Rivers of London is a crime / fantasy novel that is also
quite amusing. There has been a brutal murder in Covent Garden, London. A man
has had his head knocked clean off by a man with a big stick. Peter Grant has
been with the police for two years and has seen a lot of things. He and his
friend Lesley are guarding the crime scene for the night. Lesley leaves to get
some coffee and Peter is called over by someone lingering in the shadows. That
someone is a ghost and has information about the murder. From this encounter,
Peter discovers all sorts of beings are real that he thought just stories. He
meets Inspector Nightingale, the Mets very own wizard. Peter becomes his
apprentice and together, with the help of Nightingale’s housekeeper Molly, and
tributaries of the River Thames, they must find out what’s going on. What’s
causing people to get suddenly angry and murder someone, then for their face to
fall off?
The book is a bit gruesome but in a good way. The writing is
humorous and you don’t really get scared by what happens although it is
terrifying. It keeps things quite simple so as a reader you don’t get too
bogged down in police procedure; you can just get on with the story. London is
a nice setting for the book as it has a lot of history and hidden parts to be
explored. The history plays a big role in this book as well as the geography. I
don’t know London but that was fine, although it did mean that when there was a
description of a route that is taken I didn’t have any idea whether this was
accurate or not.
Peter Grant is not the most reliable narrator as he is
easily distracted. He often needs clues from people to get the right answer. He
is a nice guy and always means well. The characters around him are all pretty cool
too. Nightingale is an enigma and in this book we don’t really learn the extent
of his knowledge or powers. We also don’t know how he came to be living with
Molly as a housekeeper and what exactly she is. Peter fancies both of the major
female characters. He has spent his whole police career with Lesley but
nothing’s happened between them; not for want of him trying. He also likes
Beverly, one of Mother Thames’ daughters. Beverly is the human manifestation of
a brook running under London. It’s not clear whether Peter will end up with
either in the future but the women would definitely be the ones to make that
choice.
I really like the way fantasy was blended with reality. It
makes sense in a big city like London that there may well be a magical
community that no one is aware of because people do their thing and ignore what
others are doing. In this book supernatural beings occasionally attract the
attention of mortal folk but humans would explain away any unusual behaviour.
As Peter learns more about the other side of the city he realises that he may
have been easily distracted because he can sense magic like a scent left behind
when some has been performed. It should be fun to see how Peter grows as a
wizard and how he’ll cope with that.
I really enjoyed this book. It had a feel of sort of being a
cross between Terry Pratchett and Christopher Brookmyre. It doesn’t take itself
too seriously but it’s well written enough to engage you in the story and make
you want to know what happens next. This book certainly won’t be for everyone,
there will be plenty who don’t get the humour. But for those that do it’s worth
a read. The world is well thought out and the author obviously cares about it.
I will definitely be reading the rest in the series so far.
Overall rating 4 out of 5.
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