Bryant & May: Wild Chamber
A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery
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4.3 • 36 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Detectives Arthur Bryant and John May are back on the case in this whip-smart and wildly twisting mystery, in which a killer in London’s parks is proving to be a most elusive quarry.
Helen Forester’s day starts like any other: Around seven in the morning, she takes her West Highland terrier for a walk in her street’s private garden. But by 7:20 she is dead, strangled yet peacefully laid out on the path, her dog nowhere to be found. The only other person in the locked space is the gardener, who finds the body and calls the police. He expects proper cops to arrive, but what he gets are Bryant, May, and the wily members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit.
Before the detectives can make any headway on the case, a second woman is discovered in a public park, murdered in nearly identical fashion. Bryant, recovering from a health scare, delves into the arcane history of London’s cherished green spaces, rife with class drama, violence, and illicit passions. But as a devious killer continues to strike, Bryant and May struggle to connect the clues, not quite seeing the forest for the trees. Now they have to think and act fast to save innocent lives, the fate of the city’s parks, and the very existence of the PCU.
An irresistibly witty, inventive blend of history and suspense, Bryant & May: Wild Chamber is Christopher Fowler in classic form.
Praise for Bryant & May: Wild Chamber
“Ingenious . . . Fowler brilliantly mixes humor into a fair-play whodunit with an unexpected solution.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“For fans of offbeat mysteries, Fowler’s long-running series continues to offer some of the best reading; the latest entry features an array of eccentric characters, a killer conclusion in a library setting, quirky humor, witty writing, interesting side trips and expositions, and a well-ordered, intricate plot.”—Library Journal (starred review)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In British author Fowler's ingenious 14th whodunit featuring London's Peculiar Crimes Unit (after 2016's Bryant & May: Strange Tide), PR executive Helen Forester is strangled while walking her dog in a private garden. Somehow someone entered and exited the garden, which is for the exclusive use of the residents of Clement Crescent, unseen by Ritchie Jackson, the gardener on duty at the time. Helen's murder occurs less than a year after the freakish death of her seven-year-old son, Charlie, after a glass fragment entered his eye and caused a fatal blood clot. Might there be a connection? The PCU's investigation is spearheaded by its oddest and most successful investigator, Arthur Bryant, who has been experiencing lucid dreams, including one in which he converses with 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys. Meanwhile, the unit's perpetual foe, specialized police budget overseer Leslie Faraday, schemes to use Helen's murder as a pretext to privatize London's green spaces and eliminate the PCU once and for all. Fowler brilliantly mixes humor into a fair-play whodunit with an unexpected solution.
