security system comes back on. When a terrified girl breaks into the flat and June makes the mistake of asking the neighbours for help, she finds herself embroiled in an escalating nightmare, trying to prove that a murderer exists. For the next 24 hours she must survive on the streets without friends or money and solve an impossible crime.
Christopher Fowler’s acclaimed Peculiar Crimes Unit novels crackle with sly wit, lively suspense, and twists as chilling as London’s fog. Now the indomitable duo of Arthur Bryant and John May, along with the rest of their quirky team, return to solve a confounding case with dark ties to the British theater and a killer who may mean curtains for all involved. For the crew of the New Strand Theatre, the play The Two Murderers seems less performance than prophecy when a cast party ends in the shocking death of the theater owner’s son. The crime scene is most unusual, even for Bryant and May. In a locked bedroom without any trace of fingerprints or blood, the only sign of disturbance is a gruesome life-size puppet of Mr. Punch laying on the floor. Everyone at the party is a suspect, including the corrupt producer, the rakish male lead, the dour set designer, and the assistant stage manager, who is the wild daughter of a prominent government official. It’s this last fact that threatens the Peculiar Crimes Unit’s investigation, as the government’s Home Office, wary of the team’s eccentric methods, seeks to throw them off the case. But the nimble minds of Bryant and May are not so easily deterred. Delving into the history of the London theater and the disturbing origins of Punch and Judy, the detectives race to find the maniacal killer before he reaches his even deadlier final act. Whip-smart and endlessly entertaining, The Memory of Blood is an ingeniously intricate mystery from the deliciously inventive Christopher Fowler. Praise for The Memory of Blood “[The Memory of Blood] breathes new life into the locked-room mystery. . . . Spiced with a little screwball-comedy dialogue and a touch of the occult.”—The Washington Post “Great fun.”—The Seattle Times
When a bomb devastates the office of London's most unusual police unit and claims the life of its oldest detective, Arthur Bryant, his surviving partner John May searches for clues to the bomber's identity. His search takes him back to the day the detectives first met as young men in 1940. In Blitz-ravaged London, a beautiful dancer rehearsing for a sexy, sinister production of 'Orpheus In The Underworld' is found without her feet. Bryant & May's investigation plunges them into a bizarre gothic mystery, where a faceless man stalks terrified actors and death strikes in darkness. Tracking their quarry through the blackout, searching for a murderer who'll stop at nothing to be free of a nightmare, the duo unwittingly follow the same path Orpheus took when leading Euridyce from the shadows of Hell. Back in the present day, John May starts to wonder if their oldest adversary might be the killer who took his partner's life. He must work alone to solve a puzzle that began over half a century earlier... In a war-shaken city of myths, rumours and fear, Bryant & May discover that a house is not always a home, nothing is as it appears, the most cunning criminals hide in plain sight, and the devil has all the best tunes. Dark drama and black comedy combine as Bryant & May take centre stage in their first great case.
A delight . . . a glorious, witty and life-affirming ragbag of autobiography, cultural commentary and hard-won wisdom.' ANDREW TAYLOR, author of The Shadows of London 'Perceptive, wise and illuminating . . . an unmissable farewell.' Barry Forshaw, FINANCIAL TIMES 'The most hilarious, life-affirming book you’ll read this year.' SAGA magazine 'Wit and wisdom that make every page turn . . . what a fine talent the world has lost.' STARBURST This is the memoir Christopher Fowler always wanted to write about 'writing'. It's the story of how a young bookworm growing up in a house where there was nothing to read but knitting pamphlets and motorcycle manuals became a writer - a 'word monkey' - and pursued a sort of career in popular fiction. And it's a book full of brilliant insights into the pleasures and pitfalls of his profession, dos and don'ts for would-be writers, and astute observations on favourite (and not-so-favourite) novelists. But woven into this hugely entertaining and inspiring reflection on a literary life is an altogether darker thread. In Spring 2020, just as the world went into lockdown, Chris was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And yet there is nothing of the misery memoir about Word Monkey. Past and present intermingle as, in prose as light as air, he relates with wry humour and remarkable honesty what he knows will be the final chapter in his story. Deeply moving, insightful and surprisingly funny, this is Christopher Fowler's life-affirming account of coming to terms with his own mortality. 'A remarkable book by a remarkable writer: amazingly entertaining and informative and also, for obvious reasons, one of the most moving.' SIMON MASON, author of the DI Wilkins Mysteries 'Wonderful . . . there is no bitterness here, but a hearty celebration of how art defines a life, with dark humour on the right occasions and the deliberate aim to leave a positive message . . . his enthusiasm is infectious and sobering when you are aware that he was dying as he wrote these pages.' Maxim Jacubowski, CRIME TIME
Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit are London’s craftiest and bravest detectives—and there’s no better pair to solve the city’s most confounding crimes. In this riveting eBook collection of mystery short stories, available together for the first time, Christopher Fowler takes Bryant and May on a series of twisting adventures and brings readers behind the scenes of his beloved novels. Includes a preview of Christopher Fowler’s new Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery, Bryant & May and the Burning Man! In “Bryant & May in the Field,” a woman is found with her throat slashed in a snowy park, yet the killer managed to escape without leaving any footprints. In “Bryant & May and the Nameless Woman,” a businessman drowns in the pool of a posh club, and the only suspect is a young woman who remains almost too calm during questioning. And in “Bryant & May Ahoy!” the pair go on holiday on a friend’s yacht in Turkey, but Bryant realizes there’s something fishy about their fellow passengers. From London’s grandest mansions to its darkest corners, from the Christmas department of Selfridges to a sinister traveling sideshow, there’s no scene too strange for the Peculiar Crimes Unit and the indefatigable detectives at its helm. Praise for Christopher Fowler’s ingenious novels featuring the Peculiar Crimes Unit “A brilliant series.”—The Denver Post “Fowler, like his crime-solvers, is deadpan, sly, and always unexpectedly inventive.”—Entertainment Weekly “Eclectic, eccentric and endlessly entertaining books.”—The Seattle Times “Fowler’s small but ardent American following deserves to get much larger.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times “A rough mash-up of Law & Order, The X-Files, and Monty Python’s Flying Circus . . . These stories are witty, challenging, engrossing, informative and incredibly well-written.”—Bookreporter “May and Bryant make a stellar team.”—The Wall Street Journal “Fowler reinvents and reinvigorates the traditional police procedural.”—The Boston Globe “Grumpy Old Men does CSI with a twist of Dickens! Bryant and May are hilarious. I love this series.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning
A twisted take on Narnia, this warmhearted, dryly comic novel from the award-winning author of the Peculiar Crimes Unit series starring Bryant & May transports readers to the last poignant moment of freedom before growing up. Kay Goodwin is a sixteen-year-old boy with a smart mouth and too much imagination, trapped in the most dismal place in England at the worst possible time: the early seventies. Marooned in the rundown seaside resort of Cole Bay, with its crumbling pier and grumbling pensioners, Kay experiences each day as a horrible comedy of errors—until he discovers a faraway land with characters who are impossibly exotic yet strangely familiar. In the kingdom of Calabash, he can have everything he’s ever wanted from life. There’s only one small problem: Calabash doesn’t technically exist. In a country that’s still hungover from the sixties, Kay finds it all too easy to retreat from reality. But he’s prepared to risk everything to find out what makes him different, what his life really holds, and what happens to those who believe in the impossible. Look for Christopher Fowler’s fantasy and horror classics, now available as ebooks: CALABASH | DISTURBIA | PSYCHOVILLE | RED GLOVES | ROOFWORLD | SPANKY
There is a murder. There is a victim. But are you ready to be complicit in the crime? Three top crime authors teamed up to tell a story, but one vital contributor was missing: you. Christopher Fowler, James Oswald and Jane Casey had the challenge of unraveling a tale of murder and vengeance, but they weren’t making all the decisions. Vital story elements and plot developments were decided by those reading the story and following the action. When they came to the cliffhangers would they make the right choice? #ChooseThePlot Ian, a three-time loser, is suddenly offered a chance to leave all his troubles behind. But is the deal too good to be true? One character won’t make it out of the first chapter alive. Who did the readers decide would live... and who would die? And how will their choices alter the destiny of the story? If lives were in your hands, would you make the right choice?
Early on an unseasonably warm Christmas Eve, Arthur Bryant of the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit is summoned by the Home Office to attend a crime scene. Later that morning, he meets his colleague John May at a bus stop near Marble Arch. At Bryant's insistence, the two elderly detectives board an open-top tourist bus where he explains that they are in pursuit of the individual who strangled a 54 year-old cleaning lady in her flat the night before. As the old Routemaster trundles past some of London's iconic tourist sights - Oxford Circus, Regent Street, Nelson's Column, Whitehall, the palace of Westminster and even New Scotland Yard (a journey during which Arthur Bryant succeeds in upsetting both his fellow passengers and the tour guide) it becomes clear why the two policemen should have been called upon to investigate such a 'normal' murder. Because, of course, nothing is ever quite that straightforward when Bryant and May are on the case . . . This short story is part of the Storycuts series.
A mysterious stranger in outlandish Edwardian garb defaces a Pre-Raphaelite painting in the National Gallery. Then a guest at the exclusive Savoy Hotel is fatally bitten by a marshland snake. Over the next several days, an outbreak of increasingly bizarre crimes will hit London—and, fittingly, come to the attention of the Peculiar Crimes Unit. Art vandalism, an exploding suspect, pornography, rat poison, Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, secret societies…and not a single suspect in sight. The killer they’re chasing has a dark history, a habit of staying hidden, and time itself on his side. Detectives May and Bryant are racing the clock and this time the bell may be tolling for them.
There’s a hidden battleground in the sky—so says this classic novel from the award-winning author of the Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries featuring Bryant & May. You’ll never look at a roof the same way again. . . . Welcome to Roofworld. High above London’s teeming streets exists a timeless universe with laws and codes known only to itself, suspended by a complex system of cables and wires. Two rival factions wrestle for control of this elevated realm—and eventually the city below. When a beautiful, feisty amateur photographer named Rose and a shy, cynical screenwriter named Robert witness a kidnapping on a London roof, they figure it’s an isolated incident. But after strange rooftop murders are reported almost daily, they have to know more. In their clumsy efforts to understand, they’re caught up in an intense power struggle between the forces of good and a power-mad tyrant manipulating society’s most hopeless citizens. Rose and Robert have a part to play in a war that’s nearly invisible from the ground—and nothing less than world domination is at stake. Look for Christopher Fowler’s fantasy and horror classics, now available as ebooks: CALABASH | DISTURBIA | PSYCHOVILLE | RED GLOVES | ROOFWORLD | SPANKY
Winningly eccentric . . . London, in all its non-homogenous, sprawling splendour, is as much a character as Fowler's sleuthing duo' Barry Forshaw, Financial Times The Peculiar Crimes Unit has solved many extraordinary cases over the years, but some were hushed up and hidden away. Until now. Arthur Bryant remembers these lost cases as if they were yesterday. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember yesterday, so the newly revealed facts could come as a surprise to everyone, including his exasperated partner John May. Here, then, is the truth about the Covent Garden opera diva and the seventh reindeer, the body that falls from the Tate Gallery, the ordinary London street corner where strange accidents keep occurring, the consul's son discovered buried in the unit's basement, the corpse pulled from a swamp of Chinese dinners, a Hallowe'en crime in the Post Office Tower, and the impossible death that's the fault of a forgotten London legend. All of the unit's oddest characters are here, plus the detectives' long-suffering sergeant Janice Longbright gets to reveal her own forgotten mystery. These twelve crimes must be solved without the help of modern technology, mainly because nobody knows how to use it. Expect misunderstood clues, lost evidence, arguments about Dickens, churches, pubs and disorderly conduct from the investigative officers they laughingly call 'England's Finest'! _______________________ What readers are saying: ***** 'Another gem from Christopher Fowler' ***** 'I've loved Bryant & May since I first discovered them' ***** 'A perfect collection of implausibly, improbably impossible mysteries for readers of Bryant and May both old and new
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