Fowler, Christopher: Bryant and May Strange Tide

A young woman's body is found chained to a post on the banks of the River Thames in a place
with very limited access.   The Peculiar Crimes Unit are given the case which seems insoluble.
It is discovered that the dead woman had been taking courses at a  life-style clinic  which seems
to be above board.   However, the clinic is owned by an Armenian refugee who somehow got
to London and set up a new identity for himself which he changed when it suited his plans.  His
female partner runs the clinic and knows about his background.   Bryant is technically off duty
through illness as he keeps having hallucinations about the past but it turns out later in the book
that he had been poisoning himself with fumes from the silver skull he kept on his desk.   This
discovery leads to his being cured but May is then suspected of murder, not only because he
was the last known person with the murdered woman but mainly because his scarf was used to
strangle her.   With the usual digressions into the byways ofLondon's history, especially the
more obscure elements, the story maintains a good pace until the final chapter.