October 3, 2016
Can the eccentric London Peculiar Crimes Unit carry on without one of its stalwarts, Arthur Bryant, who seems to be suffering from dementia? That’s the opening challenge for Bryant’s long-suffering partner, John May, and the rest of the PCU, in Fowler’s twisty 13th series whodunit (after 2015’s Bryant & May and the Burning Man). While Bryant is on medical leave, his colleagues investigate the case of a 24-year-old woman who was found drowned in the Thames, chained to a post by a killer who apparently left no footprints. Bryant, who believes the cure for his ailment can be found in a treatise titled Diseases and Treatments of Congolese Tribal Elders 1870–1914, sneaks his way back into the saddle to help out. Sections depicting the shady career of Libyan refugee Ali Bensaud, who, after making his perilous way to England, begins running a series of confidence schemes, tantalize the reader. Fowler once again perfectly balances farce and deduction. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.
December 15, 2016
London's River Thames is a main character in the latest mystery tackled by Detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the city's Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU), a bumbling outfit described by one officer as like working in a condemned funfair. The mystery at first seems straightforward enough: a drowned young woman has been found chained to the shore of the river, and the detectives must find out whodunit. However, like Bryant's marvelously erudite and wandering mind, nothing is simple, and the case soon involves further victims, self-help hoaxes, and hallucinatory trips back in time. Fans of Fowler's detectives won't be disappointed (they should note that this novel is set up as a stand-alone and so covers ground, including Bryant's mental affliction, addressed in earlier titles). Newcomers who enjoy police procedurals with cozy elements, and the TV show Midsomer Murders, will find a new writer to follow. All will be fascinated by the Thames-related mythology and superstition related by Fowler, who has clearly done his homework.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2016
Fowler gets to show why he won the 2015 Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library Award, given for a lifetime's worth of work, with his next title in the series starring octogenarian detectives Arthur Bryant and John May. As usual, they get the offbeat cases, with this one involving a woman found drowned in the chilly Thames after having been tied to a pillar at low tide. Puzzlingly, only one set of footsteps, clearly hers, trail down the beach to the body.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.