Peter Grant is contemplating his future career in the Metropolitan Police when he sees a ghost. This ghost happens to also be a material witness in a beheading and leads Peter into poking around where he shouldn’t with his partner Lesley (who is destined for greater things than him). Soon Peter discovers there’s a lot more to London than meets the eye.
Rivers of London started off on the right foot. Despite it being urban fantasy, I found the police aspects refreshingly realistic. So often, crime fiction glamorises policing but this is quite matter of fact; Peter is looking at a career in administration. There’s some great dry humour amongst the pages too. The London setting is crucial to the plot; from the personification of the rivers to the history behind the supernatural killings. As Peter walks the streets he takes a huge interest in the things that happened, perhaps too much as he has often spent time reading a historical plaque instead of helping his colleagues in trouble.
It surprised me quite how violent the stories behind Punch and Judy were. I always knew he was a creepy little puppet and somewhere in my head I knew he hit his wife. But the story used here it really quite extreme. Maybe we should off Punch up next time anyone criticises children’s entertainment of today (OK I don’t think the puppet show was originally intended for children).
However it lost its way a bit after the introduction of Punch. The world building of an unseen London spawned lots of interesting threads that didn’t really go anywhere. Yes, it’s the start of a series and I do hope they get picked back up again in later books, but it felt a little like the Punch storyline was getting in the way of things I wanted to know more about. It all snowballed into near farce; perhaps that was the point, Punch is rather farcical after all.
I did enjoy the writing and am definitely going to give Moon Over Soho a try.
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This is one of my favorite series, I've read all of the installments so far and can't wait until the next comes out. I love how he incorporates sort of odd and lesser known history into the story.
I have a feeling the series will improve from what I've heard. There was a lot to like, just lost its way a bit. Will have a break and try Moon Over Soho later in the year.
I just heard there's going to be a tv show! I can't wait!
I stumbled across this book title in a hop and am intrigued. i hear that it's a trilogy so maybe it does get better, though I'm usually a believer that if the first one is really good already, the others can only get better. not sure if works the other way around 🙂
I think there are a lot of series that take a while to get going. I liked this book, it just wasn't amazing but there is enough potential for me to want to read more.
I'm really glad you enjoyed the dry humor in the book, Ellie! I admit this is major draw for me too :)) I do think that the series grow on you when you start to get to know the characters more.
I felt the same – I had rather a hard time concentrating on it around a third in. Something about the pacing of it got to me, as if I wanted everything to conclude sooner.