The Water Room
  • Published: 1 November 2005
  • ISBN: 9780553815535
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

The Water Room

(Bryant & May Book 2)

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Jul 2010
Paperback
1 Nov 2005
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The matchless if cantankerous detective duo of Inspectors Bryant and May investigate murky and murderous goings on beneath London's streets.

Originally built to house the workers of Victorian London, Balaklava Street is now an oasis in the heart of Kentish Town and ripe for gentrification. But then the body of an elderly woman is found at Number 5. Her death would appear to have been peaceful but for the fact that her throat is full of river water. It falls to the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit, led by London's longest-serving detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, to search for something resembling a logical solution.
Their initial investigations draw a blank and Bryant's attention is diverted into strange and arcane new territory, while May finds himself in hot water when he attempts to save the reputation of an academic whose knowledge of the city's forgotten underground rivers looks set to ruin his career. In the meantime, the new owner of Number 5 is increasingly unsettled by the damp in the basement of her home, the particularly resilient spiders and the ghostly sound of rushing water . . .
Pooling their information to investigate hitherto undiscovered secrets of the city, Bryant and May make some sinister connections and realize that, in a London filled with the rich, the poor and the dispossessed, there's still something a desperate individual is willing to kill for - and kill again to protect. With the PCU facing an uncertain future, the death toll mounts and two of British fiction's most enigmatic detectives must face madness, greed and revenge, armed only with their wits, their own idiosyncratic practices and a plentiful supply of boiled sweets, in a wickedly sinuous mystery that goes to the heart of every London home.
  • Published: 1 November 2005
  • ISBN: 9780553815535
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

About the author

Christopher Fowler

Christopher Fowler is the author of more than forty novels (sixteen of which feature the detectives Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit) and many short story collections. A multiple award-winner, including the coveted CWA ‘Dagger in the Library’, Chris has also written screenplays, video games, graphic novels, audio plays and two acclaimed memoirs, Paperboy and Film Freak. His most recent non-fiction book is The Book of Forgotten Authors. Chris divides his time between London's King’s Cross and Barcelona. You can find out more by visiting his website and following him on Twitter.

Also by Christopher Fowler

The Foot on the Crown
Word Monkey
Bryant & May’s Peculiar London
Bryant & May - London Bridge is Falling Down
Bryant & May - Oranges and Lemons
Bryant & May – England’s Finest
Bryant & May - The Lonely Hour
See all

Praise for The Water Room

'Atmospheric, hugely beguiling and as filled with tricks and sleights of hand as a magician's sleeve...this is English gothic at its eccentric best; a combination of Ealing comedy and grand opera: witty, charismatic, occasionally touching and with a genuine power to thrill'

JOANNE HARRIS

'An evocatively reverential tribute to the genre...the clash of temperaments between Bryant and May makes them great detectives'

TIME OUT

'The striking gothic setting of London under fire proves fruitful ground for a bizarre dark comedy of an investigation...bawdy, unpredictable and at times hilarious, with a cast of wonderful grotesques'

Maxim Jakubowski, GUARDIAN

'A writer of extraordinary imagination'

Sunday Express

'Very cleverly plotted...simultaneously scary and alluring'

Daily Telegraph Books of the Year

'Wartime London is conjured up with unique skill...Fowler's powers of description are enviable'

Independent on Sunday

'An evocatively reverential tribute to the genre...the clash of temperaments between Bryant and May makes them great detectives'

Time Out

'Very fine writing, a lot of atmosphere, and a great deal of irresistible London arcana'

Morning Star

'The second in his new series of long-awaited Bryant and May mysteries. From the time I first encountered these two characters in a short story in City Jitters, I've wanted Fowler to do precisely what he's doing now. That would be long, complex and very funny detective novels about the exploits of London's PCU - the Peculiar Crimes Unit'

The Agony Column

'Bryant and May are engaging characters and I look forward to their next outing'

Sherlock
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