Strange Tide

Arthur Bryant and John May, two eccentric detectives of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit, face a case that could sink their department. A woman's body turns up on the Thames near the Tower of London. She has been chained to a stone post and left to drown, and only one set of footprints leads to the spot. The press has nicknamed her "The Bride in the Tide," and the unit has no clear answer for why the killer did not simply throw her into the river like so many others.

Bryant suspects the solution may be rooted in the folklore of the Thames. His partner, however, is worried. Bryant's grip on reality appears to be slipping, and he begins to believe he has travelled back in time to crack the case. May must decide whether his colleague's strange theories hold any method, because as more bodies surface from the river, the entire team is struggling to keep up.

The novel is a London mystery packed with local history and quirky characters, and it is part of Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May series.