Bryant & May - Wild Chamber

Our story begins at the end of an investigation, as the members of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit race to catch a killer near London Bridge Station in the rain, not realising that they’re about to cause a bizarre accident just yards away from the crime scene. And it will have repercussions for them all…One year later, in an exclusive London crescent, a woman walks her dog – but she’s being watched. When she’s found dead, the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to investigate. Why? Because the method of death is odd, the gardens are locked, the killer had no way in - or out - and the dog has disappeared.So a typical case for Bryant & May. But the hows and whys of the murder are not the only mysteries surrounding the dead woman - there's a missing husband and a lost nanny to puzzle over too. And it seems very like that the killer is preparing to strike again.As Arthur Bryant delves in to the history of London’s ‘wild chambers’ - its extraordinary parks and gardens, John May and the rest of the team seem to have caused a national scandal. If no-one is safe then all of London’s open spaces must be closed…With the PCU placed under house arrest, only Arthur Bryant remains at liberty – but can a hallucinating old codger catch the criminal and save the unit before it’s too late?

Probably the most popular detective duo since the passing of Reginald Hill’s Dalziel and Pascoe., I’ll make a prediction now – Wild Chamber will be in my top five books for 2017. Bryant and May continue to be at the top of their game, and in some ways the novels are improving with age . . . there’s no author quite like Christopher Fowler, and there are no characters quite like Arthur Bryant and John May. There are a multitude of facets to Wild Chamber which make it stand out . . . Fowler is London born and bred, and his love for the city and all its eccentricities clearly comes through in the narrative. ., A joy to read. It's intelligent crime fiction that’s accessible to everyone., Delightfully entertaining . . . I for one, think this is incredibly clever. Fowler richly deserves his CWA Library Award., These books are clever, inventive and wonderfully original – and we simply can’t get enough of them. Prepare to be enchanted.

Christopher Fowler was the multiple award-winning author of almost fifty novels and short story collections, including the celebrated Bryant & May mysteries. His other novels include Roofworld, Spanky, The Sand Men and Hot Water. He has also written two acclaimed memoirs, Paperboy (winner of the Green Carnation Prize) and Film Freak, plus The Book of Forgotten Authors and Peculiar London, Bryant and May's singular and eccentric guide to the city. In 2015 Chris won the CWA's coveted 'Dagger in the Library' for his body of work. He lived in London and Barcelona. Diagnosed with cancer just as the UK went into lockdown in 2020, Chris died on 2nd March 2023.