Synopses & Reviews
The Peculiar Crimes Unit is no more. After years of defying the odds and infuriating their embarrassed superiors, detectives Arthur Bryant and John May have at last crossed the line. This is the twenty-first century and not even their eccentric genius or phenomenal success rate solving Londons most unusual crimes can save them. While Bryant takes to his bed, his bathrobe, and his esoteric books, the rest of the team take to the streets looking for new careersleading one of them to stumble upon a gruesome murder.
It isnt so much the discovery of the headless corpse thats potentially so politically explosive as where its found. Still it takes the bizarre sightings of a great horned creaturehalf man, half stagcarrying off young women to convince Bryant that this is a case worth getting dressed and leaving the house to solve. The Home Office has reluctantly authorized the PCU to reunite for one last encore performancein a rented office with no computer network, no legal authority, and a broken toilet. Theyve got until the end of the week to solve a murder with unlikely links to gangland crime, Slavic mythology, the 2012 London Olympics, and the sort of corruption only obscene amounts of money and power can buy.
Its the kind of case that Bryant and May live to solveand it could be just the case that kills them.
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Chrisopher Fowler is the acclaimed author of fifteen previous novels, including the award-winning
Full Dark House and five other Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries:
White Corridor, The Water Room, Seventy-Seven Clocks, Ten Second Staircase, and
The Victoria Vanishes. He lives in London, where he is at work on his next Peculiar Crimes Unit novel.
From the Hardcover edition.