Rivers of London: Book 1 in the #1 bestselling Rivers of London series

So said Mr Punch and I am pretty sure the author was listening intently because he has certainly taken those words to heart. I purchased this book on sale because I had very few supernatural books in my current "to read" list and I am so glad that I did. It is a rip-roarer of a tale and I was absorbed from the start - probably because it mixes police procedural (and we already know my penchant for that genre) with the magical world in a manner that can only be called deft. To be honest I really liked the cover too so that swayed me a little bit. Peter Grant is an eminently likeable character with a touch of the "ohh shiny" about him; something I can eminently relate too. His distractable nature proves to be of benefit as a mysterious witness to a dastardly, and very public, murder comes forward and suddenly he is thrust in to a netherworld that he never knew existed. At least it has saved him from the tedium of driving a desk. His relationship with Leslie May is a joy of will they won't they proportions and their dialogue and interactions are relaxed on the page with the undercurrents left, mostly, to the reader to divine. At the risk of alienating people I can't help but relate this to a Harry Potter for a grown up generation. It has the same mystical world living alongside the depressingly mundane, a bumbling main character that is out of their depth but yet strangely compelling and a mysterious father figure in Thomas Nightingale. This is NOT a bad thing, except that it leaves you pouting that magic isn't real. There are several story threads building up here - the slightly dodgy police force, the gruesome murders, Peter's training sessions at the folly, the power struggle between the River Gods and a little dash of romance just to season the cauldron. The murders may be resolved by the end of the book and a resolution appears to have been found that appeases the God's egos but Gods can be fickle so who can be sure. Everything else is still a work in progress and I already have the second book queued up and ready to go.

So, I'm a bit late to jump on the bandwagon I know. This has been on my TBR list for absolutely ages but it took Jodi Taylor mentioning that she intended to reread the series over Christmas to get me to open the book. I was hooked from the very first page1 How to describe this? So, it's set in contemporary London. Peter Grant is a probationary police constable stationed at Charing Cross police station. Like most young police officers he is keen to get off the beat and become a detective, perhaps with one of the flashy squads like the Sweeney or the Murder Investigation Team, he also has the hots for his fellow probationer, WPC Lesley May. The book opens with a bizarre murder in Covent Garden (for those who don't know the area, this is a pedestrianised, tourist-friendly, shopping area with small shops and open air stalls selling wooden toys, blown glass and hand-knits, NOT a garden at all). Peter and Lesley are two grunts who are delegated to guard the area overnight after all the important Scene of Crime investigators and detectives have left. When Lesley goes off to get some coffee Peter encounters an unusual man who witnessed the murder, unfortunately it turns out that the man is a ghost. Shortly after Peter is disappointed that his post-probation assignment is nothing as exciting as being a detective, in fact it is probably the antithesis of being a detective, he has been assigned to the Case Progression Unit - a team who basically fill out all the paperwork so that the detectives can get out on the streets to solve crime. Then, after yet another mysterious encounter late at night in Covent Garden, this time with a dapper gentleman who turns out to be Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, Peter finds himself reassigned to a a mysterious division run by DCI Nightingale which investigates crimes involving the paranormal. This is laugh-out-loud funny, especially to a Londoner who recognises some of the traits described in this book, I especially liked the idea of good-Samaritanism being an extreme sport in London. I loved the setting of the book as I worked for many years just North of Tottenham Court Road and so I know many of the places described. But honestly, you don't have to be a Londoner, or even English to enjoy this book. Peter is soon embroiled in a supernatural world in which he meets vampires, the spirits of London rivers and the ghosts of dead thespians. For some reason this reminded me of Tim Powers' writing although MUCH funnier and I don't know why, when I tried to pin it down it kind of ran away and hid. There are plenty of precedents for paranormal novels set in a contemporary police environment and yet this, with its mixture of historical facts, geographic detail, humour and the woo-woo seems different, maybe it's like C.E. Murphy's Walker Papers but set in London? Anyway, this was fresh and unlike anything I'd read before and I am totally hooked.

Quite a fun little urban fantasy! Aaronovitch successfully creates not only a believable scenario for our world in this skeptical age but a host of characters that are sympathetic and well-rounded. The action starts right in and certainly there are enough false leads and plot twists to satisfy anyone that might enjoy a good mystery tale as well! As usual with the first of a series of books such as this, things get bogged down a bit as concepts are introduced or protagonists and/or villains learn how to master their craft. But if there's a compliment to be given, it is that I am certainly interested in trying the next book as well!