Mystery Scene

Christopher Fowler, the warm, funny, and talented London-born author of the beloved Peculiar Crimes Unit novels featuring curmudgeonly crime-fighters Arthur Bryant and John May passed this week at the age of 69 after a three-yearlong battle with a rare form of cancer.

Fowler's husband, Pete, shared the news via Fowler's Twitter account @Peculiar on March 2, 2023, posting:

Christopher Robert Fowler
3 score & 10 1953–2023
His sparkle, joy and humour are gone, but remain in my heart and his work. What a remarkable person we all shared. Goodbye to a beautiful man, a beautiful mind, my partner in crime and soulmate.

Fowler was Best known for his Bryant & May mystery novels (21 books en total), a series that followed the often darkly funny and clever cases of two Golden Age detectives investigating crimes in modern-day London.

Fowler was also a successful fantasy novelist, the author of numerous short stories, a graphic novel with John Bolton titled Menz Insana, London theatrical productions, and even a video game starring actor Patrick Stewart. Among his many awards are a CWA Dagger in the Library, several National Book Award nominations, an E-Dunnit Award, an Edge Hill Prize, five British Fantasy Awards, and many others.

In a January 18, 2023, entry on his blog entitled "The Last Post," Fowler penned a love letter of sorts to books saying, "There are all those shelves filled with luscious unread books…and now I can’t even reach them.... So this is my last post." He goes on to sign off saying, "There, now you have a smidgen of extra time on your hands, go have fun.… and read a book."

Good humored and wise until the end, he will be missed.


BRYANT & MAY PECULIAR CRIMES UNIT BIBLIOGRAPHY
christopherfowler.co.uk

Full Dark House (2003)
The Water Room (2004)
Seventy-Seven Clocks (2005)
Ten Second Staircase (2006)
White Corridor (2007)
The Victoria Vanishes (2008)
On the Loose (2009)
Bryant & May's Mystery Tour (2011)
Off the Rails (2010)
The Memory of Blood (2011)
The Invisible Code (2012)
The Casebook of Bryant May: The Soho Devil (2013)
The Bleeding Heart (2014)
Bryant & May and the Secret Santa (2015)
The Burning Man (2015)
Strange Tide (2016)
Wild Chamber (2017)
Hall of Mirrors (2018)
The Lonely Hour (2019)
England's Finest (2019)
Oranges and Lemons (2020)
London Bridge is Falling Down (2021)
Bryant & May's Peculiar London (2022)

christopher-fowler-1953-2023-author-of-bryant-may-detective-novels-dies-at-age-69
7653