The unthinkable has happened at London's Peculiar Crimes Unit. In the bitter depths of winter, a member of the team has been murdered, and everyone who works there is a suspect. With the exception of Arthur Bryant and John May that is, for the eccentric detectives who run London's strangest crime division are stranded on a desolate snowbound road somewhere in the West Country on their way to a spiritualists' convention. As the snows worsen, Bryant & May attempt to solve the crime long distance. And their situation is about to get much. much worse. Unknown to the elderly detectives, an obsessed killer has travelled from the Riviera to Dartmoor, and is stalking the stranded vehicles, searching for one particular victim and edging ever closer with each passing minute...
Two murderers, two incapacitated detectives, just six hours to solve two crimes and save the unit. Armed only with their wits, woolly coats, a mobile phone with a fading battery and some dubious veal and ham pies, Bryant & May are bracing themselves for a strange and very dangerous day...

Quirky, touching, profound and utterly original...a gripping page-turner. -- PETER JAMES
Invests the traditions of the Golden Age of detective fiction with a tongue-in-cheek post-modernism. * Evening Standard *
Delicious stuff, delivered with all the assurance we have come to expect from Fowler. -- Barry Forshaw * amazon.co.uk *
Slow burning, adroitly plotted, with a distinct atmosphere. * Guardian *
Another triumph for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. * Independent on Sunday *
Eccentric arcana and characteristic sang-froid...satisfyingly good -- Financial Times

Christopher Fowler was the multiple award-winning author of almost fifty novels and short story collections, including the celebrated Bryant & May mysteries. His other novels include Roofworld, Spanky, The Sand Men and Hot Water. He has also written two acclaimed memoirs, Paperboy (winner of the Green Carnation Prize) and Film Freak, plus The Book of Forgotten Authors and Peculiar London, Bryant and May's singular and eccentric guide to the city. In 2015 Chris was awarded the Crime Writers Association's coveted 'Dagger in the Library' for his body of work. He lived in London and Barcelona. Diagnosed with cancer just as the UK went into lockdown in 2020, Chris died on 2nd March 2023.