After years of defying the odds and infuriating their superiors, detectives Arthur Bryant and John May have at last crossed the line -- the Peculiar Crimes Unit has been dissolved. Not even their eccentric genius or phenomenal success rate could save them. While Bryant takes to his bed, his bathrobe, and his esoteric books, the rest of the team take to the streets looking for new careers -- then one of them stumbles upon a gruesome murder.

It isn't so much the discovery of the headless corpse that's potentially so politically explosive -- it's where the head is found. The Home Office has reluctantly authorized the PCU to reunite -- in a rented office with no computer network, no legal authority, and a broken toilet. They have until the end of the week to solve a murder with potential links to gangland crime, Slavic mythology, the 2012 London Olympics, and the sort of corruption only obscene amounts of money and power can buy. It's the kind of case that Bryant and May live to solve -- but it could be the case that gets them killed.