Full Dark House [Hardcover]

The story opens with a member of one of London's most unusual police units being blown up in his office. He is John May, partner to Arthur Bryant, who now starts to investigate his death. The search takes Bryant back to the time of their first meeting in 1940. London is struggling to survive the Blitz when a beautiful dancer is found without her feet. Bryant and May's investigation uncovers a weird gothic mystery, involving a killer who appears to be faceless. In the present day, May speculates whether that old adversary might be the killer. He needs to solve a riddle that began more than 50 years earlier. It is a tense, clever novel which keeps one riveted from the first page.

`An assured move into crime and mystery by the acclaimed dark horror writer.`

'As filled with tricks as a magician's sleeve. Witty, charismatic, occasionally touching and with the genuine power to thrill.'

'A thriller that is, in a stillness that underlies its flashy surface, a manifesto for artistic sensibility'

'A nostalgic thriller with a "Phantom of the Opera" type theme'

'Its combination of Grand Guignol and place setting does command attention'

When a bomb devastates the office of London's most unusual police unit and claims the life of Arthur Bryant, his partner John May searches for clues to the bomber's identity. Before long he is on the trail through Blitz-ravaged London and the gothic world of the theatre.

This is my first mystery novel, but not my first book with detectives Bryant and May. They also appear in Rune, Darkest Day and Soho Black, but readers have been asking me to place them centre-stage, and this is the result. They will shortly return in The Water House.

When a bomb devastates the office of London's most unusual police unit and claims the life of its oldest detective, Arthur Bryant, his surviving partner John May searches for clues to the bomber's identity. His search takes him back to the day the detectives first met as young men in 1940.

In Blitz-ravaged London, a beautiful dancer rehearsing for a sexy, sinister production of 'Orpheus In The Underworld' is found without her feet. Bryant & May's investigation plunges them into a bizarre gothic mystery, where a faceless man stalks terrified actors and death strikes in darkness. Tracking their quarry through the blackout, searching for a murderer who'll stop at nothing to be free of a nightmare, the duo unwittingly follow the same path Orpheus took when leading Euridyce from the shadows of Hell.

Back in the present day, John May starts to wonder if their oldest adversary might be the killer who took his partner's life. He must work alone to solve a puzzle that began over half a century earlier...

In a war-shaken city of myths, rumours and fear, Bryant & May discover that a house is not always a home, nothing is as it appears, the most cunning criminals hide in plain sight, and the devil has all the best tunes. Dark drama and black comedy combine as Bryant & May take centre stage in their first great case.

Christopher Fowler:
Christopher Fowler is co-founder and co-creative director of Creative Partnership. He also writes novels, screenplays and short story collections, and has had over twenty books published to date. These include the anthologies City Jitters 1 & 2, The Bureau Of Lost Souls, Sharper Knives, Flesh Wounds, Personal Demons, Uncut, and The Devil In Me. His story The Master Builder was a CBS movie starring Tippi Hendren. Another, Left Hand Drive, won Best British Short Film in 1993. Others have been published in Time Out, The Big Issue, the Independent On Sunday and the Mail On Sunday. He was the 1998 recipient of the BFS Best Short Story Of The Year for Wageslaves.

His first novel, the bestseller Roofworld, has been developed as a film for producer Marc Samuelson. Subsequent novels include Rune, Red Bride, Darkest Day, Spanky, Psychoville (film rights owned by Jude Law and Sadie Frost), Disturbia, Soho Black, Menz Insana, Calabash and the forthcoming Plastic.