The PCU had landed a strange case, a drowned pregnant woman chained to a rock in the Thames with only one set of footprints leading to the shore. With Bryant still bonkers, May and the rest of the team try to solve this mystery, but kept running into dead ends. But when May is charged with murder of a woman connected to the case, and the PCU falling apart, Bryant is challenged to figure out what is going on inside his own head. In a parallel story, the readers learn the story of Ali and Cassie which aid and mislead the reader simultaneously. After multiple missteps, Bryant, May and the other members of the PCU solve the mystery and end up apprehending the murder. A very nicely done tale. We will just have to see how Fowler tops this in the nest book!

“London is the most observed city in the world, and the only place where a killer may ply his grisly trade unseen is on the river and its shore. . . . Three bodies pulled out of the river in three days. It’s not exactly our finest hour, is it?”

In the midst of a detective’s anxiety over the loss of his faculties and his partner’s concern for his old friend, John May will soon admit the truth about his failing partner: that “in the midst of winter, there is within him an invincible summer.” Though Arthur Bryant may be walking in the Valley of Death, he’s doing it armed with “a pint of beer, a pork pie, and a Batman comic,” for the most senior of the senior detectives has the ghosts of the Thames on his side.

There’s a great deal of historic lore, superstition, and information about the river, making this latest entry in the Bryant and May, Peculiar Crimes Unit series perhaps the best so far. The two men are fighting two foes: an intangible one more formidable than the Grim Reaper, and a human with no consideration for life.

A Strange Tide is full of those Bryant-May moments their fans have come to love and expect: witticisms, ironies, and fanciful turns of phrase paired with informative digressions inevitably leading to cogent conclusions. The two may be getting up in years, but they always prove they get better with age. Here’s hoping award-winning author Christopher Fowler will continue writing of their adventures for some time to come.


This excerpt is taken from the full-length review written for the NY Journal of Books Online.

Another outstanding entry in Christopher Fowler's Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries. These books are intelligent, engaging and quirky, which makes them difficult to describe.

London's PCU is a bastard offspring of the more official police groups, and this group of highly effective outcasts is constantly in danger of having their unit dissolved, mostly for its refusal to do anything according to standard procedure, rules or regulations.

The two main characters, Arthur Bryant and John May, couldn't be more different. May is more conventional in appearance, always nicely dressed and with an eye for the ladies. Bryant is a walking train wreck, dresses like a dumpster dweller, and is usually trailing various bits of food, books, and chemical experiments. But Bryant's slovenliness doesn't carry over into his thought processes. He is brilliant in a totally singular way. His mind is packed full of odd bits of history from every academic discipline you can imagine.

In this case, Bryant has been barred from work due to a mysterious illness which apparently has him going into a dementia-caused decline. The PCU is investigating a strange death of a young women found chained up and left to drown in the rising tide of the Thames. Several other murders follow, all connected to the mysteries of the river in some way.

As is usual in this series, there is a bit of other worldliness which doesn't get explained until the very end. Apparent red herrings turn out to be connected to the eventual outcome. I can't recommend these books highly enough. It is rare to find a truly unique series which is such fun and so intelligent. One caveat -- if you are new to the series, I believe you will enjoy and understand the novel more if you begin with an earlier book.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing an ARC of this novel via the publishers. I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

I've read most of the books in this series but this one was extra strange and bizarre. I love their quirkiness and, in particular, I love their quirkiness and, in particular, Bryant's disordered mind and convoluted thinking. Then you have the story of Ali that running in the background all around great read

Christopher Fowler continues his Peculiar Crimes Unit police procedurals with Bryant and May as they work to solve a string of mysterious deaths along the River Thames in London. Arthur Bryant is on medical leave due to a curious condition that disturbs his grasp of reality; May becomes a suspect in one of the deaths. The Peculiar Crimes Unit looses its senior officers and their unhinged unconventional way of solving cases while the Unit is under threat of closing down again !! Of course Bryant and May career through the case even when they are supposed to be off duty. Thoroughly delightfully batty and intriguing.

First Sentence: Nothing gave Arthur Bryant greater satisfaction than making his first blotch on a fresh white page.

The body of a woman chained to a stone and left to drown by the Thames isn’t that unusual a crime. But finding only one set of footprints which lead one direction does make it more unusual. As more bodies are found, and Arthur Bryant’s mind becomes less stable leaving the team floundering, could this be the end of the Peculiar Crimes Unit?

It is not every contemporary mystery that opens with Celtic Queen Boddica sitting on a wall eating a candy bar. But then, this is Christopher Fowler who has taught readers to expect the unexpected. His use of a staff memo to the PUC is a wonderful way to introduce readers to both the characters and their functions.

Switching gears to two men trying to escape Libya for England, is a perfect example of Fowler’s ability to change from humor to the horror often experienced by refugees. It is both terrible and compelling—“Many of the passengers had already been made frail by hunger and thirst, and the sea began to swallow them. They slipped silently beneath the surface like players forfeiting a game.” We are also given a lesson in how quickly and easily identity theft can take place.

The history lessons one receives are fascinating and add to the story’s strong sense of place. There are excellent observations on the wastefulness of Westerners where time and money are concerned. But it’s the detailed information of London and the Thames that add to the delightful experience of the reader.

Fowler’s voice is such a delight to read—“Longbright and May seated themselves in the cavernous living room opposite Cooper, keeping a distant cordiality, a double act they had finessed over the years until it reached the level of a top-notch production of Waiting for Godot.” He also really knows how to construct a plot. One can never predict where he is going to take one next.

Counting this, over the past three books, Bryant’s physical and mental health have been a major plot point—“Bryant released himself back into the vibrancy of the city with relief, for he had come to understand that in the midst of winter there was within him an invincible summer.” The realization of its cause is brilliant and a bit embarrassing once one realizes the clues have been there all along.

The book is not all cerebral, however. It is filled with excellent plot twists, a very exciting chase scene, and lots of suspects of various crimes.

“Bryant & May: Strange Tide” doesn’t disappoint. It has an excellent building of danger and suspense, a wonderful ending, and some of the best characters written today.

BRYANT & MAY: STRANGE TIDE (Pol Proc-Bryant/May-London-Contemp) – Ex
Fowler, Christopher – 13th in series
Bantum – Dec 2016