Showing results by author "Christopher Fowler" in All Categories

This collection includes four book-centered mystery novellas from four masters of the craft: The Scroll, Reconciliation Day, The Compendium of Srem, and The Mysterious Disappearance of the Reluctant Book Fairy.

Christopher Fowler's 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, and cereal packets - anything that might reveal a story. Caught between an ever-sensible but exhausted mother and a DIY-obsessed father fighting his own demons, Christopher takes refuge in words.

A fans view of the world of college sports.

A must-listen collection of four bibliomysteries by bestselling and award-winning authors.

Ninety-one-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 and 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. 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.

Revenge is one of the great themes in literature, from Shakespeare to Poe. This collection contains 18 original stories commissioned for this volume plus a reprint of a classic Ruth Rendell mystery.

In every detective's life there are cases that can't be discussed. Now Arthur Bryant has decided to open the files on 11 of these previously unseen investigations. The first-ever collection of Bryant & May stories not only sheds light on 11 classic cases but also contains everything you need to know about the two octogenarian detectives and the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

Six full-cast contemporary tales of terror from horror legends Hammer Films: terror underwater in a helicopter crash simulator in Stephen Gallagher's 'The Box'... a neighbourhood clean-up campaign stirs up an ancient evil in 'The Fixation' by Mark Morris... the hate-filled words of an internet troll come to life in 'Sticks and Stones' by Robin Ince... a broken-down St Petersburg lift holds unimaginable terrors in Christopher Fowler's 'The Devil in the Darkness'... bingo, knitting and murder in 1970s suburbia in 'Spanish Ladies' by Paul Magrs... and myths and mosters on a Greek party island in 'Don't Go There,' by Stephen Volk.

The year is 1969, and 10 guests are about to enjoy a weekend at Tavistock Hall. The guests also include detectives Arthur Bryant and John May - undercover, in disguise and tasked with protecting Monty Hatton-Jones, a whistle-blower turning Queen’s evidence in a massive bribery trial. The house’s owner - a penniless, dope-smoking aristocrat - is intent on selling the estate to a secretive millionaire, but the weekend has only just started when the millionaire goes missing, and murder is on the cards....

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 judgment 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 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 odd couple of detection, the brilliant but cranky Arthur Bryant and John May of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit, return in a tense, atmospheric new thriller that keeps you guessing right to the end. This time the detectives are up against a series of bizarre murders that defy human understanding, and a killer no human hand may be able to stop.

Long regarded as an anachronism, the Peculiar Crimes Unit is to be disbanded. For octogenarian detectives Arthur Bryant and John May, it seems retirement is now the only option. But then a headless body is found in a freezer, and a suspicious, gigantic figure has been spotted - dressed in deerskin and sporting antlers made of knives. It looks like the PCU are back in business...

One night, Arthur Bryant witnesses a drunken lady coming out of a pub. The next morning, she is found dead at the exact spot where their paths crossed. Even more disturbingly, the pub has vanished and the street has changed. Bryant is convinced that he saw them as they looked over a century before - is elderly detective losing his mind? Then it becomes clear that a number of women have met their ends in London pubs and the likeliest suspect seems to be a mental patient.

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...

An artist is found dead in a gallery with locked doors and windows. A television presenter is struck by lightning while indoors. Two seemingly impossible crimes that only Arthur Bryant and John May of the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit might be able to solve. But Bryant has lost his nerve, and May is fighting to keep the unit from closure. Worse still, an unsolved mystery from the past has returned to haunt them...

Arthur Bryant, John May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit is 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?

For 15 years, Janet has been married to her devoted and boring husband, Trevor. But their marriage was not as simple as it seemed. Now Janet is on the road, hurtling towards another man, and another life. Has she found freedom, and the strength to escape Trevor’s dominating fetishes? Or is there something far more sinister waiting for her at the crematorium?

The unthinkable has happened at London's Peculiar Crimes Unit. In the depths of winter, a member of staff has been found murdered, and everyone who works there is suddenly a suspect. But Arthur Bryant and John May, the eccentric elderly detectives who run London's strangest crime division, aren't on hand to solve the crime. They've ventured into the heart of the English countryside, only to become stranded on a desolate snowbound section of road.