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The Water Room (Bryant & May #2)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 1,088 ratings · 160 reviews

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 reputati...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published June 28th 2005 by Bantam (first published 2004)

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Feb 03, 2009 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm working my way through these Peculiar Crime Unit mysteries, and enjoying them immensely.

The star character is Detective Arthur Bryant, an elderly eccentric who is unfailingly rude to everybody and regularly consults psychics, witches, and other unconventional types.

Detective John May, Bryant's partner, is less unhinged, but still willing to go the extra weird mile.

The rest of the PCU are a group of misfits, including a guy with a spatial perception problem, meaning he trips over everything.

T...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

And so, with great expectations, I return to the world of Arthur Bryant and John May, the aging detectives from London Metropolitan Police’s Peculiar Crimes Unit.

With the events of Full Dark House , I found the series a very pleasant surprise. The Water Room develops them further. Whereas the first book introduced them in their most recent reincarnation (they did appear in some of Christopher’s other writing previously) and Full Dark House was mainly about their first case back in 1940’s Londo...more And so, with great expectations, I return to the world of Arthur Bryant and John May, the aging detectives from London Metropolitan Police’s Peculiar Crimes Unit.

With the events of Full Dark House , I found the series a very pleasant surprise. The Water Room develops them further. Whereas the first book introduced them in their most recent reincarnation (they did appear in some of Christopher’s other writing previously) and Full Dark House was mainly about their first case back in 1940’s London, this one is resolutely ‘now’, with the book’s beginning at the time of the reopening of the redecorated Peculiar Crimes Unit’s base after the explosion in Full Dark House.

It’s not long before we’re into ‘the weird stuff’. Bryant is contacted by an old colleague whose elderly sister has been found dead in her house and in possibly mysterious circumstances. The body was in the cellar, sitting, as if at rest, but with water around her feet and Thames river water in her mouth. The house is nowhere near the river. Bryant is intrigued and involves the PCU. However, when her various and varied neighbours are interviewed, it seems initially innocuous, a case of relatively simple sudden-death.

The decrepit old house on Balaklava Street is quickly sold, and bought by pretty young model Kallie Owen as ‘a doer-upper’, but it’s not long before there becomes palpable a definite sense of unease. Strange events and further deaths suggest that there is something else happening beyond the initial death: in fact, there is the possibility of murder.....

The plot itself is intriguingly bizarre, yet Christopher points out in his Acknowledgements that the ‘most bizarre facts are in this book are the truest’, which, considering what happens, is quite mind-blowing.
There are some dazzlingly literate moments here. Bryant’s monologue describing London in the first chapter (and throughout) reflects both Bryant’s and Christopher’s obvious love of London – for all its history, its character, its highs and its lows, it is clear that both would rather be nowhere else. The methodical and rather aloof Bryant is determined to work until ‘he drops’ (an event which, as he enters his eighth decade, can’t be that far away) which seems to mirror both his love with London and his obsession with solving puzzles.

That’s not to say that this view of London is romanticised – there are some dark and creepy places that even the worldly wise would feel intimidated by – but the feeling of London as a living, changing, evolving place with a rich and bizarre history makes London a third major character. Christopher uses London’s rich and peculiar past, its historical heritage and its characters to provide a background to the crimes herein that makes the reader feel present, part of this amazing pageantry of things past and present.

The characterisation covers the range of social class and ethnicity that would be expected in a British inner city street, and Christopher uses each of them with the skill of a master, never saying more than necessary, yet intermingling commentary on society and culture with sly perceptive analysis. In particular, the reader finds out more about Arthur Bryant and John May. Bryant is the bad-tempered, socially-incompetent workaholic who buries himself in his work, whilst we also find more about the difficult past relationship of May with his family and colleagues. This is Bryant’s tale on the whole, though the supporting characters do fill out the repertoire nicely.

Like Full Dark House , though there are no blatantly obvious supernatural elements to the plot, it is still an engagingly creepy tale. The mood throughout is such that there could be an unusual cause, that the murders herein are just too odd to be natural. The ending is, after such a great set-up, brings together what seem initially to be disparate events. Great plotting.

I enjoyed this one as much, if not more than, the first. Here I started to get a real grasp of our two unlikely heroes, and want to know more. A great read.
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May 19, 2012 Adam Stone rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Water Room is the second Bryant and May mystery. It begins with the Unit being refurbished after the events in Full Dark House. It begins with an old friend of Bryant's who has found his elderly sister dead in the house where she lived alone. After the body is examined it is revealed that her mouth was full of river water, and that she drowned, but that the room was bone dry. This is soon followed by another death on the street in equally bizarre circumstances.

I really enjoyed this book and...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Christopher Fowlers excellent Bryant & May series continues with “The Water Room”. I first discovered this series after winning one in a contest and fell in love with these two octogenarian gentlemen immediately. Arthur Bryant and John May are London’s two longest serving detectives and lead the Met’s Peculiar Crimes Unit. Delightfully eccentric and filled with quirks and idiosyncrasies, they lead us on an intriguing path filled with wit, charm and originality. Fowlers novels manage to pleas...more

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Sep 01, 2009 Spuddie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

#2 Bryant and May mystery, featuring our two elderly policemen and the entire PCU (Peculiar Crimes Unit) in London. The unit is finally ready to move into their refurbished quarters after the fire that destroyed nearly everything at the end of the first book in the series. Bryant and May, both fearing that their boss is going dissolve their unit at the drop of a hat, are determined to keep themselves and their subordinates busy. They begin to investigate cases brought to them by friends or acqua...more #2 Bryant and May mystery, featuring our two elderly policemen and the entire PCU (Peculiar Crimes Unit) in London. The unit is finally ready to move into their refurbished quarters after the fire that destroyed nearly everything at the end of the first book in the series. Bryant and May, both fearing that their boss is going dissolve their unit at the drop of a hat, are determined to keep themselves and their subordinates busy. They begin to investigate cases brought to them by friends or acquaintances, and find that their cases begin to intersect with the hidden rivers of London as their common ground.

Ruth Singh, an elderly woman of Indian descent, is found dead by her brother--sitting in a chair in her basement looking as though she's ready to go out to do the weekly shopping. She's totally dry, but autopsy reveals that she has Thames water--in her mouth and esophagus, but she didn't drown--she asphyxiated from laryngospasm. But how did the water get there?? Bryant is certain foul play is involved and sets out obsessively to prove it. May undertakes a favor for an old lover who has become concerned that her museum curator husband has started doing something illegal that will get them into trouble with the law--he's meeting a known dodgy character in areas that deal with old riverbeds under London's streets, and for the life of them, Bryant & May cannot think of what his interest might be or what they are up to.

I enjoyed this book even more than I did the first one--it's not often you have detectives worrying about seeds under their dentures or chest pains when going up several flights of stairs. Both eccentric in different ways, these two lead their younger colleagues into thinking outside the box to solve these odd cases. The prose is very descriptive and the author has a wonderful way with words and phraseology. I had to look up a few words that I'd never heard of before--which always makes me happy. And I didn't figure the mystery out, either. Wonderful stuff, and I will definitely not be waiting too long to get to the next in series!(less)

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Feb 03, 2012 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-and-crime-fiction

This was a 3.5 for me. The story follows our octogenarian detectives as they investigate the death of a woman who apparently drowned in river water while sitting in her dry basement. Bryant is convinced the woman was murdered and that her death is connected to the maze of lost rivers that flows under London.

When the body count rises in Balaklava Street, Bryant & May must track a killer whose identity and motive are hiding in plain sight.

I enjoyed the twists in this story, the detectives are...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Joanne D'arcy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Arthur Bryant and John May are peculiar detectives and head up the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) which is now after being blown up in the first book, housed in offices above the tube at Mornington Crescent. They have been working together since the Second World War and have yet to retire despite their age but not their experience. Along the way they have picked up some misfits of their own both in and out of uniform and they have become a fairly eclectic mix of people to be able solve 'peculiar' cr...more Arthur Bryant and John May are peculiar detectives and head up the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) which is now after being blown up in the first book, housed in offices above the tube at Mornington Crescent. They have been working together since the Second World War and have yet to retire despite their age but not their experience. Along the way they have picked up some misfits of their own both in and out of uniform and they have become a fairly eclectic mix of people to be able solve 'peculiar' crimes. There is still some disagreement about who runs the unit; the Metropolitan Police or the Home Office or in fact Arthur Bryant himself with his own reasons and motives.

No more peculiar than what is found at 5 Balaklava Street, an elderly woman sat in a chair in her basement bathroom - dead. Her mouth is full of river water? How can that be when she and the bathroom are completely dry? The street opens up a tributary of characters and with a handy map at the front of the book (very Agatha Christie) we get to see how the story unfolds and how the PCU are drawn into a case that has not been allocated to them or is in fact in their jurisdiction.

As the body count grows it becomes a race against time and tide for it all to be solved. The unit's survival depends on it as they enter the secret world under London. This is not the criminal underworld but the water underworld where the lost underground of rivers of London are converge at one key place The Water Room. Where is the Water Room and what has a fire got to do with it and then a builder is found dead buried in earth? But an academic searching for something underground where a tramp is also hiding.

As the book progresses at a sedate pace for a greater part we begin to form ideas and clues as to what is happening. Bryant and May provide their pecuilarness to the PCU in the way they handle the case - rationally and with facts in May's case or unconventional gut instinct and with strange acquaintances and friends who can shed some light on the underground waters of the streets of London.

There is no make believe here with Fowler, he has clearly done his research as these places do exist and this made it a very fascinating read with what I felt a somewhat 'Da Vinci Code' plot weaved in to make it that little bit more challenging for the detectives but also thrilling for us as readers.

This is the second Bryant and May novel and I heartedly recommend this and the first, as previous reviews have mentioned it is worth reading them in order as there are references to the first book. And again, I did nearly give up as I did with the first but by persevering I then spent as much time as I could once the pace does pick up and the rain continues to fall on all the characters and the water moves with some revealing consequences.

For those who love crime, mystery and history with a quirkiness. Then I suggest you seek out Christopher Fowler and sit back and enjoy.
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Apr 02, 2011 Linda Lombardi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I haven't read a book like this in many years, and it was interesting to come back to this sort of thing.

The New York Times blurb on the cover calls the author "a master of classical form." By which I guess they mean, this is a British mystery with a crime that is a totally bizarre puzzle: an old woman is found dead, fully dressed, sitting in a chair in her perfectly dry basement - and she died of drowning.

If you were to buy me too many fancy drinks and persuade me to talk about what I write - w...more I haven't read a book like this in many years, and it was interesting to come back to this sort of thing.

The New York Times blurb on the cover calls the author "a master of classical form." By which I guess they mean, this is a British mystery with a crime that is a totally bizarre puzzle: an old woman is found dead, fully dressed, sitting in a chair in her perfectly dry basement - and she died of drowning.

If you were to buy me too many fancy drinks and persuade me to talk about what I write - which I won't do otherwise because I think it is a boring and pretentious thing to do - I would explain that the amateur detective novel is basically a subgenre of fantasy. In reality, murders don't happen in interesting ways, rarely for interesting reasons, and are never solved by amateurs. And if a zookeeper/little old lady/etc did somehow solve a murder once, there is no way there are going to be repeated murders at the same zoo/in the same small British town/etc, or that she is going to solve them again.

But after years of reading various more modern incarnations of the murder mystery genre, I had forgotten how true this is of the classical mystery. Even though the characters in this book are nominally police - well, the fact that they run the Peculiar Crimes Unit should be a warning that there is no way any of this would happen in real life. But it doesn't matter, it's a wonderful fantasy.

I was attracted to the book because it's largely about the rivers in London that have been buried underground. There's all sorts of history in it, history of the kind I like: the details of everyday life, the layers of time that are found in an old city, and I loved those parts of it. The characters are real enough that most of their motives make sense, but not so real that you feel too bad for them. Which is awfully relaxing compared to the realistic, modern, nitty-gritty violent sort of mystery that people seem to have more respect for nowadays.

My only quibble with this book was that the solution was half disappointing. The solution to the mystery of who one character was and how he set the business in motion, was totally cool. But the solution to who did the murder and how it was done was more disappointing, the identity of the murderer in particular. It a character you never would have expected because s/he seemed basically unconnected to everything that was going on. This always kind of annoys me, I think because it seems like such a trick, and also because it requires so much explanation at the end. But really, a book like this, the whole thing is a trick, so maybe it isn't fair to complain.

Anyway, in the end, the book was 99% a pleasure to read, I am looking forward to reading more of this series. One warning: don't read this one first like I did. It contains what seems like a pretty critical spoiler for a previous book in the series.(less)

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Sep 18, 2011 Sharon Goodwin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having previously thoroughly enjoyed ‘Bryant & May on the Loose’ #7 in this mystery series I chose this book from those available as the final one in my Transworld Book Group Reading Challenge. You won’t be able to read that review here as it was in the days before I blogged! I was looking forward to The Water Room, read on to find out whether it met my expectations …

The Peculiar Crimes Unit is in a world of its own. The team defuse politically sensitive and socially embarrassing situations...more Having previously thoroughly enjoyed ‘Bryant & May on the Loose’ #7 in this mystery series I chose this book from those available as the final one in my Transworld Book Group Reading Challenge. You won’t be able to read that review here as it was in the days before I blogged! I was looking forward to The Water Room, read on to find out whether it met my expectations …

The Peculiar Crimes Unit is in a world of its own. The team defuse politically sensitive and socially embarrassing situations which was set up during WWII… and what a team it is! Led by Bryant & May who are totally opposite in character, we follow their investigations that take us totally out of the box and make us think laterally. The team all have quirky and very interesting personalities (well I think they do!) and it was great for me to be able to re-visit them.

The story starts with Arthur Bryant, at the end of a 13 week heatwave, freelancing as a city tour guide in London. Here we are introduced to his character. He descends into nostalgia, remembering things as they were during his childhood.

There is the chaos of the re-fitting of the PCU’s offices and then the murder of Ruth Singh at No. 5 Balaklava Street occurs … and so begins the supposedly convoluted path we take through this mystery. Young couple Kallie and Paul buy No. 5 and we meet the rest of the residents at a cocktail party.

Running alongside the murder we get involved in John May trying to save a rival academic from further humiliation who is involved in something illegal.

I really enjoy the wit, humour and lack of respect for government rules/guidelines. The bumbling on the surface hides a powerhouse underneath. Interspersed with the building tension of the investigations we have the joy of getting to know the colourful and quirky personalities that make up the team and those of the characters involved.

There’s also a very brief dip into psychogeography (although not named as such) in the story. I came across this in the book ‘The Lost Art of Walking’ by Geoff Nicholson which I reviewed this month.

Remembering Arthur Bryant’s knowledge of the esoteric from my previous read, I was hoping this would also feature somewhere in the story and I wasn’t disappointed!

I have an interest in the history of London because my paternal line migrated there in the very early 1800’s – there are bizarre facts related to London in The Water Room – which gives these mysteries an added pull for me. I also have ancestors that were river pilots on the Thames, master coopers and master shipwrights at Blackwall, so this also pulls me in as water is the key to this particular mystery.

I find the way the author writes easy to read, everything happens when it should, the building tension has you turning the pages and getting totally lost in this world. I loved the figurative language for example ‘Pigeons living in the high iron rafters dropped down through the hall, their wings fluttering like the ruffled pages of old books’. I didn’t guess the perpetrator or the identity of someone else who is key to the story.

The Water Room is more than a mystery. There is the intrigue of the psychological profiles of the characters and the relationships between them, the sense of community (or lack of) all played out amidst the historical city of London.

Jera's Jamboree http://shazjera.blogspot.com/(less)

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Feb 12, 2012 Ellie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-individual-challenge, mystery, fiction, british, series, favorites

I have fallen in love with two elderly detectives from the British "Peculiar Crimes Unit"-as created by Christopher Fowler. The Water Room is not only charmingly written, it has one of the best mysteries I've read in a long time, actually unusual and interesting in itself, aside from the book's humor and delightful characters. The book manages to be Victorian, early twentieth century and modern at the same time. It is a good novel as well as a mystery which is not something I can always say, eve...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Almeta rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysterious, reviewed, serial

Grumpy old men and other eccentric members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit pursue the unusal death of a woman found seated in a chair in the basement of her house.

It was fun to try to come up with a solution for the death, but even more fun to witness the behavior of these misfit characters.

Brant and May remind me of The Odd Couple; Felix and Oscar.

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Jun 03, 2011 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Another insane entry in the Peculiar Crime Unit (PCU) series featuring those elderly detectives Bryant and May. In this adventure they suspect that the strange events surrounding the death of a friend's sister may be murder......when other deaths occur in the same neighborhood, the hunt is on. As usual, the story is intertwined with little known historical facts, in this case the hidden rivers underneath London. The appeal of this and all the books in this series is not "who-dunnit" but the "why...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Sally rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

There are a lot of insightful reviews of this book in Goodreads, so I won't attempt to summarize the story. I rated this one at 3 stars, because I'm not quite sure I liked it enough to get more of the Bryant and May series. I enjoyed the odd forays into historical London and some of the trivia that came with those, as well as some of the philosophical musings of an old codger. However, throughout, I had a feeling of darkness, sadness and eventually, I somehow felt soaked to the bone from all the...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Clarissa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, quirky-mysteries

I absolutely loved this clever, complex, and dark mystery! It's a real shame that Christopher Fowler isn't well known in the US. If you like dense mysteries with well-drawn characters, give it a try. The two main characters are fascinating older men, quirky and eccentric in the extreme, who handle odd cases for the government. They care about each other, they have histories and past entanglements and families, they drive each other nuts.

In this mystery, the waterways of London and a specific ne...more

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Jan 08, 2010 Deborah Moulton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Second book in the Bryant & May mystery series. Better than the first, the most intriguing idea in this book concerns all the buried rivers in London. Once a marsh, London has bricked in and buried most of the original estuaries that snaked through the area to the Thames. The Victorians came along and built beautiful underground cachement areas and a series of tunnels and valves that manage sewer overflows that discharge into the long-forgotten rivers. The mystery also surrounds an "outsider...more

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Nov 22, 2009 Doug Beatty rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

The Water Room features the duo of Arthur Bryant and John May or the Peculiar Crimes Unit of London. In this particular novel, Bryant and May are in their seventies and have come across an item of interest when a woman is found sitting in her basement, dressed as if to go out, and the really strange fact is that she has not only been drowned, but drowned with river water from the Thames. This leads to a very interesting novel with twists and turns as you discover the other inhabitants of the nei...more

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Nov 12, 2011 Regina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a wonderful surprise! I didn't know what to expect when I bought it and I bought it based on the fact that it was billed as an English mystery in the classic form. It is so much fun to read! It is well written, chock full of arcane information for those people like myself, who really love to collect historical information that is not necessarily well known. It is about an England that only insiders get to hear about and it is evocative of Dickens' London and Agatha Christie's procedurals. T...more

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Dec 11, 2010 Joseph Teller rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, detective

A Peculiar Crimes Unit novel, featuring the detectives who get the odd crimes with a historical or even apparent supernatural bent (though inevitably no real supernatural forces involved) in the Heart of London.

This one deals a lot with ritual deaths, starting with a woman found drowned in her perfectly dry basement.... and leading to a chase through the underground historic rivers that feed into the Thames.

A lot of history, a number of twists and the solution was definitely a surprise to me. It...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Alistair rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am one of those people who always reads in order, apart from the one time I purchased Kathy Reich’s fourth Temperance Brennan, “Fatal Voyage” on impulse.
This is my second Bryant and May mystery and I am glad I read book one first.
Say no more, spoilers!

On to the “Water Room”.
For me the best part of this book was the character of Arthur Bryant. Well written and highly entertaining. Some of life’s observations via an octogenarian are truly amusing.
I particularity loved the bit in a coffee shop t...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this book. It is different and the detectives are definitely cut from a different cloth. Detectives John May and Arthur Bryant have been detectives in London for over 50 years. They head up the Peculiar Crimes Unit that investigates crimes that are deemed unorthodox by modern criminalists. An elderly woman is found dead in her home. She is found fully clothed, sitting in a chair but the cause of death is drowning. The two detectives look into her death and soon find that the neighborhood...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Macjest rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the second book in the series with Bryant and May. I had a bit of hard time reading this one. I think it's because I tried reading it right at the beginning of summer vacation and I was really in the mood for more fluff. Once I buckled down to it though, it turned out to be quite satisfying. I love dry British humor, but they can also be quite (not sure of the right word) not dry as well. In this book, the two detectives investigate multiple murders that center around what seems like a q...more

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Jan 12, 2011 bookczuk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing, made-me-look-something-up, not-a-cozy-mystery-more-a-thriller, taught-me-something

On the whole, I liked this mystery, and enjoyed the characters. The elderly detective team of Bryant and Mays were a great discovery, and most of the regular supporting cast well done. The idea of a peculiar crimes unit is very appealing and sort of x-file-ish. I also was really interested to read about the history of rivers and water works in London, particularly how the waters have been channeled underground. The pace of the book bogged down (ha!) at times for me, but it could have been becaus...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Craig Andrews rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime

Really enjoyable detective story. It's been ages since I read the first book in the Bryant & May series and after I enjoyed The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes so much I went for a contemporary crime story. I was a bit surprised as I assumed it would be in two time periods like the first book but this didn't detract. The development of the main characters and the rest of the PCU was handled very well, nothing felt forced. The crime itself was brilliant and the red herrings and explanation along t...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Kyrie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

I realized it was a reread, but I understood the workings of Bryant and May better having read "Off the Rails". I also followed the twisty plots in this one better once I knew what to look for. I do like the way the underground rivers of London feature in this story. There's so much I don't know about htis old, old city. And by comparison, American cities are mere infants. At any rate, I really like the relationships between the Peculiar Crime Units members and the friendship of Bryant and May....more

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May 22, 2011 Derk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is the first one by this author that I read and I hoped it would be good, because he seems prolific and I usually enjoy good British mystery/crime stories. It was a tad confusing at first because this is the second book of a series and I didn't know the background of the characters that would have been provided in the first book. Still I enjoyed reading it until the end. The ending was ridiculous. I know I have a problem with many book endings (yes, they...more

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Apr 30, 2011 Teresa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 52-books-in-2011, audio-books, library-book, 2011

I hadn't quite finished this book the day it was due back to the library so I ended up sitting in the car park listening to the lat disc. Even though I did not like the voice of the narrator, and at times he seemed to get his characters muddled up, plus it reminded me very much of a tv series called New Tricks I did enjoy the story. I liked the setting and found the history fascinating. I was impressed how quickly they managed to get around London though, I could never get from place to place th...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Alexander Inglis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: police-detective, gay-positive

Elderly Ruth Singh, smartly dressed, is sitting in a chair, feet together, hands in her lap, as if ready to ready to make a shopping trip. Except, she's found in her basement, not her parlour, and her head is titled back. Though dry as bone, she has apparently drowned and there is muddy Thames water in her mouth. Time to call in the Peculiar Crimes Unit and the also quite elderly John May and Arthur Bryant to solve this "locked room" mystery in tale number two, The Water Room, by Christopher Fow...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Ensiform rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery

The second Bryant and May mystery, this one eschews the chronological hopping of the first book and keeps the action in the present. The mysterious death of an old Indian woman in Kentish Town leads the Peculiar Crimes Unit to a string of other baffling murders, which may be random or may be based on some long-buried secret. It may be set in 2004, but the plot depends heavily on history: the flow of London’s underground rivers and how they were diverted; a postwar painter of myths and archetypes...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fraudio, mystery-thriller, winter-20112012, series, noir, architecture, published-2004, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, those-autumn-years, mythology, serial-killer, witches-and-wizards

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 14, 2013 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: series, mystery

The second in Fowler’s Peculiar Crimes Unit series featuring aged and eccentric sleuths Bryant and May. I’ll confess that I didn’t love the first in the series, Full Dark House. I thought it was clever but somehow didn’t quite gel for me. The Water Room on the other hand I thought was both a compelling and quirky tale. Bryant is called in by an old friend to investigate the death of his sister who apparently drowned in a dry room without a trace of moisture on her. We follow Bryant and May as th...more

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About Christopher Fowler

Christopher Fowler is an English novelist living in London, his books contain elements of black comedy, anxiety and social satire. As well as novels, he writes short stories, scripts, press articles and reviews.

He lives in King's Cross, on the Battlebridge Basin, and chooses London as the backdrop of many of his stories because any one of the events in its two thousand year history can provide ins...more

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Books by Christopher Fowler

The Victoria Vanishes (Bryant & May, # 6)

Seventy-Seven Clocks (Bryant & May, # 3)

Ten Second Staircase (Bryant & May, # 4)

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The Water Room (Bryant & May #2)

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