Bryant & May: London Bridge Is Falling Down: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery

Product Description
“[Fowler] takes delight in stuffing his books with esoteric facts. . . .
They make for
unbeatable fun.”—The Guardian
The brilliant duo of Arthur Bryant and John May uncovers a nefarious plot behind the seemingly innocuous death of an old lady—and when the case leads them to London Bridge, it all comes down on the Peculiar Crimes Unit.
When ninety-one-year-old Amelia Hoffman dies in her top-floor flat on a busy London road, it’s considered an example of what has gone wrong with modern society: she slipped through the cracks in a failing system.
But detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit have their doubts. Mrs. Hoffman was once a government security expert, though no one can quite remember her. When a link emerges between the old lady and a diplomat trying to flee the country, it seems that an impossible murder has been committed.
Mrs. Hoffman wasn’t the only one at risk. Bryant is convinced that other forgotten women with hidden talents are also in danger. And, curiously, they all own models of London Bridge.
With the help of some of their more certifiable informants, the detectives follow the strangest of clues in an investigation that will lead them through forgotten alleyways to the city’s oldest bridge in search of a desperate killer.
But just when the case appears to be solved, they discover that Mrs. Hoffman was smarter than anyone imagined. There’s a bigger game afoot that could have terrible consequences.
Review
Praise for Christopher Fowler’s ingenious novels featuring the Peculiar Crimes Unit
“Captivating.”
—The Seattle Times
“[Christopher Fowler’s] ardent American following deserves to get much larger.”
—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“Fowler, like his crime-solvers, is deadpan, sly, and always unexpectedly inventive.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Thrilling.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Unbeatable fun . . . [Fowler] takes delight in stuffing his books with esoteric facts.”
—The Guardian
“Dazzling.”
—The Denver Post
About the Author
Christopher Fowler is the acclaimed author of the award-winning
Full Dark House and sixteen other Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries, as well as the PCU story collections
London's Glory and
England's Finest. In 2015, Fowler won the coveted Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library Award in recognition for his body of work. He lives in London, where he is at work on his next Peculiar Crimes Unit novel.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1The Girl on the Crossing
May in Regent’s Park could put a spring in the step of a corpse.
Crimson and saffron flowerbeds, enamelled lawns, fountains glittering beneath an azure sky. Twelve thousand roses in Queen Mary’s Garden, blossoming in a riotous display of colour that was positively vulgar. The month brought forth scented air and warmth to the back of the neck.
Sammi Jansome’s hand hurt. She had spent the previous afternoon slicing lemons and her knife had slipped. The lemon juice had got under the dressing and made her wince every time she lifted a tray. She’d had to stop and buy some waterproof bandages in Boots but there’d been a queue and now she was running later than usual. Usually she wore her black Adidas trainers and changed in the staff dressing room, but this morning she had snapped a lace while retying it on the tube and had been forced to don her pumps.
She cut through the park from its lower corner near Baker Street, heading for her shift at the US ambassador’s residence. Winfield House stood behind fifteen-foot-high black iron gates that appeared decorative but could withstand a missile attack. The bland chocolate box of a building on the north-west side of the park had been commissioned by the Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, who had lived there with her husband, Cary Grant. Once it had provided hunting grounds for boar and deer. Now its marquees held smug receptions and charity fundraisers in the vast manicured