Christopher Fowler Books In Order

Full Dark House

Edgy, suspenseful, and darkly comic, here is the first novel in a riveting new mystery series starring two cranky but brilliant old detectives whose lifelong friendship was forged solving crimes for the London Police Department’s Peculiar Crimes Unit. In Full Dark House, Christopher Fowler tells the story of both their first and last case and how along the way the unlikely pair of crime fighters changed the face of detection.

A present day bombing rips through London and claims the life of eighty year old detective Arthur Bryant. For his partner John May, it means the end of a partnership that lasted over half a century and an eerie echo back to the Blitz of World War II when they first met. Desperately searching for clues to the killer’s identity, May finds his old friend’s notes of their very first case and becomes convinced that the past has returned…
with a killing vengeance.

It begins when a dancer in a risque new production of Orpheus in Hell is found without her feet. Suddenly, the young detectives are plunged in a bizarre gothic mystery that will push them to their limits and beyond. For in a city shaken by war, a faceless killer is stalking London’s theaters, creating his own kind of sinister drama. And it will take Arthur Bryant’s unorthodox techniques and John May’s dogged police work to catch a criminal whose ability to escape detection seems almost supernatural a murderer who even decades later seems to have claimed the life of one of them…
and is ready to claim the other.

Filled with startling twists, unforgettable characters, and a mystery that will keep you guessing, Full Dark House is a witty, heartbreaking, and all too human thriller about the hunt for an inhuman killer.

From the Hardcover edition.

The Water Room

They are detection’s oddest couple: two cranky detectives whose professional partnership dates back half a century. Now Arthur Bryant and John May return in a case of multiple murder that twists through a subterranean course of the secrets, lies, and extreme passions that drive even ordinary men and women to the most shocking crimes .

They are living legends with a reputation for solving even the trickiest cases using unorthodox, unconventional, and often completely unauthorized methods. But the Peculiar Crimes Unit headed by Detectives John May and Arthur Bryant is one mistake away from being shut down for good. And when the elderly sister of Bryant s friend is found dead in the baseme*nt of her decrepit house in Kentish Town, they find themselves on the verge of making exactly that mistake.

According to the coroner, Ruth Singh s heart simply stopped beating. But why was a woman who rarely left the house fully dressed for an outing? And why was there river water in her throat? Convinced that the old lady didn t die a natural death, the detectives delve into a murky case with no apparent motive, no forensics, and no clues. And they ve barely launched their investigation when death claims another victim. Suddenly they discover some very unnatural behavior surrounding Ruth Singh s death by natural causes from shady real estate developers and racist threats to two troubled marriages, from a dodgy academician working London s notorious grey economy to a network of antiquities collectors obsessed with Egyptian mythology. And running beneath it all are the sweeping tentacles of London s vast and forgotten underground river system. As the rains pour down and the water rises, Bryant and May must rely on instinct, experience, and their own very peculiar methods to stem a tide of evil that threatens to drown them all.

Seventy-Seven Clocks

The odd couple of detection the brilliant but cranky detectives of London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit return in a tense, atmospheric new thriller that keeps you guessing until the final page. This time Bryant and May are up against a series of bizarre murders that defy human understanding and a killer no human hand may be able to stop.A mysterious stranger in outlandish Edwardian garb defaces a painting in the National Gallery. Then a guest at the exclusive Savoy Hotel is fatally bitten by what appears to be a marshland snake. An outbreak of increasingly bizarre crimes has hit London and, fittingly, come to the attention of the Peculiar Crimes Unit. Art vandalism, an exploding suspect, po*rnography, rat poison, Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, secret societies and not a single suspect in sight. The killer they re chasing has a dark history, a habit of staying hidden, and time itself on his side. Detectives John May and Arthur Bryant may have finally met their match, and this time they re really working against the clock .

Ten Second Staircase

It’s a crime tailor made for the Peculiar Crimes Unit: a controversial artist is murdered and displayed as part of her own outrageous installation. No suspects, no motive, no evidence it s business as usual for the Unit s cantankerous founding partners, Arthur Bryant and John May. But this time they have an eyewitness. According to twelve year old Luke Tripp, the killer was a cape clad highwayman atop a black stallion. As implausible as the boy s story sounds, Bryant and May take it seriously when The Highwayman is spotted again, striking a dramatic pose at the scene of his next outlandish murder. Whatever the killer s real identity, he seems intent on killing off a string of minor celebrities while becoming one himself. As the tabloids look to make a quick bundle on Highwayman Fever, Bryant and May, along with the newest member of the Unit, May s agoraphobic granddaughter, April, find themselves sorting out a case involving an unlikely combination of artistic rivalries, sleazy sex affairs, the Knights Templars, and street gang feuds. To do it, they re going to have to use every orthodox and unorthodox means at their disposal, including myth, witchcraft, and the psychogeographic history of the city s monsters, past and present. And if one unsolvable crime weren t enough, this case has disturbing links to a decades old killing spree that nearly destroyed the partnership of Bryant and May once before and may again. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is one murder away from being closed down for good and that murder could be their own. From the Hardcover edition.

White Corridor

From using crackpot psychics to cutting edge forensics, Arthur Bryant and John May are famous for their maddeningly unorthodox approach to solving crimes that the ordinary police cannot. Now Christopher Fowler, a new master of the classical detective story, brings back crime detection’s oddest and oldest couple to solve the ultimate locked room mystery.

It s an impossible crime a member of the Peculiar Crimes Unit killed inside a locked autopsy room populated only by the dead and to which only four PCU members had a key. And to make matters worse, the Unit has been shut down for a forced vacation and Bryant and May are stuck in a van miles away in the Dartmoor countryside during a freak snowstorm on their way to a convention of psychics.

Now, with Sergeant Janice Longbright in charge at headquarters, Bryant and May must crack the case by cell phone while trying to stop a second murder without freezing to death. For among the line of snowed in vehicles, a killer is on the prowl, a beautiful woman is on the run from a man who seeks either redemption or another victim, and an innocent child is caught in the middle.

Weaving together two electrifying cases, White Corridor is an unforgettable triumph by turns hilarious and harrowing as two of detective fiction s most marvelous characters confront one of human nature s darkest mysteries: the ability to deceive, deny, and destroy.

The Victoria Vanishes

It’s a case tailor made for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. A lonely hearts killer is targeting middle aged women at some of England s most well known pubs including one torn down eighty years ago. What s more, Arthur Bryant happened to see one of the victims only moments before her death at the pub that doesn t exist. Indeed, this case is littered with clues that defy everything the veteran detectives know about the habits of serial killers, the methodology of crime, and the odds of making an arrest. Now, with the public on the verge of panic and their superiors determined to shut the PCU down for good, Detectives Bryant and May must rise to the occasion in defense of two great English traditions the pub and the Peculiar Crimes Unit. That s easier said than done. A lost funeral urn, the eighteenth century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, the Knights Templars, the secret history of pubs, and the discovery of an astounding religious relic may be enough to convince one of the pair to take back his resignation letter. But with Bryant consulting a memory specialist and May encountering a brush with mortality, do the Peculiar Crimes Unit s two living legends have enough life left to stop a murderous conspiracy and a deadly cupid targeting one of their own.

Bryant & May on the Loose

The Peculiar Crimes Unit is no more. After years of defying the odds and infuriating their embarrassed superiors, detectives Arthur Bryant and John May have at last crossed the line. This is the twenty first century and not even their eccentric genius or phenomenal success rate solving London’s most unusual crimes can save them. While Bryant takes to his bed, his bathrobe, and his esoteric books, the rest of the team take to the streets looking for new careers leading one of them to stumble upon a gruesome murder.

It isn t so much the discovery of the headless corpse that s potentially so politically explosive as where it s found. Still it takes the bizarre sightings of a great horned creature half man, half stag carrying off young women to convince Bryant that this is a case worth getting dressed and leaving the house to solve. The Home Office has reluctantly authorized the PCU to reunite for one last encore performance in a rented office with no computer network, no legal authority, and a broken toilet. They ve got until the end of the week to solve a murder with unlikely links to gangland crime, Slavic mythology, the 2012 London Olympics, and the sort of corruption only obscene amounts of money and power can buy.

It s the kind of case that Bryant and May live to solve and it could be just the case that kills them.

Off the Rails

Christopher Fowler’s Peculiar Crimes Unit novels have been hailed for their originality, suspense, and unforgettable characters. Now Arthur Bryant, John May, and their team of proud eccentrics have been given only one week to hunt down a murderer they ve already caught once and who is now luring them down into the darkest shadows of the London Underground. The young man they seek is an enigma. His identity is false. His links to society are invisible. A search of his home yields no clues. The Peculiar Crimes Unit knows only this: Somehow Mr. Fox got out of a locked room and killed one of their best and brightest. Facing a shutdown, Bryant and May learn that their man, expertly disguised, has struck again in the world s oldest subway system. But as their search takes them into the vast labyrinth of tunnels that tie the city together, they discover a fresh mystery as bizarre as anything they have ever faced…
. As the city blithely goes about its way, as tales of ghost stations and Underground legends emerge, Bryant and May, men of opposite methods, are each getting closer to what lies hidden at the heart of London s celebrated Tube and to the madness that is driving their man to murder. Sophisticated, fast paced, and confounding until its final twist, Bryant & May Off the Rails is Christopher Fowler dead on track and at the height of his power to beguile, bewitch, and entertain.

England’s Finest

Audio CD, Whole Story Audio Books

Roofworld

Set on the rooftops of London, this horror story tells of an alternative society, known as the Roofworlders, who thrive above Picadilly, the Planetarium and the London Metal Exchange. Christopher Fowler has also written ‘City Jitters’.

Red Bride

After a whirlwind romance with Ixora, a woman with whom he fell in love at first sight, John Chapel begins to suspect that the woman he intends to marry is hiding a dark, evil side. K.

Psychoville

A judge brutally murdered. A star prosecutor indicted. A dangerous obsession that emerges…
From New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin comes a searing legal thriller that begins with two seemingly unrelated murders and ends in a chilling case of perverted justice. The first woman ever hired by legendary defense lawyer Matthew Reynolds, Tracy Cavanaugh cuts her teeth on a horrifying crime: the car bomb murder of Oregon Supreme Court Justice Robert Griffen. Reynolds’s client and the chief suspect is none other than the icy but celebrated prosecutor Abigail Griffen, the Justice’s estranged wife. Tracy’s research plunges her into a web of betrayal and revenge, of secret deals and hidden passions. At the heart of the case lies a twisted truth and when the verdict comes in, she will discover that nothing is as it seems…
after dark.

Soho Black

Various individuals in London’s creative square mile are connected unknowingly by a bizarre plague sweeping Soho. Their collision course comes closer when Richard, a film executive, gets a pain in his chest and dies although he won’t lie down and is literally falling apart.

Breathe

An original and horrific slice of urban terror from one of the masters of the genre. All is not well at SymaxCorp. The work is piled high, people are toiling overnight to meet deadlines, and the supervisors are keeping their beady eyes on everyone. But staff are complaining of feeling sick, and the last health and safety officer disappeared one evening never to be seen again. It’s down to new boy Ben, together with temp Miranda, kick boxing Meera and overweight June to try and get to the bottom of the problem. As colleagues are progressively transformed into mindless, blood crazed zombies, Ben and his friends discover that there really is something in the air.

Sharper Knives

14 illustrated, worst scenario anxiety tales, laced with black humour. Everyday humdrum situations escalate into cataclysmic horror, in stories with titles such as ‘The Vintage Tablemat Collection of the Living Dead’, ‘Norman Wisdom and the Angel of Death’, and ‘Dale and Wayne go Shopping’.

Personal Demons

Short stories by well known horror writer.

The Devil in Me

There’s a devil in me…
sometimes that spells danger. A teacher loses one of her pupils somewhere in the London Underground. A catwalk model reveals the grisly secret of looking good. Slacker friends are forced into action over an accidental murder. A bomb’s aftershock is felt fifty years later. Sex toys become instruments of fate. The suburbs are besieged, star scandals are revealed, epic tragedy turns to triumph and a cry for help flares briefly in the night…
Black comedy, high farce, dark revelations…
they all go to make up Christopher Fowler’s powerful collection of immoral tales.

Demonized

As our lives and deaths grow ever stranger, housewives, students and executives all find themselves in situations that become increasingly disturbing. Strange things don’t only happen when you are asleep. Fowler’s powerful narratives are subtly affecting and will make you think again about the way you look at the world around you.

Christopher Fowler runs The Creative Partnership, a film promotion company in London. He is the author of 10 novels, as well as numerous screenplays and the collections of short stories Personal Demons and The Devil in Me.

Old Devil Moon

‘ Christopher Fowler repeatedly challenges the reader to redraw the boundaries between innocence and malevolence, rationality and paranoia. His strength lies in the way he unveils the darker side of the ordinary.’ Guardian

A geologist trapped in a town without water is lured into a desperate escape plan. A boy plans a murder in an eerie funfair. A cop witnesses an inexplicable plague of madness. A teenager learns a deadly trick with his cell phone.

Christopher Fowler’s tenth collection of uniquely disturbing short stories contains the blackest humor and the darkest fears.

Christopher Fowler is the author of twelve novels, including the Bryant & May series. He lives in London.

Paperboy

Christopher Fowler’s memoir captures life in suburban London as it has rarely been seen: through the eyes of a lonely boy who spends his days between the library and the cinema, devouring novels, comics, cereal packets anything that might reveal a story. Caught between an ever sensible but exhausted mother and a DIY obsessed father fighting his own demons, Christopher takes refuge in words. His parents try to understand their son’s peculiar obsessions, but fast lose patience with him and each other. The war of nerves escalates to include every member of the Fowler family, and something has to give, but does it mean that a boy must always give up his dreams for the tough lessons of real life? Beautifully written, this rich and astute evocation of a time and a place recalls a childhood at once entertainingly eccentric and endearingly ordinary.

Best New Horror 4

A collection of short horror stories features the work of Peter Atkins, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman, Peter Straub, Karl Edward Wagner, and others.

Best New Horror #26

The first annual collection of the world’s best horror stories and short novels showcases fiction from every part of the field from terror to supernatural chills and features the talents of Ian Watson, Stephen Gallagher, Ramsey Campbell, and others.

Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Tales of Sherlock Holmes

THE MONSTERS ARE DUE ON BAKER STREET! Between the shadowy realms of fear and the unforgiving glare of science lies a battleground of unspeakable horror. In vile alleyways with blood slick cobblestones, impenetrable fog, and the wan glow of gaslight, lurk the inhuman denizens of nightmare. CAN REASON PREVAIL WHEN ELIMINATING THE IMPOSSIBLE IS NO LONGER AN OPTION? Faced with his worst fears, Sherlock Holmes has his faith in the science of observation and deduction shaken to the core in 13 all new tales of terror from today’s modern masters of the macabre! Contributors Include: Leslie S. Klinger ‘Foreword’ Charles V. Prepolec ‘Introduction’ Stephen Volk ‘Hounded’ Lawrence C. Connolly ‘The Death Lantern’ William Meikle ‘The Quality of Mercy’ James A. Moore ‘Emily’s Kiss’ William Patrick Maynard ‘The Tragic Case of the Child Prodigy Hayden Trenholm ‘The Last Windigo’ Neil Jackson ‘Celeste’ Robert Lauderdale ‘The Best Laid Plans’ Leigh Blackmore ‘Exalted are the Forces of Darkness’ Mark Morris ‘The Affair of the Heart’ Simon Kurt Unsworth ‘The Hand Delivered Letter’ Barbara Roden ‘Of the Origin of the Hound of the Baskervilles’ J. R. Campbell ‘Mr. Other s Children’

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One

An Air Force Loadmaster is menaced by strange sounds within his cargo; a man is asked to track down a childhood friend…
who died years earlier; doomed pioneers forge a path westward as a young mother discovers her true nature; an alcoholic strikes a dangerous bargain with a gregarious stranger; urban explorers delve into a ruined book depository, finding more than they anticipated; residents of a rural Wisconsin town defend against a legendary monster; a woman wracked by survivor’s guilt is haunted by the ghosts of a tragic crash; a detective strives to solve the mystery of a dismembered girl; an orphan returns to a wicked witch’s candy house; a group of smugglers find themselves buried to the necks in sand; an unanticipated guest brings doom to a high class party; a teacher attempts to lead his students to safety as the world comes to an end around them…
What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the twenty one stories and poems included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year. Legendary editor Ellen Datlow Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One.

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two

Legendary editor Ellen Datlow, winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year Volume 2.

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three

What frightens us? What unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw, tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the nineteen stories included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.

The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, #8

The latest annual of the world’s premier collection of horror, terror, and dark fantasy again showcases the talents of the finest writers working the field. Along with his annual review of the year in horror, award winning editor Stephen Jones has chosen the year’s best stories by old masters and new voices alike.

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Eleventh Annual Collection

Culled from the best of a wide variety of sources, this eleventh annual collection of fantasy fiction features contributions by Kim Newman, Joyce Carol Oates, Ellen Kushner, Jack Womack, Karen Joy Fowler, and others.

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection

For more than a decade, readers have turned to The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror to find the most rewarding fantastic short stories. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling continue their critically acclaimed and award winning tradition with another stunning collection of stories. The fiction and poetry here is culled from an exhaustive survey of the field, nearly four dozen stories ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol style. Rounding out the volume are the editors’ invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, a new Year’s Best section, on comics, by Charles Vess, and on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge, and a long list of Honorable Mentions, making this an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

The End of the Line

This collection of stories from some of horror fiction’s best authors will glue you to the page, but watch out; it may leave you too afraid to take the metro to work. In deep tunnels something stirs, borne on a warm breath of wind, reeking of diesel and blood. The spaces between stations hold secrets too terrible for the upper world to comprehend and the steel lines sing with the songs of the dead. Jonathan Oliver has collected together some of the very best in new horror writing in an themed anthology of stories set on, and around, the New York subway, the London underground, the Metro and other places deep below.