Oh how I love Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London books.
For this little novella we leave Peter Grant in the wilds of Herefordshire (!) and hang out with his niece Abigail. It’s the summer of 2013, and young north London teens are going missing for a day or night or two from the vicinity of Hampstead Heath…..
The presence of talking foxes always reminds me of the blink foxes of Alex Verus’ magical London. I would love Peter and Alex to meet, and I wonder what would happen if their worlds were to overlap….
Back to London, the magical version, where Peter Grant and the Falcon team investigate a sudden death in the London Silver Vaults…. and Peter prepares for the births, River Goddess style, of his and Bev’s twins – and parenthood.
Peter Grant goes undercover in the high tech world around Silicon Roundabout, and he, and we, have close encounters with some American Practitioners, a Mary Engine and Rose Jars.
A novella sized trip to Trier, and a murder investigation by the German Police’s parallel Peter Grant. Plus a couple of river goddesses, vineyards and Botrytis cinerea aka noble rot.
Peter Grant (now a Detective Constable) and the rest of the magic-wielding team at the Folly are on the trail of Martin Chorley, the Faceless Man, with help from various, better known, parts of the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police. Lesley May and Mr Punch also feature, as do Beverley Brook and her Rivers of London family, and we meet another of the London River Goddesses – Lulu, aka Walbrook, serving pints in a Shoreditch pub.
Lots of action takes place in the City, from its Roman beginnings to 21st century financial centre, and the new Bloomberg building and the now-displaced Whitechapel Bell Foundry both play key roles.