Review: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

My name is Peter Grant. Until January I was just another probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service, and to everyone else as the Filth. My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - We do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from a man who was dead, but disturbingly voluble, and that brought me to the attention of Chief Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. And that, as they say, is where the story begins.

Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated. I'm dealing with nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden - and that's just routine. There's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious, vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.

The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying. Which, I don't mind telling you, would involve a hell of a lot of paperwork.

Reading Format: Kindle eBook
Year Read: 2013
Star Rating: 5 stars

Interestingly, this book is called Midnight Riot in the US and has a very different front cover. I often wonder why Publishers do this. I know it's to attract to a different audience but still. So what I'm getting from this book title/cover change is that us Brits like any mention of London and where we are from and Americans like a good riot?!?

Title aside, I really enjoyed this quirky and unusual book. I quite like crime fiction and very much enjoy anything supernatural/paranormal so I was really excited to read this book as it combines the two.

Peter Grant, a police constable in the London Metropolitan Police, sees a ghost while policing a crime scene. Life as he knows it changes from this point on as he realises that there is more to reality including gods and goddesses of the river, ghosts and ghouls, vampires, and even magic. Because of his ghostly encounter, he is placed in a special police division which deals with supernatural stuff, along with the last magician, Detective Nightingale. The two of them, along with the "normal" police, investigate a string of murders across the city which are carried out by unsuspecting people who have been subjected to a destructive magical spell.

The book is really fun and fast paced and the characters are all really likeable, in particular, the lead character Peter Grant. I also really liked the house servant, Molly and her interactions with the other characters.

I'm really looking forward to reading the other books in the series. I do have the second one loaded on my kindle already, I just need to get to it!

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