Killing time on the train so time for a recent reading post. Forgive any typos, will proof the thing properly later!
Anyway, onto the books. Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London and Moon over Soho begin the story of one Peter Grant, Constable of the Metropolitan Police – and much to his surprise, magician. Turns out the Met has a resident detective for magical matters, DI Nightingale, who following a nasty murder takes Peter on as his apprentice. Much action ensues…
I really enjoyed these books. Very refreshing to have an adult protagonist – OK, so Peter is young and naive, but it’s something different to the tired old “Boy prophesied to save the world!” cliche. It doesn’t hurt that he’s well portrayed as a character – he felt very familiar even after a few pages.
London obviously isn’t short of character, and in both books Aaronovitch does a good job of bringing this to life, and working real places and history in with the mythology he’s creating. I’m not enough of a Londoner to fact-check all the details, but it certainly feels authentic.
At times there’s a nasty edge to the narrative and some pretty gruesome deeds. It stays clear of real horror, but a few scenes did linger unpleasantly in the mind. No bad thing IMO, but perhaps worth a warning if you’re not a fan of that sort of thing…
Offsetting the nasty stuff is some really great humour, particularly between Peter and Nightingale. There were a few laugh out loud moments but mostly Peter’s first person narration delivered a dry, sarcastic wit I enjoyed a lot.
I’d definitely recommend these, and look forward to future installments.