A brief history of the Peculiar Crimes Unit -- Bryant & May: Dramatis personae -- Private & confidential memo from Raymond Land -- A note from Mr Bryant's biographer -- Bryant & May and the seventh reindeer -- Bryant & May's day off -- Bryant & May and the postman -- Bryant & May and the Devil's Triangle -- Bryant & May and the antichrist -- Bryant & May and the invisible woman -- Bryant & May and the consul's son -- Bryant & May meet Dracula -- Bryant & May and the forty footsteps -- Janice Longbright and the best of friends -- Bryant & May up the tower -- Bryant & May and the breadcrumb trail -- Author's notes on the cases -- Murder on my mind: an afterword.;"The Peculiar Crimes Unit has solved many extraordinary cases over the years, but some were hushed up and hidden away. Until now. Arthur Bryant remembers these lost cases as if they were yesterday. Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember yesterday, so the newly revealed facts could come as a surprise to everyone, including his exasperated partner John May.Here, then, is the truth about the Covent Garden opera diva and the seventh reindeer, the body that falls from the Tate Gallery, the ordinary London street corner where strange accidents keep occurring, the consul’s son discovered buried in the unit’s basement, the corpse pulled from a swamp of Chinese dinners, a Hallowe’en crime in the Post Office Tower, and the impossible death that’s the fault of a forgotten London legend. All of the unit’s oddest characters are here, plus the detectives’ long-suffering sergeant Janice Longbright gets to reveal her own forgotten mystery.These twelve crimes must be solved without the help of modern technology, mainly because nobody knows how to use it. Expect misunderstood clues, lost evidence, arguments about Dickens, churches, pubs and disorderly conduct from the investigative officers they laughingly call ‘England’s Finest’!"--Publisher description.