Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery

In Fowler’s solid 11th Peculiar Crimes Unit whodunit (after 2013’s The Invisible Code), the unit’s unsympathetic new supervisor poses a threat to its existence after its operations are shifted from the Home Office to the City of London. Endearingly eccentric Arthur Bryant, whose reading list includes Recreating Renaissance Masterpieces with Cheese and Cross-Stitching in the Time of Edward the Confessor, and his more conventional partner, John May, have a number of odd crimes to solve. In particular, a star-gazing teen claims that one night he saw a corpse rise from the grave and incorrectly identify a constellation, an occurrence that eventually leads to murder. Meanwhile, the seven ravens of the Tower of London have vanished, giving rise to fears about the future of the realm. As intriguing as these setups are, Fowler has delivered more imaginative resolutions in previous entries. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. (Dec.)