Download or read book The Victoria Vanishes written by Christopher Fowler and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2008-10-28 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Victoria Vanishes written by Christopher Fowler and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Victoria Vanishes written by Christopher Fowler and published by CCV Digital. This book was released on 2010-06-30 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Victoria Vanishes written by Christopher Fowler and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-06-30 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One night, Arthur Bryant witnesses a drunk middle-aged lady coming out of a pub in a London backstreet. The next morning, she is found dead at the exact spot where their paths crossed. Even more disturbing, the pub has vanished. Bryant is convinced that he saw them as they were over a century before, but the elderly detective has already lost the funeral urn of an old friend. Could he be losing his mind as well? Then it becomes clear that a number of women have met their ends in London pubs. It seems a silent, secret killer is at work, striking in full view...and yet nobody has a clue how, or why - or where he'll attack next. The likeliest suspect seems to be a mental patient with a reason for killing. But knowing who the killer is and catching him are two very different propositions. As their new team at the Peculiar Crimes Unit goes in search of a madman, the octogenarian detectives ready themselves for the pub crawl of a lifetime, and come face to face with their own mortality...

Download or read book White Corridor written by Christopher Fowler and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2008-09-30 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s the classic locked-room mystery—a member of the Peculiar Crimes Unit killed inside a sealed morgue populated only by the dead and to which only four PCU members had a key. To make matters worse, the Unit has been shut down for a forced “vacation,” and Bryant and May are stuck in a van in the Dartmoor countryside during a freak snowstorm. Now they’ll have to crack the case by cell phone while trying to stop a second murder without freezing to death. For among the line of trapped vehicles, a killer is on the prowl, a beautiful woman is on the run, and an innocent child is caught in the middle….

Download or read book Victoria Sees It written by Carrie Jenkins and published by Strange Light. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A queer psychological thriller from a beguiling, fresh new voice. Victoria is unraveling. Her best friend is missing, and she's the only one who seems to care: there are clues all over Cambridge, but Deb is nowhere to be found--and the harder Victoria looks, the less she sees. Victoria is raised in a crumbling house in England by her working-class aunt and uncle, until her academic brilliance gains her entrance to Cambridge. There, she meets her first true friend, Deb, a spacey aristocrat, and the girls create their own tiny bubble within Cambridge's strict class system. Until Deb disappears. In her search for her friend, Victoria finds an unlikely ally--a police officer named Julie. They travel the countryside, visiting sites of suicides, murders, and accidents. But eventually, Julie's emotional demands overwhelm Victoria, and she retreats into a lonely life of academia, always teetering on the edge of emotional collapse. Wandering through a miasma of sexism, isolation, physical and mental health issues, Victoria's story is haunted by the spectre of her mother, whose own assault and subsequent pregnancy represent a break in her contract with the world.

Download or read book The Wheel Spins written by Ethel Lina White and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2024-10-29 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1936 and adapted for the screen as The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock in 1938, Ethel Lina White's suspenseful mystery remains her best-known novel, worthy of acknowledgement as a classic of the genre in its own right. Then the rhythm of the train changed, and she seemed to be sliding backwards down a long slope. Click-click-click-click. The wheels rattled over the rails, with a sound of castanets. Iris Carr's holiday in the mountains of a remote corner of Europe has come to an end, and since her friends left two days before, she faces the journey home alone. Stricken by sunstroke at the station, Iris catches the express train to Trieste by the skin of her teeth and finds a companion in Miss Froy, an affable English governess. But when Iris passes out and reawakens, Miss Froy is nowhere to be found. The other passengers deny any knowledge of her existence and as the train speeds across Europe, Iris spirals deeper and deeper into a strange and dangerous conspiracy.

Download or read book Seventy Seven Clocks written by Christopher Fowler and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-06-29 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The newspapers referred to it as the case of the seventy-seven clocks. There was quite a fuss at the time. We got into terrible trouble. Dear fellow, it was one of our most truly peculiar cases. I remember as if it was yesterday.' In fact, Arthur Bryant remembers very little about yesterday, but he does remember the oddest investigation of his career... It was late in 1973. As strikes and blackouts ravaged the country during Edward Heath's 'Winter of Discontent', sundry members of a wealthy, aristocratic family were being disposed of in a variety of grotesque ways - by reptile, by bomb, by haircut. As the hours of daylight diminish towards Christmas, Bryant & May, the irascible detectives of London's controversial Peculiar Crimes Unit, know that time is the key - and time is running out for both the family and the police. Their investigations lead them into a hidden world of class conflict, craftsmanship and the secret loyalties of big business. But what have seventy seven ticking clocks to do with it? Now the full story can at last be revealed, in this most eerie of adventures that features Arthur Bryant at his rudest, John May at his most exasperated and a gallery of colourful, bizarre characters who could only make their home in a city like London...

Download or read book Bryant May and the Bleeding Heart written by Christopher Fowler and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST MYSTERIES OF THE YEAR BY THE SEATTLE TIMES • London’s wiliest detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, are on the case in this fiendishly clever mystery. And when a cemetery becomes the scene of a crime, neither secrets—nor bodies—stay buried. Romain Curtis sneaks into St. George’s Gardens one evening with his date, planning to show her the stars. A centuries-old burial ground, the small, quiet park is the perfect place to be alone. Yet the night takes a chilling turn when the two teenagers spy a strange figure rising from among the tombstones: a corpse emerging from the grave. Suffice it to say that wherever there’s a dead man walking, Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit are never far behind. As the PCU investigates the sighting, a second urgent matter requires their unusual brand of problem-solving. Seven ravens have gone missing from their historic home in the Tower of London, and legend has it that when the ravens disappear, England will fall. Bryant has been tasked with recovering the lost birds, but when Romain is suddenly found dead, the two seemingly separate mysteries start to intertwine and point to a plot more sinister than anyone could ever imagine. Soon Bryant and May find themselves immersed in London’s darkest lore, from Victorian-era body snatchers, to arcane black magic, to the grisly myth behind Bleeding Heart Yard, a courtyard long associated with murder. And as the body count spikes and more coffins are unearthed, they will have to dig deep to catch a killer and finally lay these cases to rest. Darkly funny and fast-paced, Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart is a brilliantly twisting puzzle, conjured from the inventive mind of Christopher Fowler. Praise for Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart “Let’s talk about guilty pleasures. . . . A historic burial ground like St. George’s Garden, scene of the unfortunate incident of resurrection, is right up [Arthur Bryant’s] dark alley. And mine.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review “Delectably droll . . . criminally underappreciated . . . guaranteed to amuse . . . [Bryant & May are] endearing throwbacks to a time when this genre was brainy and pure. They are the last of a breed and they know it. . . . Their very credibility puts quaint old Bryant & May in a class of their own.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Fans of the series will enjoy the continuing travails of these two long-suffering octogenerian friends and their fellow officers. Newcomers will appreciate the twists and turns of the case as well as the many details from the odd corners of one of the world’s great cities.”—Library Journal “Endearingly eccentric . . . intriguing.”—Publishers Weekly “Hilarious . . . a charming and intriguing mystery mixed with marvelous characters. [Christopher] Fowler’s snarky writing elevates what could be dull or routine and makes it a true joy to read.”—RT Book Reviews “Make Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart the next book you read. . . . These stories are witty, challenging, engrossing, informative and incredibly well written. . . . Picture a television series that is a rough mash-up of Law & Order, The X-Files and Monty Python’s Flying Circus. . . . I sensed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ed McBain and Agatha Christie nodding in approval. . . . [Fowler’s] latest book contains some of his best writing.”—Bookreporter

Download or read book Vanished written by James Ponti and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Washington, D.C., 12-year-old Florian Bates, a consulting detective for the FBI, and his best friend Margaret must uncover the truth behind a series of private middle-school pranks that may or may not involve the daughter of the President of the United States.

Download or read book Disturbia written by Christopher Fowler and published by Hydra. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A race against time turns into a rollicking scavenger hunt through London lore in this classic thriller from the award-winning author of the Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries starring Bryant & May. When the city hits midnight, everyone becomes equal, and anything can happen. It’s 2 a.m. and Vincent Reynolds is running for his life through the storm-swept streets of London. The working-class reporter has discovered an explosive secret, and he’s determined to tell the world—as long as he stays alive until sunrise. His adversary: an English gentleman obsessed with puzzles, playing his deadliest game. His allies: a motley crew of insomniacs, misfits, and street people. His only hope: to solve a series of ten lethal challenges that will lead him from dusk to daybreak, through the night life of a secret city hidden even to its own inhabitants. Look for Christopher Fowler’s fantasy and horror classics, now available as ebooks: CALABASH | DISTURBIA | PSYCHOVILLE | RED GLOVES | ROOFWORLD | SPANKY

Download or read book Bryant May London Bridge Is Falling Down written by Christopher Fowler and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Unbeatable fun . . . [Christopher Fowler] takes delight in stuffing his books with esoteric facts.” —The Guardian The brilliant duo of Arthur Bryant and John May uncovers a nefarious plot behind the seemingly innocuous death of an old lady—and when the case leads them to London Bridge, it all comes down on the Peculiar Crimes Unit. When ninety-one-year-old Amelia Hoffman dies in her top-floor flat on a busy London road, it’s considered an example of what has gone wrong with modern society: she slipped through the cracks in a failing system. But detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit have their doubts. Mrs. Hoffman was once a government security expert, though no one can quite remember her. When a link emerges between the old lady and a diplomat trying to flee the country, it seems that an impossible murder has been committed. Mrs. Hoffman wasn’t the only one at risk. Bryant is convinced that other forgotten women with hidden talents are also in danger. And, curiously, they all own models of London Bridge. With the help of some of their more certifiable informants, the detectives follow the strangest of clues in an investigation that will lead them through forgotten alleyways to the city’s fabled bridge in search of a desperate killer. But just when the case appears to be solved, they discover that Mrs. Hoffman was smarter than anyone imagined. There’s a bigger game afoot that could have terrible consequences.

Download or read book The Vanishing Trick written by Jenni Spangler and published by Simon & Schuster Children's UK. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A thrilling, original, evocative and eerie tale - I adored it!’ Michelle Harrison, author of A Pinch of Magic 'A thrilling page-turner. Madame Pinchbeck is a gloriously Dickensian villain’ Abi Elphinstone, author of Sky Song 'Ghosts, gadgets, likeable villains and unlikely heroes: The Vanishing Trick is a dark and dazzling adventure’ Emma Carroll, author of Letters from the Lighthouse 'A completely enthralling tale, oozing with atmosphere and originality’ Catherine Doyle, author of The Storm Keeper's Island 'Jenni Spangler is the next big voice in children’s magical history novels’ Lucy Powrie, author of The Paper & Hearts Society 'Deliciously dark and atmospheric … I couldn’t get enough' Nizrana Farook, author of The Girl Who Stole An Elephant 'A spectacular heart-stopping adventure in a dark and dangerous Victorian world' Tamsin Winter, author of Jemima Small Versus the Universe 'An eventful gothic adventure full of secrets and surprises' Sunday Times Book of The Week? Step into a world of secrets, folklore and illusions, where nothing is as it seems and magic is at play… Madame Augustina Pinchbeck, travels the country conjuring the spirits of dearly departed loved ones... for a price. Whilst her ability to contact ghosts is a game of smoke and mirrors, there is real magic behind her tricks too - if you know where to look. Through a magical trade, she persuades children to part with precious objects, promising to use her powers to help them. But Pinchbeck is a deceiver, instead turning their items into enchanted Cabinets that bind the children to her and into which she can vanish and summon them at will. When Pinchbeck captures orphan Leander, events are set into motion that see him and his new friends Charlotte and Felix, in a race against time to break Pinchbeck’s spell, before one of them vanishes forever… #TheVanishingTrick A historical adventure with a magical twist from an outstanding debut talent. Perfect for fans of Michelle Harrison, Sophie Anderson and Emma Carroll.

Download or read book Past Due for Murder written by Victoria Gilbert and published by Crooked Lane Books. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of Miranda James and Jenn McKinlay, the third conspiratorially delightful third entry in Victoria Gilbert’s critically acclaimed Blue Ridge Library mysteries. Has a curse fallen on the small town of Taylorsford, Virginia? After a young woman goes missing during a spring bonfire, library director Amy Webber must wade through the web of lies only to find a truth that she may not want to untangle. Spring has sprung in quaint Taylorsford, Virginia, and the mayor has revived the town’s long-defunct May Day celebration to boost tourism. As part of the festivities, library director Amy Webber is helping to organize a research project and presentation by a local folklore expert. All seems well at first—but spring takes on a sudden chill when a university student inexplicably vanishes during a bonfire. The local police cast a wide net to find the missing woman, but in a shocking turn of events, Amy’s swoon-worthy neighbor Richard Muir becomes a person of interest in the case. Not only is Richard the woman’s dance instructor, he also doesn’t have an alibi for the night the student vanished—or at least not one he’ll divulge, even to Amy. When the missing student is finally discovered lost in the mountains, with no memory of recent events—and a dead body lying nearby—an already disturbing mystery takes on a sinister new hue. Blessed with her innate curiosity and a librarian’s gift for research, Amy may be the only one who can learn the truth in Past Due for Murder, Victoria Gilbert’s third charming Blue Ridge Library mystery.

Download or read book The Elephant Vanishes written by Haruki Murakami and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-08-11 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tales that make up The Elephant Vanishes, the imaginative genius that has made Haruki Murakami an international superstar is on full display. In these stories, a man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald’s in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard. By turns haunting and hilarious, in The Elephant Vanishes Murakami crosses the border between separate realities—and comes back bearing remarkable treasures. Includes the story "Barn Burning," which is the basis for the major motion picture Burning.

Download or read book Bryant May on the Loose written by Christopher Fowler and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2009-11-24 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May off the Rails. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is no more—disbanded, finished, kaput. After years of defying the odds and infuriating their superiors, detectives Arthur Bryant and John May have finally crossed the line. While Bryant takes to his bed, his bathrobe, and his esoteric books, the rest of the team takes to the streets looking for new careers—until one of them stumbles upon a gruesome murder. Now the Unit is back for an 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 mystery with links to gangland crime, the 2012 London Olympics, and a half-man, half-stag creature that’s carrying off young women. It’s the kind of case that Bryant and May live to solve . . . and it could be the one that finally kills them.

Download or read book Bryant May Oranges and Lemons written by Christopher Fowler and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The most consistently brilliant, entertaining and educational voice in contemporary British crime fiction, the utterly fabulous Christopher Fowler.' Cathi Unsworth, CRIMESQUAD It's a Sunday morning, and the outspoken Speaker of the House of Commons has just been crushed under a mountain of citrus fruit . . . Bizarre accident or something more sinister? The government needs to know because here's a man who knows a thing or two that could compromise its future. Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit should be on the case, however it seems the PCU is no more with one detective is in hospital, the other gone AWOL with the rest of the team having been dismissed. But events escalate, and soon a series of brutal yet undeniably clever killings linked to an old English nursery rhyme threaten society's very foundations and out-of-the-blue the PCU is (temporarily) back in business. And if the two detectives - 'old men in a woke world' - can set aside their differences and discover why some of London's most influential figures are being threatened, they might not only save the unit but also prevent the city from descending into chaos . . .