Bryant & May – Strange Tide

(Bryant & May Book 13)

 Christopher Fowler

Random House UK, Transworld Publishers

Doubleday

ISBN: 9780857523426

Description:

The river Thames is London’s most important yet neglected artery. When a young woman is found chained to a post in the tide, no-one can understand how she came to be drowned there. At the Peculiar Crimes Unit, Arthur Bryant and John May find themselves dealing with an impossible crime committed in a very public place.

Soon they discover that the river is giving up other victims, but as the investigation extends from the coast of Libya to the nightclubs of North London, it proves as murkily sinister as the Thames itself. That’s only part of the problem; Bryant’s rapidly deteriorating condition prevents him from handling the case, and he is confined to home. To make matters worse, May makes a fatal error of judgement that knocks him out of action and places everyone at risk.

With the PCU staff baffled as much by their own detectives as the case, the only people who can help now are the battery of eccentrics Bryant keeps listed in his diary, but will their arcane knowledge save the day or make matters even worse? Soon there’s a clear suspect in everyone’s sights – the only thing that’s missing is any scrap of evidence.

As the detectives’ disastrous investigation comes unstuck, the whole team gets involved in some serious messing about on the river. In an adventure that’s as twisting as the river upon which its set, will there be anything left of the Peculiar Crimes Unit when it’s over?

My View:

Wacky and bizarre, this episode is full of eccentricities and over the top behaviours by our beloved Arthur Bryant and for a short while Bryant is convinced that he is developing a type of dementia or the like ) read the clues scattered like crumbs and you will draw your own conclusion.

This is another enjoyable episode in the life of The Peculiar Crimes Unit – I love the trip down memory lane and the weaving of past and present stories to create this new mystery.  Fun, whacky, the images of false teeth, funky smelling sandwiches in coat pockets, etc. slightly gross, there is an almost slapstick comedic manner about the writing … mixed with a serious mystery, an entertaining read.

** I have an image in my head of an actor who I think would play this part well…wish I could remember his name…it will come to me.