Ben(Author)}Midnight Riot[Mass market paperback]Del Rey Books(Publisher)

The first quarter started a little slow, but once the plot coalesced, things got interesting. British Harry Dresden, crossed with grown up Harry Potter. Good stories with just the rot amount of humor. Well done.

Many time the follow up to a first novel - especially one involving a significant amount of world building - falls short and you are disappointed. Not so with this excellent novel: the story line is complex, the characters develop nicely, and the world building continues. Peter Grant, Nightingale, Leslie, and all the others become a bit more real with each chapter. The plot is consistent, develops the world, and leaves enough open for the next book. A book I am looking forward to reading soon!

This is the second book in Aaronovitch's series. You'll want to read the Rivers of London first -- this follows on pretty much directly. So, assuming you have: how does this compare?

Aaronovitch maintains the entertaining balance between the mundane side of modern police work and the weirdness of the supernatural that worked so well in Rivers. He also begins expanding the scope of his setting, raising the possibility that there may be other wizards out there besides Nightingale and now Grant. The direction of the story has shifted too: while Grant is still very much the apprentice, he is pushed to the forefront more due to Nightingale's injury.

All that said: this is a detective story, and detective stories live or die by their mystery. Unlike Rivers, which was twisty and unpredictable all the way through, the basics of the central case in Soho were pretty much obvious from the get-go and it was frustrating to watch the reasonably intelligent Grant utterly fail to see what was in front of him. It was still a good read, but it could have been great.

I love both this novel and its earlier one ("Midnight Riot" and/or "Rivers of London"). Our hero is a bit of a doofus, but with a good heart, and a willingness to accept all of the weird denizens of London on their own terms... well, mostly, because he IS a cop.

I am very much looking forward to #3!

these are good diversion books (books i read when i'm not reading heavy duty science) but, this author really needs either a better overall editor or a better copy editor as they are riddled with grammar mistakes that truly should never make it to the final publication. good ideas and even fun, but the grammatical errors are annoying.

Be sure to read Midnight Riot first. This a great book by a great author. I think I like the first one a little bit better, but this is still a great book by the new master of fantasy/detective fiction.

Having lived in England for a time and in fact been married to a Brit, I thought I'd be fine for this book: car park, bonnet, lift, biscuits, gutted. Got it. I also quite enjoy the British sense of humor, which is a large part of the charm of the Peter Grant books.

Having said that, for the most part, I really liked books one and two of this series. The hero, Peter Grant, is funny, self-deprecating and just a little arrogant. His observations and quips earn him more than one "you're a cheeky bugger" comments.

Two areas were problematic for me: all the London-area geography, and British slang/acronyms. For the latter, I stumbled over words like navvies, blagger, chavs and yobs. Scarpered, knackered and boldored could be figured out by context, but IPS, YFKM, and IRV could not. If you have knowledge of UK suit makers and how they refer to a suit that's custom made in London, you'll do well. Knowing the difference between Victorian, Edwardian, and mock-Tudor architecture is helpful (I have none). You'll need to know what "scouse" means and why a person from Yorkshire might be unpleasant to a London policeman. A keen interest in the names and locations of the various tributaries of the Thames is also helpful.

Geographically, well, I didn't ever live in London, so the descriptions of streets, directions, neighborhoods, businesses and lesser landmarks was lost on me. And there were lots of them. Similarly, football and rugby teams' names and nicknames drew a blank.

What was strangely missing were descriptions of the people in the stories. I have no clear idea what Peter Grant himself looks like, save that he's "mixed race." What's his father look like? I get that his mother is from Sierra Leone, but what does she look like? The author will describe clothing, shoes and sometimes hairstyles, but not much else (the occasional "short" or "about my age" is thrown in).

It is these deficiencies that make it difficult to connect with Peter and the other characters. I know more about Mr. Nightingale's suit, Jag and silver-topped cane than I do about his face and build. I know a lot less about Molly than I'd like to, if I were living in the same house with her. (Who/what is she?)

Peter is a little less kind than I'd like, personally. For instance, I wish he felt more strongly about the bad things he's seen and that have happened to those around him. A little survivor's guilt and a little less wise-assery would help him be more likable, more relatable.

As other reviewers have noted, there are numerous grammatical and structural issues, which didn't really bother me as much as they normally would. I found the writing consistent with the voice of the young hero. *shrug.*

Having said all that, I probably will continue with the series. Even though the words and locations are sometimes incomprehensible - and my kindle has no available definitions, either - I still enjoyed the stories enough to soldier on. Probably.

I'm afraid this one wore me down towards the end. It started really, really well - considering I'm more of a sci-fi and Neil Gaiman fan this really got my attention. Magic and an attempt to scientifically examine it.

However, it turned into more of a whodunit, of which that genre just doesn't interest me.

I had just finished Ben Aaronovitch's Midnight Riot after hearing NPR book guru Nancy Pearl extoll its virtues, and I really enjoyed it. Midnight Riot was fast-paced, dry, well-written, witty and creative, so I decided to follow it up with another Aaronovitch work. Moon Over Soho came across like "hurry-up-and-capitalize-on-Midnight-Riot's-success." Characters were introduced quickly but not thoroughly fleshed out and the frequent typos, misuse of words and grammatical goofs gave the work a slapdash feeling. It seemed as though the editor had been left out of the process.

Aaronovitch is a talented and knowledgeable writer, but this is a juvenile tale and I'm a cranky old guy with a shelf full of better books waiting to be read--including the latest Bryant & May novel by Christopher Fowler.

Peter continues to be fun, though some of his intuitive leaps feel a little forced at times. Good buildup of what I assume will be the series plot for a while, but the details of the ending left me scratching my head a little.

In general I like mystery novels I don't think this one grabbed me despite some very clever ideas. The nemesis was poorly drawn and rather an absurd premise. Peoples faces being distorted to mimic the image of Punch. Punch being presented as a quasi-demonic force of nature. Pu-leese... On the plus side, I liked the river gods culture and the way he commented about modern London buildings and also subcultures.

I enjoyed this book but found sometimes it was more about the locations and history of London than the characters themselves so I found myself always wanting more from them and wanted to know more about them, I guess tho that is part of its charm and I'm hoping in the next book the characters will come more to life.

This is a British edition of a book written by a British writer. The many unique bits of British Police jargon will leave you scratching your head from the chapter onward. Sure this makes Londoners feel right in the midst of the action, but it only confuses me. It is not an exaggeration to say that at times the language is a greater mystery than the storyline. Still, it is interesting, as well as baffling. The characters are well drawn and the plot draws you along at a fair pace, so that before you know it young Provisional Constable Grant, and apprentice wizard, has it all figured out.

This book is meant to be a read for a bit of fun and relaxation. The second go around with the policeman apprenticed to the last of London's magicians was like day old bread; eatable but a bit stale. I like Mr. Aaronovitch's writing style and his use of words, but the subject matter a little to frothy to sustain a series.

as all Aaronovitch books in this series, it should be very much fun, sadly it suffers from poor proofreading and worse editing. if you can take that without annoyance, it is a good new series. sadly, the 4th book will be my last since the author seems uninterested in improving his novel writing skills.

Heroes like this are a dime a dozen. Jim Butcher does a similar thing and does it better - I wouldn't want to punch his hero in the nose if I met him on the street. Just a little too much focus on "Yes I am a manly man" for me.

I enjoyed the sample but about 1/3 of the way through I got so bored. Perhaps it was the British references that I was unfamiliar with,or my lack of interest in the characters. All I know is I used my skim reading to finish the book, but I skimmed so much I lost the plot.

The author knows London, knows history, is witty, sets up an interesting plot with conflict, action. He handles the "learning magic" problem with aplomb, as his lead character, a London cop/trainee, becomes an apprentice of a senior cop/wizard and begins to both learn magic and solve a series of magic-induced riots.

And the lead character is a likeable sort, multi-ethnic, the requisite troubled past, some cheek, and wit.

It slowly dawned on me (spoiler alert) that the women in this book did not fare well, and that this is a problem for the author.

The first is a fellow cop/trainee, and she ends up with her face smashed up and ruined. Started out as a love interest, ended as a battered woman. The second is a somewhat magical woman, associated with the River Thames, starts out as a sexy love interest, ends traded to a group of magical country rubes, perhaps as a sex willing concubine.

Does the author want a sustained love interest to be a part of these stories? Does he like female characters who are strong? Does he realize that the women in this book are hardly well treated? Will this be a pattern? Off-putting enough that I may page through the next one, and if a similar pattern continues, put it down without purchase. The women in this book start off smart and perky, and end badly. That is not fun to read.

Promising series, promising writer, and I hope just a tiny stumble about these lead female characters. But left me with a sad empty feeling at the end.

A good friend of mine raved about this book, touting it as incredible urban fantasy. I couldn't connect with it, and found it incredibly dull. I wanted to love it, but it just didn't intrest me at all.

Buyer beware! If you have already bought Midnight Riot you will find that they both are the same books with a different name. I was quite disappointed because I absolutely love the series - I've even got the next one on order.

This had been in my recommended books for months before I caved and listened to the store. Now I'm seriously considering asking for a refund. This was dull, lazy writing and sloppily edited to boot. There is hardly an original idea here, and the narrator's reliance on sarcasm and cliches failed to excite. Thanks for nothing, the store!

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and proceeded to inhale the rest of the series. My only complaint is that Aaronovitch doesn't publish fast enough. I enjoy the world and characters he's created and love what he's done with London. His detours into urban architecture, town planning, history and hydrology are deeply amusing as well as topical. A wonderfully creative approach to the genre with a sly self-conscious sense of humour nodding to all geeks everywhere. Just hurry up and write the next one!

This was so much fun to read. I could not put it down once I started. Harry Potter for adults with mild understated humor and loads of twists and turns and mystical creatures. The fact that there was a magic detective section in the London Metropolitan Police was hilarious.

To help you judge how much I enjoyed this, I immediately bought the second book on my Kindle when I finished this one so I could continue to read. I don't do that very often. Hope the third book mentioned in the blurb is out soon. Will Peter marry one of the daughters of Mother Thames?

Men, women and teens will all enjoy this book. I see it as possibly becoming very popular, especially with those who live in the UK or know it well or just like it. This is an England other than the one you know. :)

Rivers of London is the long-awaited original series from popular TV and tie-in writer Ben Aaronovitch. A darkly comedic police procedural, Rivers is a deliciously more-ish book that is nearly impossible to put down.

The book (and presumably, the forthcoming series) features Peter Grant, a somewhat mediocre police officer who suddenly discovers that he's, well, magical. Or at least, suddenly aware of the magical. Young Grant was on the fast track to a bureaucratic desk job, but now his life is much, much more interesting. Grant is poached for duty by Chief Inspector Nightingale, the Met's divisional head (and the entire division) for Creepy Magical Stuff.

It all happens just in time. The Rivers of London, at least, their magical embodiments, are having a turf war - it is in the pushing and shoving phase, but still, if it goes wrong, the city will be in bad shape. Grant is also juggling a second supernatural case - a nasty serial-killer of a poltergeist is beating people to death and making their faces fall off.

The Occult Detective has transformed into a recognisable genre stereotype. The 'O.D.' generally has a supernatural knack but, more commonly, solves problems through fast talking, "people skills" and general cunning. He's a bit of an outsider, something exacerbated by the fact that he Knows stuff that The Rest of Us don't. He's the tarnished knight type - cynical due to the problems in his own past. And 98% percent of the time? He wears a long coat.

Peter Grant (and CDI Nightingale) are the most recent branches of the motley family tree that includes Felix Castor, Harry Dresden, Johns Taylor, Constantine and Silence, and even, arguably, Doctor Who. All slightly-detached, urbane fellows with an outsider complex, floor-length coats and a knack of spotting solutions from a Lovecraftian angle. If Peter Grant bucks the trend, it is only because he still wears his patrolman's uniform.

If anything, Grant is a little too much of an outsider. He blithely strolls through the book with a clinical detachment that borders on the unflappable - even when he's caught on fire or, you know, someone's face falls off. Part of it is Mr. Aaronovitch's humorously objective writing style - but there are still points where I wanted to check the lead for a pulse. Like Constantine or Castor, Grant needs the occasional smack to remind him that he's still part of the human race - but unlike those two, it isn't rooted in cynicism, more an airy casual acceptance of events that is, at times, even more alien.

Where Mr. Aaronovitch separates his work from the trench-coated crowd is with his depiction of London. I'm a PROUD LONDONER (e.g. I moved here ten years ago, still cheer for foreign sports teams and will inevitably move to the suburbs as soon as I save up the money) and was wildly pleased to see proper descriptions of MY city.

Physically, emotionally and historically, Mr. Aaronovitch captures the unglamorous essence of urban London life. From stumbling over drunks to sweating on the tube, the informative plaques on every paving stone and the insane difficulty of Central London driving... this is the city in all of its banal glory. John Constantine and Felix Castor wander through Londons soaked through with mysticism - Peter Grant patrols streets with lined with CCTV and German tourists. Grant's detachment helps convey his (and, clearly, Mr. Aaronovitch's) love/hate relationship with the city as well. It is insane, clunky and messy, but who could possibly imagine living anywhere else?

Peter Grant is a late, and welcome, addition to a long line of irritable, sartorially-questionable saviours. If the he doesn't seem to be taking things too seriously... and the entire narrative style is a bit tongue in cheek... and the setting is a bit grittier than expected... that all sums up to an entertaining atmosphere that keeps the pages turning. There may be not a lot of thriller-style tension, but there is a lot of action, all excellently orchestrated in the streets and streams of London.

I liked the story concept, its the delivery that dragged on and on. The author portray's london in a way that only other people from that part of the country can understand it. For me, the verbose descriptions became a road block to the story itself.

I enjoyed reading this one as it featured a main character who wasn’t your typical anti-hero - which we seem to have a lot lately. I’m glad to see Peter was just your average good guy who’s doing his best to be a policeman until he comes across supernatural things in which his whole life changes.

Peter’s relationship with Nightingale is pretty much a mentor/student one. Nightingale has his own secrets though and a few are revealed but there’s more to him that you think - I hope there’s more information about him in the later books to come. There are other supporting characters; I do like Leslie because she’s got the wit (possible love interest, maybe) and she’s a perfect sidekick to Peter. Molly is another interesting character that I would love to know more about. Again this is the first book in the series so I’m hoping more character development will eventually come forth in later books.

The world building is pretty good and Peter does a good job also explaining how things are in London (I admit I had to google a couple of things as I didn’t know who or what Punch and Judy were) but it gives you information on the city and events that are common there to actually make you feel as if you are following Peter around as he tries to solve the case and becomes an apprentice.

The plot was well done and I liked how the different story arcs come together in the end into one large circle. It may seem confusing at first but once you have everything laid out and you know who is who everything comes to a close and it’s a great closing. It obviously leaves room for more books coming so one can look forward to what is next for Peter.

(The Riot scene though? Holyyyyy sheeeeeee what the……)

It’s a good read, those who are into urban fantasy mysteries will likely like this type of book. Looking forward to book two!

I love LOVE the details on the cover! I couldn't resist picking up my copy of Rivers Of London and as I started reading the story made an excellent first impression. Why? First of all, the writing style is engaging, strangely funny at points and solid in general. This made it easy to connect to the story and fully emerge myself in this urban fantasy slash detective story. The second thing that stands out is exactly this mix of genres. Paranormal elements, Gods, ghosts and other monsters are mixed with a good old murder mystery in such a way that just hit the mark for me. Part of this success is the main character Peter Grant, since he is discovering this strange new angle of the city of London along with us. Did the story drag at points and became a tad too slow? Probably. Did my initial enthusiasm fade away a little towards the end? Maybe. But while not perfect, I still had a great time with Rivers Of London despite a few minor flaws and problems. Between the main character and the mix of genres, I was pleasantly surprised by this first book of a series I will definitely be continuing some time soon.

I bought this book on a whim when I was in London at Foyles Book shop. Being a wide eyed tourist, I was interested in grabbing any book with London in the title. And while I knew this wasn’t a historical book or the like, the little description on the back had me thinking it was a modern day like New Scotland Yard murder mystery, so I snatched it up without thought and it sat on my book shelf for six months. Until now...

This book is so not what I was expecting.

At the beginning there is a review of the book (that I had failed to see when I bought it) that said “what would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the fuzz...” AND THATS SUCH A GOOD DESCRIPTION. I wasn’t expecting ghosts, vampires, magic, secret societies, etc when I bought this book. And the way the author blends the magical world with the modern world had me riveted, wondering what would happen next. Not once did I predict what the next step was or who the “bad guy” was like I do with a lot of other books. It was unique and different than anything I have read in a long time. I actually liked the main characters. The description of places took me back there in a heartbeat. Having been to London four times, it was so easy to picture the people, places, events described which made it totally immersive for me. I will definitely be looking up the sequels. I hope they’re just as good.

Peter Grant has finally made it into London's metropolitan police force with ambitions of going far. He and fellow neophyte Leslie May are called in to help when a headless body is found in front of St. Paul's, and Peter's just minding his own business while Leslie goes to get them something hot to drink when a ghost calling himself Nicholas Moneypenny tells him he witnessed the murder. Still digesting this information—since Peter's never been much of a believer in ghosts—he finds himself assigned to a mundane pencil-pushing police project while Leslie goes to the Murder Squad. But that's all changed when he's recruited by Inspector Thomas Nightingale, London's last practicing wizard, who takes odd cases too strange for the Met and who heard about Peter's ghostly encounter. Peter, it seems, has a talent for sensing vestigia (magical leftovers) and soon he finds himself ensconced at Nightingale's home with an odd housekeeper, learning magic.

While this all sounds delightfully daffy, it's actually the opening act to a super urban fantasy series. Peter, the biracial child of an African mother who has supported them as a housecleaner and an estranged jazz musician father, is a good-natured, earnest guy who is immediately likeable. We follow his progress learning magic as more bizarre murders take place around London, with people's faces being bizarrely affected by whatever madness has infected the city. He also makes the acquaintance of the gods and goddesses of London's river system, including Mother Thames, who keeps watch over the city while Father Thames guards its source in the country, and ends up with a dog who can trail ghosts. Endlessly inventive and with a twist that would make Arthur Bryant of Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May mysteries sit up and take notice. If you're looking for a novel urban fantasy series, this may be your cup of tea.

In the second Peter Grant mystery/fantasy, Peter and his mentor Inspector Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, are called to view the corpse of a part time jazz musician. Using his previously unknown esoteric talent, Peter can hear a jazz tune coming from the deceased, which tells him that the death was somehow caused by magic related to jazz music. Peter's familiar with jazz after growing up as the son of Richard "Lord" Grant, a well-known jazz musician who's recently begun to play again (on a different instrument) and get off the drugs that ruined his life. When similar deaths in London's Soho district occur, Peter is further perplexed, but gains an unexpected bonus: a sexy jazz fan named Simone who is crazy about him. Tossed into the mix: a shadowy magician who is running his own version of THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU.

I didn't think this story was as strong as the first, but we learn much more about Peter's early life as well as making the acquaintance of his parents. We also learn of the progress of the truce between the rivers (where Peter almost makes a fatal mistake that would have affected his friend Beverley Brook) and Peter's co-worker Leslie's recovery from the nearly deadly magical machinations worked upon her in the previous book. Peter is someone you'd love to know, a good friend, a wizard slowly growing in power, and a police officer learning his profession, and the story moves briskly—sometimes at a racing pace!—as more bodies appear in Soho and police work and wizardry tangle in a delightful combination.

If you like your urban fantasy with a good dollop of humor and a likeable lead, this is the series for you!

(Pssst! Does anyone keep hoping Bryant and May will show up?)

as all Aaronovitch books in this series, it should be very much fun, sadly it suffers from poor proofreading and worse editing. if you can take that without annoyance, it is a good new series. sadly, the 4th book will be my last since the author seems uninterested in improving his novel writing skills.

Heroes like this are a dime a dozen. Jim Butcher does a similar thing and does it better - I wouldn't want to punch his hero in the nose if I met him on the street. Just a little too much focus on "Yes I am a manly man" for me.

I enjoyed the sample but about 1/3 of the way through I got so bored. Perhaps it was the British references that I was unfamiliar with,or my lack of interest in the characters. All I know is I used my skim reading to finish the book, but I skimmed so much I lost the plot.

The author knows London, knows history, is witty, sets up an interesting plot with conflict, action. He handles the "learning magic" problem with aplomb, as his lead character, a London cop/trainee, becomes an apprentice of a senior cop/wizard and begins to both learn magic and solve a series of magic-induced riots.

And the lead character is a likeable sort, multi-ethnic, the requisite troubled past, some cheek, and wit.

It slowly dawned on me (spoiler alert) that the women in this book did not fare well, and that this is a problem for the author.

The first is a fellow cop/trainee, and she ends up with her face smashed up and ruined. Started out as a love interest, ended as a battered woman. The second is a somewhat magical woman, associated with the River Thames, starts out as a sexy love interest, ends traded to a group of magical country rubes, perhaps as a sex willing concubine.

Does the author want a sustained love interest to be a part of these stories? Does he like female characters who are strong? Does he realize that the women in this book are hardly well treated? Will this be a pattern? Off-putting enough that I may page through the next one, and if a similar pattern continues, put it down without purchase. The women in this book start off smart and perky, and end badly. That is not fun to read.

Promising series, promising writer, and I hope just a tiny stumble about these lead female characters. But left me with a sad empty feeling at the end.

A good friend of mine raved about this book, touting it as incredible urban fantasy. I couldn't connect with it, and found it incredibly dull. I wanted to love it, but it just didn't intrest me at all.

Buyer beware! If you have already bought Midnight Riot you will find that they both are the same books with a different name. I was quite disappointed because I absolutely love the series - I've even got the next one on order.

This had been in my recommended books for months before I caved and listened to the store. Now I'm seriously considering asking for a refund. This was dull, lazy writing and sloppily edited to boot. There is hardly an original idea here, and the narrator's reliance on sarcasm and cliches failed to excite. Thanks for nothing, the store!

So I was very excited to read this book. I had seen a lot of good things about it in reviews. In actuality I didn't feel those things came to fruition. The writing seemed flat, the foundation of this new world wasn't strong, and I had a few issues with characters.
**Spoilers below**

The main character is of mixed race, and I don't think how is written accurately portrays a worldview that would be held by a young half-black male in London. It felt like the author was writing outside of his knowledge there. The main character starts out pining for his colleague, being upset when she doesn't crawl into his bed at the end of the day. The whole thing seemed whiny and unnecessary? Their relationship was given no founding so I wasn't really rooting for them, it was just an adjunct way to talk about how the main character gets an erection? Like he gets an erection just talking to a woman at some point? Its not relevant to the story and the author doesn't do a great job writing it in a way that could make it relevant. Also the women characters in this book fall into two categories: potential sex partners, and fatter older women. Thats it. Thats all we get. Twice suicide is mentioned in the book and one time it is a woman who was dumped and the other it is mentioned about a woman who is so ugly her only options are suicide or a good personality. The fact of the matter is, that's just awful. So this book fails it's main & female characters. I did not finish it, and I was very disappointed.

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.

Rivers of London is the long-awaited original series from popular TV and tie-in writer Ben Aaronovitch. A darkly comedic police procedural, Rivers is a deliciously more-ish book that is nearly impossible to put down.

The book (and presumably, the forthcoming series) features Peter Grant, a somewhat mediocre police officer who suddenly discovers that he's, well, magical. Or at least, suddenly aware of the magical. Young Grant was on the fast track to a bureaucratic desk job, but now his life is much, much more interesting. Grant is poached for duty by Chief Inspector Nightingale, the Met's divisional head (and the entire division) for Creepy Magical Stuff.

It all happens just in time. The Rivers of London, at least, their magical embodiments, are having a turf war - it is in the pushing and shoving phase, but still, if it goes wrong, the city will be in bad shape. Grant is also juggling a second supernatural case - a nasty serial-killer of a poltergeist is beating people to death and making their faces fall off.

The Occult Detective has transformed into a recognisable genre stereotype. The 'O.D.' generally has a supernatural knack but, more commonly, solves problems through fast talking, "people skills" and general cunning. He's a bit of an outsider, something exacerbated by the fact that he Knows stuff that The Rest of Us don't. He's the tarnished knight type - cynical due to the problems in his own past. And 98% percent of the time? He wears a long coat.

Peter Grant (and CDI Nightingale) are the most recent branches of the motley family tree that includes Felix Castor, Harry Dresden, Johns Taylor, Constantine and Silence, and even, arguably, Doctor Who. All slightly-detached, urbane fellows with an outsider complex, floor-length coats and a knack of spotting solutions from a Lovecraftian angle. If Peter Grant bucks the trend, it is only because he still wears his patrolman's uniform.

If anything, Grant is a little too much of an outsider. He blithely strolls through the book with a clinical detachment that borders on the unflappable - even when he's caught on fire or, you know, someone's face falls off. Part of it is Mr. Aaronovitch's humorously objective writing style - but there are still points where I wanted to check the lead for a pulse. Like Constantine or Castor, Grant needs the occasional smack to remind him that he's still part of the human race - but unlike those two, it isn't rooted in cynicism, more an airy casual acceptance of events that is, at times, even more alien.

Where Mr. Aaronovitch separates his work from the trench-coated crowd is with his depiction of London. I'm a PROUD LONDONER (e.g. I moved here ten years ago, still cheer for foreign sports teams and will inevitably move to the suburbs as soon as I save up the money) and was wildly pleased to see proper descriptions of MY city.

Physically, emotionally and historically, Mr. Aaronovitch captures the unglamorous essence of urban London life. From stumbling over drunks to sweating on the tube, the informative plaques on every paving stone and the insane difficulty of Central London driving... this is the city in all of its banal glory. John Constantine and Felix Castor wander through Londons soaked through with mysticism - Peter Grant patrols streets with lined with CCTV and German tourists. Grant's detachment helps convey his (and, clearly, Mr. Aaronovitch's) love/hate relationship with the city as well. It is insane, clunky and messy, but who could possibly imagine living anywhere else?

Peter Grant is a late, and welcome, addition to a long line of irritable, sartorially-questionable saviours. If the he doesn't seem to be taking things too seriously... and the entire narrative style is a bit tongue in cheek... and the setting is a bit grittier than expected... that all sums up to an entertaining atmosphere that keeps the pages turning. There may be not a lot of thriller-style tension, but there is a lot of action, all excellently orchestrated in the streets and streams of London.

I liked the story concept, its the delivery that dragged on and on. The author portray's london in a way that only other people from that part of the country can understand it. For me, the verbose descriptions became a road block to the story itself.

This story was a surprise to me and a complete delight - quirky, unexpected and exceedingly well done. A young London Police Constable, Peter Grant, was investigating a murder near Covent Garden when he sees a ghost who witnessed the murder. Because of this "ability", Peter is soon apprenticed to a Detective Chief Inspector who specializes in crimes otherwise unexplained - he's a sorcerer. Peter eventually gains some sorcerous powers of his own and is soon deep into investigation of a number of crimes, and comes into contact with other ghosts and various river "gods". At one time London had many more rivers than it does now.

The story is about London as told by a Londoner, rich with London slang and locale history. Description of the theater district, churches, parks, cemeteries, etc., seem authentic. All the characterizations are strong, including his "governor", other police officers, his female friends and accomplices, and Peter himself. The writing is flawless. For those readers who don't know London at all or don't understand their slang, this story may be less rich, but for me the language, the descriptions of locales and every quirk was exciting. The supernatural aspects were fundamental to the story, and fit so well into the background of London.

What more can I say - it was great. The only downside is that subsequent Kindle books in the series are far too expensive for ebooks.

I enjoyed reading this one as it featured a main character who wasn’t your typical anti-hero - which we seem to have a lot lately. I’m glad to see Peter was just your average good guy who’s doing his best to be a policeman until he comes across supernatural things in which his whole life changes.

Peter’s relationship with Nightingale is pretty much a mentor/student one. Nightingale has his own secrets though and a few are revealed but there’s more to him that you think - I hope there’s more information about him in the later books to come. There are other supporting characters; I do like Leslie because she’s got the wit (possible love interest, maybe) and she’s a perfect sidekick to Peter. Molly is another interesting character that I would love to know more about. Again this is the first book in the series so I’m hoping more character development will eventually come forth in later books.

The world building is pretty good and Peter does a good job also explaining how things are in London (I admit I had to google a couple of things as I didn’t know who or what Punch and Judy were) but it gives you information on the city and events that are common there to actually make you feel as if you are following Peter around as he tries to solve the case and becomes an apprentice.

The plot was well done and I liked how the different story arcs come together in the end into one large circle. It may seem confusing at first but once you have everything laid out and you know who is who everything comes to a close and it’s a great closing. It obviously leaves room for more books coming so one can look forward to what is next for Peter.

(The Riot scene though? Holyyyyy sheeeeeee what the……)

It’s a good read, those who are into urban fantasy mysteries will likely like this type of book. Looking forward to book two!

Midnight Riot is the first book in the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch.

POV: First Person

Tense: Past

Setting: London

Sexual Content: none

I was really looking forward to reading this series. I loved the idea of a London cop becoming a wizard. Unfortunately, the delivery of the story was so dry and long-winded, I had a hard time getting through the book.

The opening line is a run-on sentence. This should have been a red flag for me. As I read the book, I found that the author’s style is like that. Long paragraphs, long sentences, and long chapters. There were also long gaps of time where nothing happened, which made me feel like the story’s goal wasn’t very important. It lacked urgency.

The reason I said that the writing was dry is the way it felt like events were being reported. In some places, I experienced the events, but in other places, I felt like I was watching from the outside.

One redeeming aspect of the novel was the amount of action. The story caught my interest at the beginning with the details of the crime scene and the decapitated victim. Then, I got interested in the ghost who witnessed the crime.

Overall, MIDNIGHT RIOT did not meet my expectations. It had a great premise and original worldbuilding (like the rivers being corporeal gods). I just thought it was too slow moving and dull at times.

**I loved the fist two books but this one is MORE for the Kindle edition than for the paperback. Guess I won't be reading it.**

Well, they finally got a clue and the Kindle price is now less than the paperback. Just a few cents but I guess it's all we are going to get. Read the book, loved it. Would rate it a FIVE if they would get their pricing lined out.

I really enjoyed reading this: fun, funny urban fantasy with engaging characters and a strong sense of place. Not being a big fan of series these days, I'm not rushing out to grab the sequel, but probably will read it at some point.

Midnight Riot (aka Rivers of London) is set in contemporary London, starring Peter Grant, a rookie cop who discovers he's sensitive to magic. There's a murder mystery, some feuding river spirits, some feuding cops--there's a lot going on for a short book, and it's fast-paced and a quick read. I take it the premise has been done before, but I love the juxtaposition of supernatural and mundane and thoroughly enjoyed the mixture of magic and supernatural creatures with police procedures and bureaucracy. And I enjoyed it in spite of not being a mystery fan; the mystery elements are engaging and just creepy enough, without overwhelming the book.

Meanwhile, the characters are just plain fun. Peter is an appealing protagonist whose first-person narration is not just snarky but genuinely funny, and his outlook is always entertaining, from the deadpan observations to his performing "science" experiments with magic. He's not a Chosen One--he's a little easily distracted to be a great cop, and has to really work at the magic--which is nice; he struggles and makes mistakes just like everyone else. It's a plot-driven book and so the characterization isn't the deepest ever, but the cast is vivid and enjoyable, brought to life by strong dialogue and detail. In addition to Peter, I'd happily read more about Leslie, Nightingale, Beverley, Mother and Father Thames (no relation, as they'd be quick to tell you!), even Molly. And while it's sad that this is in any way notable, the degree to which Aaronovitch respects his female characters stands out. Peter appreciates the boobs, because he's a young heterosexual man, but neither he nor the author gets stuck on boobs to the detriment of characterization, nor are women Peter is attracted to defined by their response to his advances.

There's also a lot of detail about London in the book; far from being a generic setting, it's drawn with closely-observed detail and the reader gets a real sense of the place as a modern, diverse, tourist-ridden city. You can tell Peter loves it even while he's constantly frustrated by, for instance, the traffic.

My one complaint about the book is that some plot elements don't quite add up. At times characters make decisions that seem driven more by plot necessity than common sense, or make leaps of logic that bear fruit only because the author requires them to. The river spirits subplot, while entertaining, doesn't go very far, and its resolution seems unnecessarily drastic. And not being a big series reader, I was a little disappointed at how much this book reads as the beginning of a series, leaving many questions to be resolved in future volumes. There is a complete plot arc here, however.

Overall, a very fun, fast read that you don't have to feel guilty about enjoying. Now I think I've talked myself into seeking out the second book!

The second in the PC Grant series is even better than the first. With no need to establish character and situation the novel races along, with Grant increasingly drawn into a complex and dangerous world of magic. Although the identity of the Jazz vampire is fairly easily worked out, there is reader pleasure in watching how and when Grant makes the discovery, and the ramifications of this. His ethics, his courage, his magic, his policing skills, are all put under pressure and it is gratifying to see the character develop. This also inspires some terrific scenes – the ambulance hijack being a particular favourite.
The other characters, even minor characters, are strongly delineated. Nightingale’s backstory becomes more mysterious and the details we do learn are grim. We also catch our first glimpse of a black magician. There are dark hints of terrible things happening in the background, just out of our, and Grant’s sight, and the likelihood of terrible danger infests the story.
It is, on the whole, a darker story than the first novel. Although leavened by the humour and wit of the narrative voice, we can see the series intensifying. There are a number of sex scenes, handled tastefully, and not too explicit, but readers should be aware of this. They certainly help with the story’s authenticity. I admire the way that the magic is woven into the everyday and where the magician works in the real world, and is not a privileged being doing his thing far away from ordinary folk and their concerns. Great fantasy writing can make the fantastical from the mundane. Highly recommended.

A witty urban fantasy/cop story set in London and environs. It’s in the same literary territory as Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” (set in Chicago) and Douglas Adams’s “Dirk Gently” books, but with its own cleverness. Peter Grant is a London Constable, just coming to the end of his three years of training, when he is assigned to guard the location of a grisly murder. He discovers there was a witness to the killing -and that’s when he discovers he can see ghosts. The witness is a ghost. It turns out that Peter has other latent abilities and he is selected by Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale to join him as an apprentice wizard to solve crimes and deal with the supernatural in London. The first case is a tough one, since the perpetrator appears to be a long dead actor controlling people to kill others in a theatrical style. At the same time, the Goddess of the lower Thames is having a row with the God of the upper Thames. They each have children who might be thought of as the spirits of the rivers which feed into the Thames. Peter gets involved in mediating the dispute.

Lots of plot complications, some violent murders, and some very funny writing in the distinctive British style that many of us enjoy. “Apparently he was a bit of an opera connoisseur, having been introduced to Verdi soon after having risen to the rank of commander. A sudden attack of cultural snobbery is a common affliction among policemen of a certain rank and age: it’s like a normal midlife crisis, only with more chandeliers and foreign languages.”

I can only assume that the American publishers thought that a book titled “The Rivers of London” would be mistaken for a travel guide. “Midnight Riot” doesn’t really express the quality or plot of the book, either. It’s the first of a series and people who have read the later books say that it is consistently funny and exciting. It’s not deep but it’s plenty entertaining enough for me to dip my toes into this literary river again.

I would note that the “f-word” is used quite liberally, for those who are sensitive to that.

“I gave the prescribed Metropolitan Police “first greeting”.

“Oi!” I said “What do you think you’re doing?” ― Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

“’Conflict resolution,’ said Nightingale, ‘Is this what they teach at Hendon these days?’
‘Yes, sir,’ I said. ‘But don’t worry, they also teach us how to beat people with phone books and the ten best ways to plant evidence.’” ― Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

First, I love British Urban Fantasy. It is often quirky, normally presented in a dry, witty style, and sometimes simply figuring out the language can give it a while other level of subtle humour not found in “American English” writing. I love it, and Ben Aaronovitch doesn’t disappoint with “Midnight Riot”. Of course, listening to the book rather than simply reading it added a whole other level to my enjoyment. The narration of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is everything I could have wanted and more. His delivery has the level of dry wit, spot-on delivery and subliminal snark that brings a ‘good’ book to the level of ‘brilliant’.

Peter Grant is a London ‘copper’ – just off his two year probationary period as a constable, his lack of ability to actually pay attention to what is going on around him has him scheduled for – basically a fancied up secretary. But one cold night on a scene watch under the West Portico of St. Paul’s at Covent Garden, Peter meets an odd little man in an Edwardian smoking jacket: “…don’t ask me why I know what an Edwardian smoking jacket looks like: let’s just say it has something to do with Doctor Who and leave it at that.” That in itself is weird enough. But the fact that he is a ghost is just a tad over the top, even for a Londoner.

Suddenly, Peter finds himself in a world he never knew existed – where ghosts and goulies, goddesses and monsters all exist just below the everyday hustle and bustle of the crowded city streets. In his new position as assistant and student wizard under the tutelage of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale. Thomas Nightingale, London Detective and Wizard. Well, nobody ever said being a London cop is simple, you know. Now, there are all sorts of odd things going on around Peter – and all of his friends, his family, and his coworkers, as well as the whole population of London, are in more danger than he ever could have imagined.

Peter Grant is an unusual character. Half white, half Somali, Peter suffers the same sorts of issues that any black man in a mostly white force suffers. He likes his job, but his fuzzy grasp on concentration causes him issues – issues that his Probationary partner, Leslie May, has to pick up the slack on. And of course, the oddity of his new position causes a strain for him within the department, as does the bureaucracy inherent in a huge, ancient city such as London.

“As soon as we stopped sleeping with our cousins and built walls, temples and a few decent nightclubs, society became too complex for any one person to grasp all at once, and thus bureaucracy was born. A bureaucracy breaks the complexity down into a series of interlocking systems. You don’t need to know how the systems fit together, or even what function your bit of the system has, you just perform your bit and the whole machine creaks on.”

Midnight Riot is amazingly creative. Ben Aaronovitch takes the trouble to weave in the history and stories of London, all the way back to its very beginnings, Londinium, a settlement established on the current site of the City of London around AD 47. The focus of the story interweaves history and mythology, witchcraft and ghosts, and Mother and Father Thames and their children, the many other waterways of Britain.

As Tim from Temecula says in his Audio review, “It’s as British as Chicken Vindaloo or Soccer Violence.” Of course, as a former Brit, Tim should know – ;-)

Idiosyncratic and wickedly fun, the Peter Grant Series is an absolute blast. I can highly recommend it! Especially if you listen to the Audio Version narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. Awesome!

This was the most unusual book I've ever read. I really liked the author's style of writing and if it wasn't for that I might not have read the book through to the end. In fact, by the end I wasn't sure if I was missing something or if I should just take things for face value. I wondered how the author comes up with the stuff. I purchased this in the UK but the title there is "Rivers of London." I purchased three other titles and am looking forward to reading them. I'm not sure exactly what genre this falls under. Mystical mystery, magical mystery. There are some funny lines. I do recommend it. I didn't find it boring at all and I'm one to put a book down quite easily if it's dull.

In this second book of the series, Ben Aaronovitch brings us back to London where Constable Peter Grant has to investigate suspicious deaths amongst jazz players. And for Peter, those deaths strike a little close to home, because his dad, the famous (or infamous) “Lord Grant” used to be a jazz legend, until he lost his air due to drug abuse and couldn’t play the sax anymore.

During the course of the investigation, Peter comes to suspect that Nightingale’s belief that magic is leaving the world and that there aren’t any practitioners left is rather erroneous. There is an unknown magician in London and his intentions are less than honorable.

I loved the first book in the series, Rivers of London (called Midnight Riot in the USA for some reason). You can read my review of it here. I absolutely loved the book, so I picked up Moon over Soho was with an equal amount of anticipation and apprehension. It happened to me way too many times when I love the first book of a series only to be disappointed with the next one. I was very glad to discover that it wasn’t the case with Moon over Soho.

All the characters I grew to love in the first book are back. Nightingale survived his gunshot wound and continues to teach Peter, even if he is still a bit under the weather (but still manages to show just how much of a badass he is in a certain scene with a night club and a demon trap). Leslie also survived her encounter with the vengeful ghost of last book, but is damaged by it.

And we finally get to meet the arch-nemesis of the series, an infamous (and powerful) magician who calls himself the Faceless Man. We learn very little about him in this book, but even that shows that he will be a formidable foe for the Folly.

Peter Grant continues to learn magic and explore his limits. I love the fact that he doesn’t just blindly follow Nightingale’s command. He asks questions, he tries to understand why magic works, and he experiments (sometimes with disastrous results).

We also get another glimpse at Peter’s family, meet new magical denizens of London and go to a couple jazz concerts. Oh, and we also get to see the school where Nightingale learned magic, and it’s nothing like Hogwards.

All in all, a wonderful second book in the series!

There are some books which release you highly anticipate and can’t wait to read, and then there are books that you just kind of stumble upon almost by accident. For me, it was the case for The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I was browsing the book section of the store, hunting for something new that sounded even marginally interesting to read, and I came upon this book. The blurb at the back sounded interesting enough, so I decided to give it a try. And boy am I glad I did! I absolutely, totally love this book (and the next three in the series as well, but I will review them at a later date)!

But first things first, here is a synopsis of the book. Peter Grant is just a probationary constable in the London police, and as such, he is saddled with the thankless task of guarding a crime scene overnight. The night is cold and Peter’s future is grim, because he seems to be destined for the Case Progression Unit – the unit of glorified paper pushers. But everything changes that night when Peter takes a statement from a ghost and makes the acquaintance of Inspector Nightingale, England’s last real wizard. So now Peter Grant is assigned to the Folly, the Unit that doesn’t officially exit but that most of the Force knows to call when any “weird” stuff starts happening.

One of the reviewers said that this book was what would have happened if Harry Potter grew up and lost his Chosen One complex (I’m paraphrasing here), but I think this book is better than that.

First of all, I loved Ben Aaronovitch subtle sense of humor which managed to lighten up even the really grim passages of the book. You can also feel that the author loves London and knows her very well. The city is not just a stage for the events in the book, but a participant. Its locations are intertwined with the plot.

And I absolutely fell in love with Peter Grant! He is such a vivid character. He is down to earth but willing to accept the existence of strange things when he sees them. He also doesn’t just take the existence of magic for granted, but wants to know how it works. He is not content to just repeat and replicate the formulae that Nightingale teaches him; he wants to know the rules; he wants to know the dangers and the possibilities. And that “scientific” approach to magic really appeals to me, maybe because I’m like Peter – I am not content to see that something works, I want to know how it works as well.

The supporting characters in this book are also very engaging, from Nightingale the mysterious, but slightly clueless in the modern world, wizard, to the smart and sometimes snarky Leslie, or Molly the creepy housekeeper / guard of the Folly. And don’t get me started on Toby, the dog who can sense magical residue! He is hilarious.

It’s a wonderful book that can be read as a standalone, but is also a very strong beginning of a series. I am very glad I picked it up and got hooked on Peter Grant’s world.

The first in a series has a hard task of establishing credible and engaging characters and an original, thoughtful narrative scenario. Aaronovitch succeeds as his unlikely hero PC Grant takes centre stage in battling supernatural forces as a member of a secret department of the Met.

The novel moves quickly and the reader is regularly surprised and delighted by the twists in the plot and the amazing characters and situations that are thrown up. All of this hints at a wider and mysterious back story, essential to a series, but also useful in continually having the reader wonder what else is happening behind the scenes, what mysteries await.

The author’s love and detailed knowledge of, London, is important as it brings the city into the story as much as a character, it is not just a setting. The Thames plays a key role in the story and in creating a unique otherworld that lies hidden within our own.

Occasionally the narrative lags a bit. I thought the climax of the riot scene was too long, for instance. Nevertheless this is a book that is hard to put down. Any lovers of supernatural fiction will respond positively to its premise, its characterisation and pacey style.

It is an expensive ebook, though. While Gollancz have a long history of publishing sf and fantasy, they have let readers down by overpricing here.

Are you tired of emo protagonists? Plots being moved along by stupidity? How about the same ol' humdrum?

I know I am, and that is why this book was such a wonderful surprise and I even almost passed on it.

The short and sweet of it is that you have this extremely relatable main character who just takes everything in stride, just like how I always feel a main character should. None of that "oh this is impossible" or "wooooow everything is so mystical." No, instead you have PC Grant questioning the thermodynamics of magic, his coworkers just shrugging it off and rightfully passing all the buck to Grant (really, who would actually want to deal with a psychotic serial killing ghost?), and him nodding knowingly to a river goddess while staring at her tush.

Seriously this book is clever, funny, and above all unique. The author knows how to subvert tropes and bring up all the random thoughts that pass through a reader's head and answer them, or at least ask them himself.

I recommend this book to anyone that likes urban fantasy, anyone who wants a spin on a mystery book, or anyone that has stayed away from urban fantasy because of the tired plot devices.

Also all the british slang...

I listened to this book, and must admit I had mixed feelings about the reader of the book. I can't think of one I would recommend instead, but it did take a bit to get used to his voice and pacing. He did a good job at voices and by the end of the book I was satisfied that he was the voice of Peter Grant. There were parts of the book that were laugh out loud funny and parts that were pretty gruesome. A great start to a series that I look forward to reading more of .
Peter is really much smarter than he is given credit for by some, and he makes some pretty intuitive guesses about what he is facing. His mentor and "master" Thomas Nightingale is sometimes as confused as Peter is. The pace is mostly non stop with Peter and Thomas dealing with a "ghost" who they believe is responsible for multiple gruesome deaths, and dealing with territorial disputes Father Thames and Mother Thames. I really look forward to the next installment of the series.

I electronically checked Midnight Riot (original title: Rivers of London) out from my local library. Very, very unusual writing style, but it works for this author. I'm a fan of dialog-driven storytelling, and will often bypass a story written to 'tell' you a story rather than drag you through the action with vivid first-person, emotional play-by-play. Midnight Riot was a pleasantly unusual reading experience for me. Aaronovich steps back from quoted dialog and tells a whopping great story by giving a layer of emotional distance between the reader and quirky characters. Instead of drawing the reader into the story with Peter's feelings about things, we are pulled in by his observations and interactions with others-- quite brilliant. Filled with unexpected twists and turns, I loved the plot as it slowly unraveled. A word of caution for my fellow American readers-- there is a surplus of British slang in the book, and I found myself halting periodically to look something up. While this slowed down my reading experience, I still enjoyed the book and promptly ordered the next two from my local library.

"Midnight Riot" aka "Rivers of London" is an extra special urban fantasy tale of Probationary Constable Peter Grant. It's so special it even has two titles. Ben Aaronovitch clearly has affection for London and it is lovingly recreated, albeit with a dash of magic. Peter unfortunately has been drafted into the Case Progression Unit which is a branch that help the police fill out paperwork. The only thing he is likely to die from is boredom. His career takes a 90 degree turn however when he encounters a ghost at a crime scene who gives him exclusive information about a headless corpse. This captures the eye of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale who investigates magic crimes and unusual happenings.

Peter is an interesting character and his multi-racial background definitely has an effect on the people he comes into contact with. He is the son of a white jazz musician father and a Sierra Leone cleaning lady mother and his parents' backgrounds have a significant impact on the way he approaches life. He learned tenacity from his mother and sticks with magic even though it takes him a long time to learn the most basic of spells. Not content to just believe what he has seen, he turns his scientific (geeky) mind to try to rationalise it. He becomes Nightingale's apprentice and takes on the role of negotiator between the different factions of the Thames River. He's not perfect and he stuffs up quite a bit as he and Nightingale use magic and old fashioned police work to solve the crimes. His interactions with the Rivers are particularly amusing although I would have liked more. Women fall into a few distinct categories - some like the Tyburn are feared given their strength while others such as Lesley seem to be taken for granted. It is a bit odd to have them so simplistically drawn when Peter is so well rounded.

This story is told in the first person and so we only have Peter's interpretations of others - luckily he is a great narrator. The plot does not seem that fast paced because of Peter's experimentation with magic and info dumps but I can forgive Aaronovitch for that as I enjoyed seeing London through Peter's eyes. Where the book really shines though is the wry humour that seeps out of every page. The book does tend towards the gritty but Peter just rolls with the punches. No matter what life throws at Peter, I imagine he could meet it after a quick panic, with humour and some equanimity. The climax could have been handled with a bit more emotion as could the denouement.

Ben Aaronovitch's novel is a great urban fantasy novel that rolls police detective work and the paranormal world into one. I loved stepping into Peter's London and will happily do so again.

If you'll remember from the first volume, Detective Constable Peter Grant is part of the Metropolitan Police's "Economic and Specialist Crime Unit". It consists of two people - Grant and his mentor, DCI Nightingale. Nightingale is much older than he appears and infinitely more knowledgable: he's a wizard. Grant, due to a combination of inclination and misfortune, is also a wizard - at least, he's trying really hard at it.

In the first volume, Grant is wrapped up in a fairly horrific little mystery that involves dark magic and people's faces falling in. The second volume starts with the same promise: someone out there is doing something nasty (and magical). Grant needs to solve it. This time around it is also more personal. The naughty-maker is offing jazz musicians, and Grant's dad is one of the best in the business. Although he's always been wary of it, Grant finds himself easily absorbed into the jazz scene. He finds friends (and ladyfriends) and indulges himself in a little second-hand fame due to his father's reputation. These new contacts prove valuable when it comes to snooping about in the dark and spicy Soho underworld.

Just to keep things interesting, there's also something out there eating people's anatomy. Eep.

The balance here is between plot and meta-plot. One of the cases above is a fairly transparent whodunnit. I'm not the savviest mystery reader, but I found absolutely no mystery in whoactuallyddunnit. The only detection was trying to suss if Grant was being particularly thick or if he actually knew all along and was stringing us along for extra overtime pay. This case is the book's self-contained plot.

The meta-plot is a much more complicated situation that involves the mysteeeerious origins of the magical tradition, a potential Big Bad (or Big Bads), a massive conspiracy, the misbegotten youth of DCI Nightingale and all sorts of stuff that is in no way resolved during the course of this book. It is fun - spell-fights and secret histories are invariably entertaining - but this isn't a mystery, it is epic fantasy with a hat on.

Ben Aaronovitch continues the successful formula of Rivers of London in bringing to the surface the endearing minutae of a city that he clearly adores. He also demonstrates the "real world" problems of a ritual magician trying to have some sort of "normal" life - never is this more aptly demonstrated than Grant having to run the broadband out of the garage, lest the cabling interfere with his home's magical protections. Grant continues to observe his world(s) in a detached way - a narrative voice that lends itself well to dry humor (and fits less neatly with the book's few over-the-top action scenes). Mr. Aaronovitch is, in short, writing the best contemporary occult detective series on the shelf today, and that's by a substantial margin.

My neuroses stem from concerns about the balance of "occult" and "detective". I hasten to add that I am making a very large mountain out of a very small molehill. Moon Over Soho is VERY good. One of PC Grant's core personality traits is his emphasis in approaching everything - even the supernatural - in a modern and rational way. Despite his wizardry, he is, in fact, the consummate detective.

The first book in Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series, Rivers of London offers an alternative, rather more magical view of London and the Metropolitan police force. Recently inducted into the Met, Peter is looking for promotion and hoping for something exciting – like the murder squad. But he gets a little more than he bargained for when he’s head scouted by the last remaining wizard in the UK, to become not only a member of the police force’s super-secret magical division, but the first apprentice wizard in decades. Peter has a really distinctive voice that feels completely authentic, and obviously comes from the author’s general love of London, fantasy, and all things geeky (think comic book geeky as well as properly science geeky). The relationships are also drawn really well, with Peter’s awkwardly flirty friendship with fellow constable Leslie, and his mentor-mentee relationship with Chief Inspector Nightingale being particularly warm and funny.

It’s not all fun one-liners, however, as there’s a real darkness at the heart of the book. The main antagonist is creepy and shadowy – there isn’t any real sense of who or what he represents even by the end of the novel but instead of being frustrated by this, it merely sets up the next books in the series to really dig into a truly bad ‘Big Bad’. We’re introduced to London’s ‘river spirits’ (as the title of the book alludes to), and it’s almost as fun to find out about the city’s many underground rivers, as it is their spirits. And in the spirit of London’s multi-cultural cosmopolitanism these spirits are just as likely to be Nigerian gods as they are pagan. Fast, fun, and funny, Rivers of London is a great introduction to Aaronovitch’s hero and should leave fans of Urban Fantasy satisfied, although I think anyone with a love of London and a penchant for off-beat fantastical tales would enjoy it.

Annie, Travel Blogger at cruise.me

Similar to the Dresden Files, just not as dark, this is an excellent set of books. I read this under the title "Rivers of London." Aaronovitch brings the British satirical snark to Urban Fantasy. You can tell the British difference by the muted, toned-down, violent aspect of the stories. While violence, even the ultimate - murder - is there; there's very little of the non-lethal violence leading up to it that is common in American stories. If you like the "Dresden Files," Hearne's "The Iron Druid," and Stross' "Laundry Files," you're going to really enjoy "The Rivers of London" series.

SPOILER FOLLOWS:

One point of the story I find to be just a tad off, even with Grant being portrayed as a man with a mind that wanders and is somewhat sloppy. During Grant's lead to finding PC May at the Opera House in order to knock her out with the syringe(s), he totally blows the job by attempting to "rush" to May through a crowd of theatre goers. Seriously Aaronovitch, his whole idea is to catch Pyke unawares so May's face won't fall off, yet Grant - with the possessed May looking on unsuspecting until this point - attempts to bull-rush his way through a crowd over a decent amount of distance in order to inject the syringe? Nothing like tipping off the suspect as any rookie would do...(sarcasm there). If Grant had just used his TRAINED police skills to sidle up to May, with an unsuspecting Pyke (he's fooled Grant for months to this point, and is unlikely to believe Grant is on to him), and then injected her with the syringe when her back was turned, the whole theatre scene would have been avoided; and, Grant's PLAN would have gone through to success: thereby saving May's face from falling off....Hmmmmm, that was the whole point of Grant's plan after all. But, no, you had to have him give himself away to May/Pyke and seal her fate of having her face fall off. Ah, well. You probably couldn't figure a way to work around the story enough to make it interesting down the road: especially her eventual betrayal for obvious reasons. Still, it's a good story, as are all in the series.

Normally I do not read much urban fantasy. It is simply not a genre that has held a lot of interest for me personally. I also do not read many police procedural novels - again, I really have nothing against them but I leave those for my wife to enjoy. But I have to tell you that when an author mixes fantasy, police procedural stuff, magic and above all, history into one work and than adds a wonderful dash of humor...well, I simply cannot resist.

This is the second offering in this series and really should be read after the first book, Midnight Riot, as it more or less continues where that one left off. Our young Constable Peter Grant continues his training under the only registered wizard in England, Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale (Born around 1900) and a new crises appears. Some one or something is killing off jazz musicians. While the deaths may appear to be normal, the actually cause is soon discovered to involved magic. There are at least two sub plots running parallel to these murders - We have "The Faceless Man," who is down right evil and various "creatures of the night" that must be dealt with.

Now let me give you forewarning. These are NOT children's books or YA books. The theme of the story is most certainly adult with adult situations involved. I know that some of the prepublication hype on these books touted them as "Think of Harry Potter joining the police force." Folks, this is not so. While I most certainly am a big Harry Potter fan, the author has constable and wizard in training Peter Grant doing things with various other characters that Harry and Hamione most certainly would not do...no, no, no!

Ben Aaronovitch is a very good author and has quite a lot going for him. He has a talent for blending magic and mythology with modern science in a way that at times it is difficult to tell when one begins and the other leaves off. It will be noted by the reader that this author is also extremely knowledgeable as to the history of London and reading his books is like receiving a mini history lesson. Aaronovitch know his mythology and he know his science. This is a wonderful blend. He also has the talent to make his characters extremely likable; if indeed you are suppose to like them, and even some of the "bad guys" are just a wee bit likable. It should also be noted that the author handles violence (yes indeed, there is violence) and sexual situations (yes indeed there is sex) quite tastefully.

The story moves along at a very nice pace yet at the same time is extremely detailed as to history, architectural subjects, clothing, food and background. I will be honest and tell you that I learn much reading these books. In this particular one I feel I received a wonderful little education as to obscure facts about jazz and those who historically performed it.

All in all this is a delightful and entertaining read. I have already started the next in the series.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Magic, mayhem and the Met again, mixed in with jazz, evil wizards and accidental necromancy. Someone is killing the jazzmen of London and there's a strange kind of rapist-killer stalking the clubs. Constable Peter Grant finds out more about his mentor, their strange housekeeper, and what happened to his famous father's musical career. Along the way he does a lot of shagging on rooftops and underfurnished apartments, perhaps as a way of coping with the awful things he keeps finding in basements.

One of the good things about Rivers of London was that no one was safe. The streets are in chaos, the victims are random, some survive and some don't. Hero Peter Grant's best friend and lust object ends up horribly disfigured, and in both Rivers of London and Moon Over Soho we see Grant struggling with his sense of responsibility for that - and in particular whether magic can restore what magic destroyed. This feeds in to his desire to understand the source of magic and its relationship to life or life-force. It's an interesting illustration of a post-Enlightenment, scientifically trained mind trying to come to turns with the irrational, with something which doesn't fit into one's understanding of the universe and how it works. Although Grant seems oblivious to the fact that Greater Minds Than His have struggled with the same questions (a character oversight which at this stage I can only hope is intentional or Aaronovitch's part).

But what I liked about this aspect of Moon Over Soho is that it gives us a taste of What Happens Next. The victims of the chaos in Rivers of London aren't left behind in the second book; they're still part of Grant's world, as both a copper and a friend, and at least one of them is a victim and possibly and instigator of what follows in Moon Over Soho.

It's a little bit more disjointed that Rivers of London - once again, Aaronovitch throws in interesting factoids about police procedure and London history but sometimes, in Moon Over Soho, they come across a bit non sequitur-ish - Where is this going? What is this doing here? But Moon Over Soho is still an engaging read, with a good set-up for the next in the series.

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This is not your average police procedural - in all of the best possible ways. A young London policeman discovers a unique talent - the ability to see ghosts - and is swept up into keeping the Queen's peace for the city's supernatural citizens.
A page-turning thriller with a charming sense of humor.
Will appeal to fans of urban fantasy, London, and mystery-thrillers.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and proceeded to inhale the rest of the series. My only complaint is that Aaronovitch doesn't publish fast enough. I enjoy the world and characters he's created and love what he's done with London. His detours into urban architecture, town planning, history and hydrology are deeply amusing as well as topical. A wonderfully creative approach to the genre with a sly self-conscious sense of humour nodding to all geeks everywhere. Just hurry up and write the next one!

When probationary Police Constable Peter Grant is left to guard a murder scene nobody expects him to find a witness to the crime, especially not a one who also happens to be a ghost. Peter quickly gets recruited to a super secret police unit that was set up to deal with supernatural problems, his new boss is a wizard and Peter now has a lot of new training to do. Suddenly Peter finds himself caught up in a side to London that he'd never seen before, one where ghosts are probably the least unusual creatures he has to deal with and it isn't only humans who can commit murder.

Rivers of London is a fantastic start to the Peter Grant series and I can now completely understand why my friends have been recommending Ben Aaronovitch to me for such a long time. He is incredibly skilled at bringing London to life on the page and if you're even slightly familiar with places like Covent Garden you'll be able to picture exactly where Peter is throughout the story. Alongside the London we know and love the author has created a darker hidden world of magic and supernatural creatures and I think we've only just begun to scratch the surface of what's really out there.

The police procedural side to the story is very realistic and that just adds more depth to the story and makes the weird and wonderful parts feel so much more likely, you'll almost find yourself wondering if the author has stumbled across a world that the rest of us don't know about and is actually writing these books from experience. There is plenty of humour to lighten up the tone and I laughed a lot while reading the story. Peter is a great character, I love the way he's not the best at his job and is completely out of depth when he finds out that he is a wizard. He's much more interested in finishing work for the day and heading down the pub for a pint where he'll also try and chat up his friend and fellow PC Leslie than he is in trying to further his career path. I can't wait to see what Peter gets up to next & I'm looking forward to continuing this series.

If you've ever wondered what a very, very British version of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series would be like, look no further than this excellent novel by Ben Aaronovitch. It turns out that newly-minted police constable Peter Grant has some hitherto undiscovered Talent which ends up redirecting him from a soulsucking paperwork job into a little-discussed division of the London police establishment that investigates cases which defy conventional policework.

Newly-ensconced in a world of wizards, ghosts, water spirits, vampires, and revenants (among others), Peter starts learning magic himself and attempts to find a supernatural serial killer with a decidedly English M.O.

Did I say this was very British? 'Cause it is. Did you know that over there they call morgues "mortuaries"? I do now. There's also lots of other wonderful little Britishisms, some pop culture references (at least one nod to Blackadder), and a pretty good story to boot.

It's a modern urban fantasy with lots of graphic violence and very little sex.

Highly recommended

Constable Peter Grant is back and this time he suspects sorcery in Soho. Jazz musicians in the area are dying; brains scans show they have been magically drained. When the girlfriend of one of the victim’s ends up in bed with Peter, complications are ensured. DCI Nightingale is still recovering so it is up to Peter Grant to handle this one alone.

One of the things I loved about the first book in this series, Rivers of London, was the fact that Peter Grant was a new police officer and new to wizardry. Moon over Soho is a natural progression from that; except that Peter Grant has improved in leaps and bounds. There are still mistakes being made but he is starting to come into his own element, it is like watching him grow as a character.

I’m not sure why the humour has been scaled back in this series but the urban fantasy style seems to be well established and I’m excited to read book three. The series is starting to give Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files a run for his money. While not as dark, the London setting and humour in all its nuance makes for a fantastic read. Ben Aaronovitch’s series may in some parts feel very similar to other urban fantasy novels; I’m impressed with the way he stands apart from the others.

I want to say it is the real English flavour that makes this series enjoyable; I love that style of crime and comedy. This could be because more urban fantasy novels are set in an American or fantastical setting. The uniqueness of the style makes this feel fresh, and then you get all those tropes from urban English novels thrown in as well, like slang.

When it comes to plot, the novel is pretty standard in relation to urban fantasy. I think the characters, the setting and humour is what makes this novel and series interesting. I was in a reading slump when I worked my way through this book. I tried it as a way to break the slump; I was able to read and enjoy the novel but never got out of my slump.

Unfortunately I’m still in a slump, but reading this novel was fun and entertaining. I’m almost tempted in reading book three just to work my way out of the slump. I will talk more about slumps later but reading books like this might do the trick in breaking my reading problems. Peter Grant is a fun character and the series is really enjoyable, I can’t wait to read more.

A friend recommended this to me, and then I ordered it from my local library (are we allowed to admit that on the store?)
I enjoyed the beginning and loved the end, but found that the middle lagged a bit for me, where I had to force myself to keep at it. However the basic premise is so strong, that it is still a four star book. I like both alternative realities and history and this has both in spades. I also liked the character of Peter Grant and the mysterious Nightingale. And I really loved all the history of London and the rivers which felt very accurate (I have to confess I have no idea if it was based in truth or not, but the detail and the grit felt real and right to me, and frankly that's what counts)

London constable Peter Grant, who is also an apprentice wizard, is trying to keep a low profile after "Midnight Riot," the first entry in this witty, fast-paced urban fantasy series. He'd been forced to 'immobilize' a couple of his supervisors who were rioting, looting, and burning down the tourist attractions around the Covent Garden opera house, the larger of the two inspectors succumbing only after Peter shot him full of elephant tranquilizer. As Peter puts it rather bitterly in the third book in this series ("Whispers Underground"), "You burn down one Central London tourist attraction, and they never let you forget it."

However Peter's superior, master magician Thomas Nightingale has been disabled with a bullet wound to the chest, so Peter is the only apprentice wizard/constable on call when a deceased jazz musician needs to be checked for signs of magical foul play.

Since Peter is also the police liaison with London's various river gods and goddesses, readers are also assured of an occasional soggy interlude when he isn't tracking down the serial jazz killer.

The mood of this book turns serious and scary as a new villain, a black magician called 'The Faceless One' gradually inserts himself into the plot. After several near-fatal encounters with The Faceless One's minions, Peter finally encounters the black magician himself in an extended climax at book's end where the identity of the jazz killer is also revealed.

If you are on the look-out for a new take on a genre that is weighted down with too many variations on occult sex and not enough thought put into the plot and what Terry Pratchett calls the 'detectoring,' try Aaronovitch. He delivers on all fronts.

Midnight Riot is the first book in the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch.

POV: First Person

Tense: Past

Setting: London

Sexual Content: none

I was really looking forward to reading this series. I loved the idea of a London cop becoming a wizard. Unfortunately, the delivery of the story was so dry and long-winded, I had a hard time getting through the book.

The opening line is a run-on sentence. This should have been a red flag for me. As I read the book, I found that the author’s style is like that. Long paragraphs, long sentences, and long chapters. There were also long gaps of time where nothing happened, which made me feel like the story’s goal wasn’t very important. It lacked urgency.

The reason I said that the writing was dry is the way it felt like events were being reported. In some places, I experienced the events, but in other places, I felt like I was watching from the outside.

One redeeming aspect of the novel was the amount of action. The story caught my interest at the beginning with the details of the crime scene and the decapitated victim. Then, I got interested in the ghost who witnessed the crime.

Overall, MIDNIGHT RIOT did not meet my expectations. It had a great premise and original worldbuilding (like the rivers being corporeal gods). I just thought it was too slow moving and dull at times.

**I loved the fist two books but this one is MORE for the Kindle edition than for the paperback. Guess I won't be reading it.**

Well, they finally got a clue and the Kindle price is now less than the paperback. Just a few cents but I guess it's all we are going to get. Read the book, loved it. Would rate it a FIVE if they would get their pricing lined out.

I really enjoyed reading this: fun, funny urban fantasy with engaging characters and a strong sense of place. Not being a big fan of series these days, I'm not rushing out to grab the sequel, but probably will read it at some point.

Midnight Riot (aka Rivers of London) is set in contemporary London, starring Peter Grant, a rookie cop who discovers he's sensitive to magic. There's a murder mystery, some feuding river spirits, some feuding cops--there's a lot going on for a short book, and it's fast-paced and a quick read. I take it the premise has been done before, but I love the juxtaposition of supernatural and mundane and thoroughly enjoyed the mixture of magic and supernatural creatures with police procedures and bureaucracy. And I enjoyed it in spite of not being a mystery fan; the mystery elements are engaging and just creepy enough, without overwhelming the book.

Meanwhile, the characters are just plain fun. Peter is an appealing protagonist whose first-person narration is not just snarky but genuinely funny, and his outlook is always entertaining, from the deadpan observations to his performing "science" experiments with magic. He's not a Chosen One--he's a little easily distracted to be a great cop, and has to really work at the magic--which is nice; he struggles and makes mistakes just like everyone else. It's a plot-driven book and so the characterization isn't the deepest ever, but the cast is vivid and enjoyable, brought to life by strong dialogue and detail. In addition to Peter, I'd happily read more about Leslie, Nightingale, Beverley, Mother and Father Thames (no relation, as they'd be quick to tell you!), even Molly. And while it's sad that this is in any way notable, the degree to which Aaronovitch respects his female characters stands out. Peter appreciates the boobs, because he's a young heterosexual man, but neither he nor the author gets stuck on boobs to the detriment of characterization, nor are women Peter is attracted to defined by their response to his advances.

There's also a lot of detail about London in the book; far from being a generic setting, it's drawn with closely-observed detail and the reader gets a real sense of the place as a modern, diverse, tourist-ridden city. You can tell Peter loves it even while he's constantly frustrated by, for instance, the traffic.

My one complaint about the book is that some plot elements don't quite add up. At times characters make decisions that seem driven more by plot necessity than common sense, or make leaps of logic that bear fruit only because the author requires them to. The river spirits subplot, while entertaining, doesn't go very far, and its resolution seems unnecessarily drastic. And not being a big series reader, I was a little disappointed at how much this book reads as the beginning of a series, leaving many questions to be resolved in future volumes. There is a complete plot arc here, however.

Overall, a very fun, fast read that you don't have to feel guilty about enjoying. Now I think I've talked myself into seeking out the second book!

The second in the PC Grant series is even better than the first. With no need to establish character and situation the novel races along, with Grant increasingly drawn into a complex and dangerous world of magic. Although the identity of the Jazz vampire is fairly easily worked out, there is reader pleasure in watching how and when Grant makes the discovery, and the ramifications of this. His ethics, his courage, his magic, his policing skills, are all put under pressure and it is gratifying to see the character develop. This also inspires some terrific scenes – the ambulance hijack being a particular favourite.
The other characters, even minor characters, are strongly delineated. Nightingale’s backstory becomes more mysterious and the details we do learn are grim. We also catch our first glimpse of a black magician. There are dark hints of terrible things happening in the background, just out of our, and Grant’s sight, and the likelihood of terrible danger infests the story.
It is, on the whole, a darker story than the first novel. Although leavened by the humour and wit of the narrative voice, we can see the series intensifying. There are a number of sex scenes, handled tastefully, and not too explicit, but readers should be aware of this. They certainly help with the story’s authenticity. I admire the way that the magic is woven into the everyday and where the magician works in the real world, and is not a privileged being doing his thing far away from ordinary folk and their concerns. Great fantasy writing can make the fantastical from the mundane. Highly recommended.

A witty urban fantasy/cop story set in London and environs. It’s in the same literary territory as Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” (set in Chicago) and Douglas Adams’s “Dirk Gently” books, but with its own cleverness. Peter Grant is a London Constable, just coming to the end of his three years of training, when he is assigned to guard the location of a grisly murder. He discovers there was a witness to the killing -and that’s when he discovers he can see ghosts. The witness is a ghost. It turns out that Peter has other latent abilities and he is selected by Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale to join him as an apprentice wizard to solve crimes and deal with the supernatural in London. The first case is a tough one, since the perpetrator appears to be a long dead actor controlling people to kill others in a theatrical style. At the same time, the Goddess of the lower Thames is having a row with the God of the upper Thames. They each have children who might be thought of as the spirits of the rivers which feed into the Thames. Peter gets involved in mediating the dispute.

Lots of plot complications, some violent murders, and some very funny writing in the distinctive British style that many of us enjoy. “Apparently he was a bit of an opera connoisseur, having been introduced to Verdi soon after having risen to the rank of commander. A sudden attack of cultural snobbery is a common affliction among policemen of a certain rank and age: it’s like a normal midlife crisis, only with more chandeliers and foreign languages.”

I can only assume that the American publishers thought that a book titled “The Rivers of London” would be mistaken for a travel guide. “Midnight Riot” doesn’t really express the quality or plot of the book, either. It’s the first of a series and people who have read the later books say that it is consistently funny and exciting. It’s not deep but it’s plenty entertaining enough for me to dip my toes into this literary river again.

I would note that the “f-word” is used quite liberally, for those who are sensitive to that.

“I gave the prescribed Metropolitan Police “first greeting”.

“Oi!” I said “What do you think you’re doing?” ― Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

“’Conflict resolution,’ said Nightingale, ‘Is this what they teach at Hendon these days?’
‘Yes, sir,’ I said. ‘But don’t worry, they also teach us how to beat people with phone books and the ten best ways to plant evidence.’” ― Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

First, I love British Urban Fantasy. It is often quirky, normally presented in a dry, witty style, and sometimes simply figuring out the language can give it a while other level of subtle humour not found in “American English” writing. I love it, and Ben Aaronovitch doesn’t disappoint with “Midnight Riot”. Of course, listening to the book rather than simply reading it added a whole other level to my enjoyment. The narration of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is everything I could have wanted and more. His delivery has the level of dry wit, spot-on delivery and subliminal snark that brings a ‘good’ book to the level of ‘brilliant’.

Peter Grant is a London ‘copper’ – just off his two year probationary period as a constable, his lack of ability to actually pay attention to what is going on around him has him scheduled for – basically a fancied up secretary. But one cold night on a scene watch under the West Portico of St. Paul’s at Covent Garden, Peter meets an odd little man in an Edwardian smoking jacket: “…don’t ask me why I know what an Edwardian smoking jacket looks like: let’s just say it has something to do with Doctor Who and leave it at that.” That in itself is weird enough. But the fact that he is a ghost is just a tad over the top, even for a Londoner.

Suddenly, Peter finds himself in a world he never knew existed – where ghosts and goulies, goddesses and monsters all exist just below the everyday hustle and bustle of the crowded city streets. In his new position as assistant and student wizard under the tutelage of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale. Thomas Nightingale, London Detective and Wizard. Well, nobody ever said being a London cop is simple, you know. Now, there are all sorts of odd things going on around Peter – and all of his friends, his family, and his coworkers, as well as the whole population of London, are in more danger than he ever could have imagined.

Peter Grant is an unusual character. Half white, half Somali, Peter suffers the same sorts of issues that any black man in a mostly white force suffers. He likes his job, but his fuzzy grasp on concentration causes him issues – issues that his Probationary partner, Leslie May, has to pick up the slack on. And of course, the oddity of his new position causes a strain for him within the department, as does the bureaucracy inherent in a huge, ancient city such as London.

“As soon as we stopped sleeping with our cousins and built walls, temples and a few decent nightclubs, society became too complex for any one person to grasp all at once, and thus bureaucracy was born. A bureaucracy breaks the complexity down into a series of interlocking systems. You don’t need to know how the systems fit together, or even what function your bit of the system has, you just perform your bit and the whole machine creaks on.”

Midnight Riot is amazingly creative. Ben Aaronovitch takes the trouble to weave in the history and stories of London, all the way back to its very beginnings, Londinium, a settlement established on the current site of the City of London around AD 47. The focus of the story interweaves history and mythology, witchcraft and ghosts, and Mother and Father Thames and their children, the many other waterways of Britain.

As Tim from Temecula says in his Audio review, “It’s as British as Chicken Vindaloo or Soccer Violence.” Of course, as a former Brit, Tim should know – ;-)

Idiosyncratic and wickedly fun, the Peter Grant Series is an absolute blast. I can highly recommend it! Especially if you listen to the Audio Version narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. Awesome!

This was the most unusual book I've ever read. I really liked the author's style of writing and if it wasn't for that I might not have read the book through to the end. In fact, by the end I wasn't sure if I was missing something or if I should just take things for face value. I wondered how the author comes up with the stuff. I purchased this in the UK but the title there is "Rivers of London." I purchased three other titles and am looking forward to reading them. I'm not sure exactly what genre this falls under. Mystical mystery, magical mystery. There are some funny lines. I do recommend it. I didn't find it boring at all and I'm one to put a book down quite easily if it's dull.

In this second book of the series, Ben Aaronovitch brings us back to London where Constable Peter Grant has to investigate suspicious deaths amongst jazz players. And for Peter, those deaths strike a little close to home, because his dad, the famous (or infamous) “Lord Grant” used to be a jazz legend, until he lost his air due to drug abuse and couldn’t play the sax anymore.

During the course of the investigation, Peter comes to suspect that Nightingale’s belief that magic is leaving the world and that there aren’t any practitioners left is rather erroneous. There is an unknown magician in London and his intentions are less than honorable.

I loved the first book in the series, Rivers of London (called Midnight Riot in the USA for some reason). You can read my review of it here. I absolutely loved the book, so I picked up Moon over Soho was with an equal amount of anticipation and apprehension. It happened to me way too many times when I love the first book of a series only to be disappointed with the next one. I was very glad to discover that it wasn’t the case with Moon over Soho.

All the characters I grew to love in the first book are back. Nightingale survived his gunshot wound and continues to teach Peter, even if he is still a bit under the weather (but still manages to show just how much of a badass he is in a certain scene with a night club and a demon trap). Leslie also survived her encounter with the vengeful ghost of last book, but is damaged by it.

And we finally get to meet the arch-nemesis of the series, an infamous (and powerful) magician who calls himself the Faceless Man. We learn very little about him in this book, but even that shows that he will be a formidable foe for the Folly.

Peter Grant continues to learn magic and explore his limits. I love the fact that he doesn’t just blindly follow Nightingale’s command. He asks questions, he tries to understand why magic works, and he experiments (sometimes with disastrous results).

We also get another glimpse at Peter’s family, meet new magical denizens of London and go to a couple jazz concerts. Oh, and we also get to see the school where Nightingale learned magic, and it’s nothing like Hogwards.

All in all, a wonderful second book in the series!

There are some books which release you highly anticipate and can’t wait to read, and then there are books that you just kind of stumble upon almost by accident. For me, it was the case for The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I was browsing the book section of the store, hunting for something new that sounded even marginally interesting to read, and I came upon this book. The blurb at the back sounded interesting enough, so I decided to give it a try. And boy am I glad I did! I absolutely, totally love this book (and the next three in the series as well, but I will review them at a later date)!

But first things first, here is a synopsis of the book. Peter Grant is just a probationary constable in the London police, and as such, he is saddled with the thankless task of guarding a crime scene overnight. The night is cold and Peter’s future is grim, because he seems to be destined for the Case Progression Unit – the unit of glorified paper pushers. But everything changes that night when Peter takes a statement from a ghost and makes the acquaintance of Inspector Nightingale, England’s last real wizard. So now Peter Grant is assigned to the Folly, the Unit that doesn’t officially exit but that most of the Force knows to call when any “weird” stuff starts happening.

One of the reviewers said that this book was what would have happened if Harry Potter grew up and lost his Chosen One complex (I’m paraphrasing here), but I think this book is better than that.

First of all, I loved Ben Aaronovitch subtle sense of humor which managed to lighten up even the really grim passages of the book. You can also feel that the author loves London and knows her very well. The city is not just a stage for the events in the book, but a participant. Its locations are intertwined with the plot.

And I absolutely fell in love with Peter Grant! He is such a vivid character. He is down to earth but willing to accept the existence of strange things when he sees them. He also doesn’t just take the existence of magic for granted, but wants to know how it works. He is not content to just repeat and replicate the formulae that Nightingale teaches him; he wants to know the rules; he wants to know the dangers and the possibilities. And that “scientific” approach to magic really appeals to me, maybe because I’m like Peter – I am not content to see that something works, I want to know how it works as well.

The supporting characters in this book are also very engaging, from Nightingale the mysterious, but slightly clueless in the modern world, wizard, to the smart and sometimes snarky Leslie, or Molly the creepy housekeeper / guard of the Folly. And don’t get me started on Toby, the dog who can sense magical residue! He is hilarious.

It’s a wonderful book that can be read as a standalone, but is also a very strong beginning of a series. I am very glad I picked it up and got hooked on Peter Grant’s world.

The first in a series has a hard task of establishing credible and engaging characters and an original, thoughtful narrative scenario. Aaronovitch succeeds as his unlikely hero PC Grant takes centre stage in battling supernatural forces as a member of a secret department of the Met.

The novel moves quickly and the reader is regularly surprised and delighted by the twists in the plot and the amazing characters and situations that are thrown up. All of this hints at a wider and mysterious back story, essential to a series, but also useful in continually having the reader wonder what else is happening behind the scenes, what mysteries await.

The author’s love and detailed knowledge of, London, is important as it brings the city into the story as much as a character, it is not just a setting. The Thames plays a key role in the story and in creating a unique otherworld that lies hidden within our own.

Occasionally the narrative lags a bit. I thought the climax of the riot scene was too long, for instance. Nevertheless this is a book that is hard to put down. Any lovers of supernatural fiction will respond positively to its premise, its characterisation and pacey style.

It is an expensive ebook, though. While Gollancz have a long history of publishing sf and fantasy, they have let readers down by overpricing here.

Are you tired of emo protagonists? Plots being moved along by stupidity? How about the same ol' humdrum?

I know I am, and that is why this book was such a wonderful surprise and I even almost passed on it.

The short and sweet of it is that you have this extremely relatable main character who just takes everything in stride, just like how I always feel a main character should. None of that "oh this is impossible" or "wooooow everything is so mystical." No, instead you have PC Grant questioning the thermodynamics of magic, his coworkers just shrugging it off and rightfully passing all the buck to Grant (really, who would actually want to deal with a psychotic serial killing ghost?), and him nodding knowingly to a river goddess while staring at her tush.

Seriously this book is clever, funny, and above all unique. The author knows how to subvert tropes and bring up all the random thoughts that pass through a reader's head and answer them, or at least ask them himself.

I recommend this book to anyone that likes urban fantasy, anyone who wants a spin on a mystery book, or anyone that has stayed away from urban fantasy because of the tired plot devices.

Also all the british slang...

I listened to this book, and must admit I had mixed feelings about the reader of the book. I can't think of one I would recommend instead, but it did take a bit to get used to his voice and pacing. He did a good job at voices and by the end of the book I was satisfied that he was the voice of Peter Grant. There were parts of the book that were laugh out loud funny and parts that were pretty gruesome. A great start to a series that I look forward to reading more of .
Peter is really much smarter than he is given credit for by some, and he makes some pretty intuitive guesses about what he is facing. His mentor and "master" Thomas Nightingale is sometimes as confused as Peter is. The pace is mostly non stop with Peter and Thomas dealing with a "ghost" who they believe is responsible for multiple gruesome deaths, and dealing with territorial disputes Father Thames and Mother Thames. I really look forward to the next installment of the series.

I electronically checked Midnight Riot (original title: Rivers of London) out from my local library. Very, very unusual writing style, but it works for this author. I'm a fan of dialog-driven storytelling, and will often bypass a story written to 'tell' you a story rather than drag you through the action with vivid first-person, emotional play-by-play. Midnight Riot was a pleasantly unusual reading experience for me. Aaronovich steps back from quoted dialog and tells a whopping great story by giving a layer of emotional distance between the reader and quirky characters. Instead of drawing the reader into the story with Peter's feelings about things, we are pulled in by his observations and interactions with others-- quite brilliant. Filled with unexpected twists and turns, I loved the plot as it slowly unraveled. A word of caution for my fellow American readers-- there is a surplus of British slang in the book, and I found myself halting periodically to look something up. While this slowed down my reading experience, I still enjoyed the book and promptly ordered the next two from my local library.

"Midnight Riot" aka "Rivers of London" is an extra special urban fantasy tale of Probationary Constable Peter Grant. It's so special it even has two titles. Ben Aaronovitch clearly has affection for London and it is lovingly recreated, albeit with a dash of magic. Peter unfortunately has been drafted into the Case Progression Unit which is a branch that help the police fill out paperwork. The only thing he is likely to die from is boredom. His career takes a 90 degree turn however when he encounters a ghost at a crime scene who gives him exclusive information about a headless corpse. This captures the eye of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale who investigates magic crimes and unusual happenings.

Peter is an interesting character and his multi-racial background definitely has an effect on the people he comes into contact with. He is the son of a white jazz musician father and a Sierra Leone cleaning lady mother and his parents' backgrounds have a significant impact on the way he approaches life. He learned tenacity from his mother and sticks with magic even though it takes him a long time to learn the most basic of spells. Not content to just believe what he has seen, he turns his scientific (geeky) mind to try to rationalise it. He becomes Nightingale's apprentice and takes on the role of negotiator between the different factions of the Thames River. He's not perfect and he stuffs up quite a bit as he and Nightingale use magic and old fashioned police work to solve the crimes. His interactions with the Rivers are particularly amusing although I would have liked more. Women fall into a few distinct categories - some like the Tyburn are feared given their strength while others such as Lesley seem to be taken for granted. It is a bit odd to have them so simplistically drawn when Peter is so well rounded.

This story is told in the first person and so we only have Peter's interpretations of others - luckily he is a great narrator. The plot does not seem that fast paced because of Peter's experimentation with magic and info dumps but I can forgive Aaronovitch for that as I enjoyed seeing London through Peter's eyes. Where the book really shines though is the wry humour that seeps out of every page. The book does tend towards the gritty but Peter just rolls with the punches. No matter what life throws at Peter, I imagine he could meet it after a quick panic, with humour and some equanimity. The climax could have been handled with a bit more emotion as could the denouement.

Ben Aaronovitch's novel is a great urban fantasy novel that rolls police detective work and the paranormal world into one. I loved stepping into Peter's London and will happily do so again.

If I was to give a quick description of this book I'd probably call it a UK version of the Harry Dresden series. But that doesn't really give it the credit it deserves.

Ben Aaronovitch may be known to some of you as the script writer for a couple of solid Doctor Who episodes (Remembrance of the Daleks and Battlefield). Here he shows not only a good grip on the basics of urban fantasy but also some nice background on the Metropolitan Police Force. Which gives the book an authentic feel.

Setting is critical to this book. In the UK it is titled _Rivers of London_ and that name has significance. In the US it's been called _Midnight Riot_ because... Americans.

Not only are the rivers themselves physically embodied in the book, but the locations add character and color. You couldn't simply transplant the story to New York and have it work the same way.

The book is also refreshingly multicultural (appropriate given the London setting) without making a big deal about it. The characters simply come from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.

If I have complaints it's that certain things are glossed over. None of the characters seem terribly upset or disconcerted by the sudden discovery of magic. Similarly they're not as upset as I might expect when things go almost catastrophically wrong.

And yet there's so much going on so fast that these are really only things I notice after the fact. There are three novels in the series so far and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

So this guy Peter Grant is a new plod in the London Metropolitan when he sees and speaks with a ghost at the scene of a grim and grisly murder. Not the ghost of the victim, but an informant who tells him things about the murder which are later confirmed.

But (a) no murderer is caught and (b) for his acute senses Grant gets sent to the branch of the Metropolitan that deals with magical stuff. The size of this branch? Prior to his arrival, one, a Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who begins to teach Grant the ways of magic.

The murder turns out to be the first in a series of bizarre murders with a pattern that becomes obvious to those familiar with the source material; not so much for most Americans though. Aaronovitch eventually lets the puppet out of the sack and clues us in, and it's quite a nasty pattern.

Lots of action, moderately witty writing, and a magical London with a truly macabre menace make for an interesting read.

The magic in this book has an innocence and freshness that reminds me of Harry Potter (I know I'm not the first to point this out); indeed, hero/ingenue Peter Grant is, like Harry, a slightly abashed apprentice just discovering that he is a wizard by nature, though a mortal by experience, and both delighted and nonplussed by his new abilities. The scenes in which he practices creating a werelight could have come right out of J.K. Rowling. The human and magical worlds exist side by side in a delightful humdrum solidarity, which leaves one eager for more cross-over. This aspect of the book is just really a lot of fun.

"Midnight Riot" also bears welcome marks of its other primary source-genre, the detective novel, with that form's charmingly ironic just slightly noir detective, its crisp dialogue, and its fully realized sense of the city where it is set: London. The city's sites--the tube, the bridge, Covent Garden, Russell Square, and many other locales--really come to life under Aaronovitch's skillful pen (in fact, rivers actually become characters). As in the typical detective novel, the relationships are not the focus, so I won't be too critical of the under-motivation of Peter's various love interests. This is a genre-typical blemish on the book, even when, as here, more than one of those relationships turns out to be essential to the development of the plot.

The book is also historical fiction. But who can complain? In a compelling interlude near the end, in pursuit of the arch-villain, Peter takes London back in time. The description here is masterful, truly riveting, and justifies the introduction of this additional formal context.

And yet--the multiplication of genres finally becomes too much, causing the book to feel like a slightly incoherent literary sampler. I was less than excited by the vampire-aspects of this otherwise skillfully executed novel. Did we really need the introduction of the Goth-inspired Molly's possible (s)excapades at the end? But I'm in the generation of the Twilight Zone rather than the Twilight series, so I'm a little lacking in sympathy in this area. "Midnight Riot" is an enjoyable and smart book. I'll be continuing to follow the adventures of Peter Grant; he has made a fine debut.

I absolutely love this whole series & have read (listened) to it twice now. The audiobooks are so well done. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Is a brilliant narrator, great at doing different accents from all across Great Britain. Highly recommend,

Right from the start, Peter Grant’s narratorial voice makes itself comfy in your reader’s brain and settles down for what turns out to be a rollicking good criminal case in the magical underbelly of London. It’s been hailed as what happens if Harry Potter became a policeman, and you know what? It really does have the same sort of laid-back, magic-is-just-another-part-of-the-fabric-of-society tone that JK Rowling managed with the Muggle and magical worlds of Harry Potter.

Aaronovitch has a methodical approach to setting scenes and gives the reader a detailed tour of London and surrounds. In the beginning this was a fantastic opportunity to really visualize the places Peter Grant moved through, but … well, by the middle to end of the book I was tiring of the almost excruciating detail given to streets and buildings. It worked well to set up the story and seriously establish an authentic London, but once the story gathered its momentum the layers of detail just seemed to slow everything down.

I enjoyed the characters of this book: they were a mix of familiar and new. I’m assuming Aaronovitch is building up his magical world for future books, which is a very good thing in my mind. I’d like to see a continuity unfold as Peter Grant gathers more experience in future books. The exploration of London’s (and Britain’s) river ‘gods’ was pretty unique and worked well alongside the more macabre criminal case.

The only drawback, apart from too much detail given to the streets and statues and ephemera of London, was the main character’s all-too-sudden expertise with magic. As the story opens, Peter Grant is just your regular under-performing police rookie, just about to be assigned to a desk job. A chance encounter with a charismatic ghost leads him to the magical police – which works well. However, Grant uses his rudimentary knowledge of science to really make leaps and bounds in his apprenticeship. His ‘master’, Inspector Nightingale seems to be happy to let Grant do all the hard magical work. That didn’t ring true to me. The case is quite dangerous and for most of the novel, the police (including Nightingale) are clueless about who is responsible; so when opportunities arise for some magical investigation (such as trying to raise ghosts in a graveyard) I couldn’t really reconcile the idea that Nightingale would let his apprentice do the spells.

Anyway, that’s just a gripe. I really recommend this book to those hordes of Harry Potter fans, and even to the fans of Harry Dresden. Aaronovitch is quintessentially British and his hero, Peter Grant, is equally so.

A promising jazz drummer is found dead of a heart attack shortly after playing a gig in London. At first, the only odd circumstance surrounding his death is the fact that Peter Grant, apprentice wizard and police constable, faintly hears the notes of the jazz standard "Body and Soul" rising from the corpse, indicating that magic was somehow involved in the musician's death. However, when further research reveals that several jazz musicians have died in similar circumstances over the years, it suddenly becomes much more urgent for Peter and his supervisor Thomas Nightingale to find out what's really going on...

So begins Moon over Soho, the second book in the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch. Let's get the most important news out of the way first: if you enjoyed Midnight Riot (or Rivers of London, as it's called outside of the US), you'll love Moon over Soho. The new novel does just about everything its predecessor did so well, but a little better and with enough new twists to make you wish the third book in the series was already on the shelves.

One of the reasons Moon over Soho is an even more fun read than the first book is the fact that it doesn't have to spend as much time setting things up for the reader. We already know who police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant is, we know about Thomas Nightingale and his secret magical department in the London police force, we have some background about how magic works, we know about the Folly. Thanks to all of this, Ben Aaronovitch can kick the story into high gear right from the beginning, with Peter's investigation into the jazz drummer's death (and into another seemingly unrelated but much more gruesome incident) quickly setting up a few side-plots and new characters. At the same time, there's space in the story to fill the reader in on things like Thomas Nightingale's past and the history of magic in England, and to throw in hilarious side-bars such as the goofy way of determining the strength of residual magic by measuring how loud Toby the dog barks ("0.5 milliyaps").

The cover's catchphrase is "Magic and murder to a jazz beat", which is surprisingly appropriate in several ways. Jazz is a running theme throughout the novel, from the drummer who is found dead in the opening chapter to Peter's father, a famous jazz musician in his day, who plays a more important role in Moon over Soho than in the first book. There's a comical group of side-characters called "the irregulars" who are all jazzmen (or at least wannabe jazzmen) and who will hopefully appear in future novels. Several chapters bear the title of famous jazz songs or albums. And finally, this may be a stretch but the book is written in what I'd pretentiously like to call a highly propulsive style. That's probably not a real jazz term at all, but nevertheless, the fact that the story rarely slows down (and when it does, it's for a good reason) makes Moon over Soho hard to put down and never boring. It's like one of those songs you can't help but tap your foot along to.

Going back to that cover for a moment: the "Neth Space" blog has an excellent article up about the noticeable difference between the US and UK covers. It's painfully obvious they're different, and while the term "white-washing" is not entirely appropriate (given that the model's actually turned into a black silhouette), it's still hard to imagine why Del Rey felt the need to change these covers in this day and age. (For some reason, the store shows the UK cover. The US version is the same, except the male figure is a silhouette, so you can't determine his race.)

Regardless, Ben Aaronovitch delivers another winner with Moon over Soho, a realistic modern day police procedural (aside from all the magic, of course) populated by increasingly solid characters and written in the same consistently witty style as the first Peter Grant novel. It features a gripping mystery plot with some truly creepy, borderline horror elements and a few incredibly tense action scenes. Moon over Soho is one of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time, and really made me look forward to the next installment in the Peter Grant series. Check it out, even if (like me) you usually don't enjoy urban fantasy.

Very good, a delicious, satisfying read. It moved fast, but not so much that the pace was unsustainable or unlikely.

I felt like Peter was exceptionally naive in dealing with Simone; shouldn't he wonder why he had this intense lust/fascination? Shouldn't he be more bothered that her last lover died abruptly two weeks ago and she doesn't seem to have any grief? I feel like most police wouldn't make the mistake of interacting on a very personal level so quickly. I found the shagging interludes kind of distracting, and not particularly congruent with the Peter of Midnight Riot, but perhaps Aaronovitch is trying to expand Peter's life. Still, he's been opened to this world of magic and discovering how like attracts like; it was hardly a surprise when Simone turned out to have very magical properties. I was only surprised by Peter's efforts to bring her into the Folly. I think Nightingale was right in pointing out that she and her sisters are responsible for 200 plus deaths. "Mental disorder," perhaps, but according to all copper standards, that still warrants locking up.

I was most pleased with how Peter interacted with Leslie. The most common way authors seem to handle tragedy in their male protagonists' lives is through excruciating guilt, and by telling us about the guilt. Instead, Peter visits, continues somewhat normally by texting, and then through the phone. He's used to bouncing ideas off Leslie, and this trend continues. There are hints at his guilty feelings, but they do not dominate their interactions or Peter's thoughts.

There's a fair amount of British colloquial slang and police terms, the most obvious is "copper" instead of police. Aaronovitch doesn't even explain in passing, so sometimes meaning is a challenge to pick up. This is only a minor bother, however. Overall, the language is fun, and sophisticated, and a thorough reading will generate a lot of chuckles, particularly in scenes with Peter and Stephanopoulis.

I'm a big fan of urban fantasy. I love Charlaine's Harris'quirky Southern Vampire series, Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld, Richelle Meade's Dark Swan, Patricia Brigg's Iron Kissed, The Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston and Mike Carey's Felix Castor books. So when I read the preview for Midnight Riot, I was pretty excited.

I've long thought that Urban Fantasy could use a good police setting, I've grown a bit weary of supernatural storylines that take place in private and never come to the attention of the police (so annoying and a bit unbelievable when buildings are falling and people are dying in bizarre supernatural ways).

So I was a bit disappointed to find out that the main characters would be performing their odd investigations away from the regular police.

But other than that little misstep, I liked this book.

Other reviewers complained about the voluminous descriptions of London locations, but I found it interesting. I've never been to London and the scene setting made it easier for me to imagine the characters investigating in Jolly old England.

The main character could have been fleshed out a little more. His likes and dislikes, what motivated him, why he liked the girl so much, but there was so much going on that I didn't have time to get bored and that's saying a lot. I have a short attentions span.

But the best part of the story was Peter's development from a bench sitter to a star player. I liked his occasional fumbles, it's tiring to always read about characters who are perfect, you know the type, they kick butt, dress like a badass and all the members of the opposite sex (sometimes the same sex) want to jump their bones. Peter's kind of a dork. He's smart, but not a genius and he's nice and you know what they say about nice guys.

Maybe it was me but I saw a real similarity in the relationship between Peter and Inspector Nightingale to another couple that I love, Agent Pendergast and homicide cope Vincent Dagosta from the series written by Lincoln Childs and Douglas Preston (if you haven't read them, you should, get a copy from the library because I think they are only available in hardback). Mentor and apprentice, the older male who takes the younger man under his wing and helps him to develop his special abilities. I guess it's called a heroes journey.

Anyways, Peter's story begins with him seeing a ghost. The ghost gives him info on a recent murder and the story develops from there. Like I said before, there's a lot going on, a lot of details, characters, supernatural and human and the plot moves at a pretty crisp pace.

One part I didn't like was the love interest. She didn't seem real and couldn't figure out why a guy like Peter would like her, they didn't seem to mesh well. Oh well, it's a minor thing, this doesn't rely on a romance to keep the readers interest.

I was disappointed when it ended but I've just found out the next book in the series will be released soon. Yay.

"Midnight Riot" was a fun book to read, and Diana Gabaldon, the reviewer who likened it to Harry Potter growing up and joining the Metropolitan Police, was so right. Although "Midnight Riot" isn't as rich as a Harry Potter book, it's a satisfying read that's fun to escape into for the time it takes to get through it. It's my brand of "paranormal," which is just paranormal enough to raise the hair on my arms, almost, but not so much that the freak-out lasts for days. There's a little London mythology thrown in, in the form of the personifications of the London rivers, and some magic- not pages and pages of magic 'procedural' or anything, but enough for a reader to get the gist. It's also written with a sense of humor. There are parts that are just laugh-out-loud funny.

The story takes place in London, and although we get a different title here in the States from what a UK audience would get (There it's called "Rivers of London"), there's enough of the London slang still intact in our version to lead me to believe and hope that it hasn't been changed too much so an American can get it- part of the fun of reading a book set in London is to figure out what the Cockneys are talking about! The narrator's voice, and his interactions with other characters, and their dialogue all rang true in my ears. The plot really moves along. I tried keeping this as a bedtime-only book, and found myself staying up until the wee hours for the couple nights that lasted, and taking the book with me to appointments to find out what happens.

Needless to say, this book on its own left me wanting too much more, but happily, there's a sequel already out, and a third to crown the trilogy, which I am about to pre-order, just based on how much I liked Midnight Riot. With Summer Vacation coming up, I think this one would be a good book to take along to the beach, or airport, or anywhere else you want a gripping book to pull you in and take you for a spin.

Despite the grisly, gruesome nature of the crimes and the realistic procedural detail within the modern London Metropolitan Police, the tone of this novel is lighthearted and comical. There were moments when I laughed out loud - which is rare for me when I'm reading. The magical and supernatural element is worked seamlessly into the realistic backdrop of 21st-century London with an impressive dose of historical trivia as well as contemporary detail.

At the start of the book, Peter Grant (the first-person narrator) has just finished his probationary period and is about to become a sworn London constable and be given his duty assignment. It looks like he will be getting a boring desk job, but after he briefly interviews a murder witness who turns out to be a ghost, he attracts the attention of Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the head (and apparently the only member) of a special division dealing with occult crime. Peter becomes Nightingale's apprentice and moves into "the Folly," an Edwardian mansion which is Nightingale's headquarters. In between magic lessons, he works on a bizarre case involving a series of murders and a plague of unexplained violence centering around Covent Garden.

Peter is extremely likable, as are most of the other characters who are briefly but solidly described. Hats off to Mr. Aaronovitch's ability to economically delineate his characters. It's an interesting cast, including a burly & disagreeable Chief Inspector, an Arabic/Scottish medical examiner, two rival factions of river spirits consisting of a bevy of beautiful African women and a band of quaintly creepy carnival folk, and the Folly's housekeeper who is some sort of unnatural creature...

The story is very readable but I experienced some dissonance between the seriousness and the silliness. The villain (when he finally appears) is a bit too over-the-top, and the climactic scene which gives the book its title is too big & melodramatic. At that point I felt the story was labored and I had trouble keeping up my suspension of disbelief. Also the book is very, very British. I appreciate the fact that it isn't overly "localized" for American readers because it makes the setting more authentic, and stopping to explain would ruin the mood. But some of the slang terms and odd details which are part of daily life for a Londoner are completely opaque to this hapless Yank. Perhaps a glossary or an occasional footnote would be in order?

Anyway, I enjoyed it. I recommend it for those who like the lighter, less serious side of occult thrillers and police-procedural mysteries.

I got a copy of this book through the the store Vine program. This is the first in a series of books that feature Peter Grant as the lead. The book was well put together and engaging, but I had a little trouble getting into the writing style.

Peter Grant is about to be given his permanent job on the London Police force and he is praying it's not a job as a paper pusher. Unfortunately that's where it looks like things are going until Peter bumps into a ghost that he can talk to. This is a ghost that witnessed the murder he is helping investigate. Suddenly it looks like Peter won't be pushing paper but instead will be apprenticed to Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, a man who works in the supernatural division of the London Metropolitan police force. From there Peter is drawn into a murder investigation that will have him consorting with Gods and dealing with all sorts of supernatural creatures.

Aaronovitch does an excellent job of putting together a great plot and story. Peter is a great character, as is Nightingale. Both of them are somewhat mysterious, but have a healthy sense of humor. The pace of the plot is pretty much non-stop from the beginning to the end.

I loved the London setting and enjoyed how the author incorporated the different deities with the rivers in the London area. The plot was twisty, turny, and hard to predict which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed that the whole murder ties in with an old school play.

There was only one thing that kept me from thouroughly loving this book and I had a hard time pinpointing exactly what it is. I think I just had a hard time with Aaronovitch's writing style; the writing is so dense and includes so many intricate details. Some of the details help the reader picture the story, but others are just too much. So I would find my mind drifting as I read through all of these little details, then have to go back and re-read to make sure I hadn't missed anything while my mind wandered. Because of this, the book wasn't as enjoyable for me to read as it should have been and at points it was just down right hard to get through.

Overall a solid entry into the urban fantasy genre; for the most part I really liked it. I love the world created here and really enjoyed the characters as well. There was something about Aaronovitch's writing style though that turned me off a bit and I think it was all of the little intricate details included throughout; they just drew out the story too much and at points my mind would start wandering. I think fans of investigative urban fantasy from a male perspective might like this book; it really does have some great stuff in it. I would recommend reading a sample first though to make sure the detail heavy narration works for you. I probably won't be picking up the next book in this series, Moon over Soho, there are just too many other urban fantasies out there where I enjoy the writing style more.

Peter Grant is a constable-in-training in London's police force. At the end of his probation period, it looks like he's in line for a long career of boring desk work in the Case Progression Unit, but that all changes when he draws the luckless duty of guarding a crime scene overnight where, earlier that day, a headless body was found lying on the street. While Peter is freezing his heels off in the cold London night, he is approached by possibly the crime's only witness -- who also happens to be a ghost...

Peter is swiftly recruited into a secret department that focuses on the supernatural and magical, and apprenticed to the mysterious Thomas Nightingale, the leader and only other active member in this centuries-old department. Peter begins the long process of learning exactly how magic works and, at the same time, investigating who is responsible for the headless corpse, which will lead him on a complex and surprising adventure on the streets -- and rivers -- of London.

So begins Midnight Riot, the first book in the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch -- and the good news is that it's simply a blast from start to finish. The novel is fast-paced and exciting from the get-go, and there's barely any let-up in the action until you've turned the final page. It almost reads like a particularly exciting episode of a good detective TV series (just add magic), which makes perfect sense because Ben Aaronovitch has written extensively for TV, including two Doctor Who serials. Then again, he also knows how to describe visuals in such a way that you don't need a picture to get what he's talking about. His prose is consistently witty and never boring. Take, for example, this description of a building in London:

City of Westminster Magistrates' Court is around the back of Victoria Station on the Horseferry Road. It's a bland box of a building built in the 1970s; it was considered to be so lacking in architectural merit that there was talk of listing it so that it could be preserved for posterity as an awful warning. Inside, the waiting areas maintained the unique combination of cramped busyness and barren inhumanity that was the glory of British architecture in the second half of the twentieth century.

The novel is full of this type of quirkily effective prose, and the dialogues are likewise snappy and snarky (especially Peter's, who sounds like a less annoying version of, well, almost every John Scalzi character). Combine that with the rapid but steady pace of the plot and you end up with one of those books you occasionally look up from, realizing you've been reading much longer than you thought.

Peter Grant is the most well-defined character in the novel, mainly because Ben Aaronovitch deftly balances Peter's various struggles throughout the book. On the one hand, he's trying to master his magic (there are hints that magic has a methodical, even scientific underpinning going back to centuries of research) and investigating the strange, random murders occurring in London, but he's also a bachelor in the city, dealing with the various young women he encounters, including an attractive colleague and the female personification of a Thames tributary (the original title of the novel is Rivers of London). Also, because Peter has a mixed-race background, the novel gives an interesting look at what life's like for vaguely Arabic-looking young men in modern day London, especially when he's out of uniform. The other characters in the novel never reach the same level of depth as Peter, but then again, this isn't a novel you read for the deep character studies. It's a fun, fast story, part police procedural (Aaronovitch has evidently done his research) and part urban fantasy, but it's best not to take it too seriously and just go along for the ride.

As for the main intrigue, set in motion by the headless corpse in the very first chapter but quickly becoming more and more involved -- I'm not going to spoil it for you here. Suffice it to say that I didn't see the big twist coming at all. Once Ben Aaronovitch suddenly puts the various pieces together (at right about the start of chapter 8), I was extremely surprised and very impressed. Even more promising are the hints that this is just the start of a larger story, as we're sure to learn more about the nature of magic, the history of Peter's mentor Thomas Nightingale and his mysterious maid Molly, and several other items that are only hinted at in this first volume of the PETER GRANT series (book 2, Moon over Soho, is due on March 1st).

On the book's cover, Diana Gabaldon describes Midnight Riot as "[...] what would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz." This is a good sound bite and probably will get many people to pick up the novel, but if you really need a comparison, it's probably more accurate to go for something like Mike Carey's Felix Castor series or even Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. Regardless of comparisons, Midnight Riot is an excellent novel: it reads like a breeze but has just enough substance to keep you coming back for more. If you've read my reviews in the past, you may know I'm not a huge urban fantasy fan, but this novel was so refreshing and fun that I'm eager to read more of Peter Grant's adventures soon.

Midnight Riot is a refreshing urban fantasy that manages to feel cozy, but not cloying. I hesitate to call it a feel-good read, because then you start to picture the kinds of stories that my grandmother likes to read, but even in the midst of a horrific crime, it still felt chipper. Maybe it's because it's told from the perspective of British constables, and cops have a different take on things. If they let every investigation throw them into the depth of despair, they'd be in serious trouble, so I suppose they learn to be very pragmatic and even hold onto a sense of levity no matter what they're facing. Peter's coping mechanism is to crack jokes, even in the middle of a crisis, and that undercurrent of humor makes this book especially fun to read.

Midnight Riot is refreshing on several fronts. First off, it's highly detailed, and if you love a nice, juicy police procedural with accurate details, then you're going to groove on this story. Second, if you're tired of the typical, urban fantasy formula with a deeply traumatized heroine doing impossible ninja moves, then you'll love Peter's beta male approach to things. He's not a complete bad-a**, or a genius, or a magical prodigy. He's just good enough to figure things out, and fumble his way to the solution, and this makes him extremely likable and human. Third, the mythology and world-building is superb, and the things I learned about London were pretty cool. It satisfied my inner nerd on so many fronts that I can't help but give this book a perfect rating. It was so many things that other stories are not, and it impressed me no end. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to read this in my usual four-hour marathon, but coming back to it again and again over the course of a week was a real treat.

The second book about apprentice wizard Peter Grant is Moon Over Soho, and it came out on March 1.

I'm a sucker for urban fantasy with male protagonists, so I was excited to pick up Midnight Riot when I saw it was available. Some of the quotes from authors made me leery (why must anything with the education of wizards be likened to Harry Potter?) but, as soon as I opened the book, I was sucked in. I read it in a single sitting, devouring it in the course of an afternoon.

The writing was light and fun, easily keeping the pages turning. The characters were, for the most part, appealing, though I do feel that Thomas Nightingale was a bit underutilized and kind of a disappointment as a wizard. (Peter was also a bit of a doof, but that wasn't detrimental.) The plot overall kept moving nicely, and wrapped up most of the loose ends while leaving plenty of room for sequels.

The book reminded me very strongly of Kate Griffin's Matthew Swift series, actually, with the central concept of the anthropomorphization of aspects of London. This is definitely not a bad thing as that is one of my favorite series, but I did find myself comparing them every now and then while I was reading. Again, not a bad thing, just a bit of a distraction.

From this point on, let there be a *** spoiler warning ***.

My biggest complaint was the book's ending. The antagonist goes on a Punchinella rampage throughout the book, including chucking a baby out of a window, only to suffer a fit of conscience at the end and not want to kill his possessed host? There's a paragraph expressing Peter's wonder over it, but aside from that it's never really addressed. It threw me out of my reading zone enough to leave the ending feeling a bit clunky to me.

Overall, I did enjoy this book quite a lot, despite my quibble with the ending, and am eagerly looking forward to its sequels.

Peter Grant is a Probationary Constable in London. While on the scene of a strange murder, he finds a witness, a ghost. Later, while scouting for the ghost, he finds Inspector Nightingale. When asked who he is looking for, Peter freely admits that he is looking for the ghost/witness. Then when Peter is about to be assigned to Case Progression Unit, where he will be filling out paperwork for detectives, he is surprised to learn that he is to be assigned to Inspector Nightingale.

Peter soon learns that ghosts, trolls, magic, and wizards are real. That he has been chosen to be Nightingales apprentice. The first thing he needs to do is create werelight along with solve the murder. But this is not the only murder. Peter witnesses a strange attack at a movie theater. Then the attacker from the murder is found in the act of murdering his wife and child. Something is going on that is strangely similar to the Punch and Judy play.

It is starting to look like a ghost is possessing people and acting out the Punch and Judy script. Now Peter has to find out who the next victim is, find out where the ghost is buried, and then grind up his bones with salt to keep him from possessing others. Sounds easy until nothing really happens for months.

I really liked this book. I got sucked into the story. I admit that it was a little difficult to follow because it has a lot of English slang and the timeline seemed to jump weeks/months ahead with no rhyme or reason. Beyond that, I have to say that I'm going to go out and buy the next book in the series. I cannot wait to see what happens to Peter next.

Shawn Kovacich
Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence book and DVD series.

Biracial Police Constable Peter Grant is babysitting a corpse while waiting for his superiors when a witness steps forward to tell him about the murder. Dutifully taking notes, it doesn't take Peter long to realize no one is going to believe him regarding this witness, and for one very good reason: he's a ghost. And as a PC at the end of his probationary period, that doesn't bode well for his promotional prospects. Worse, after checking out the ghost's statement with fellow-PC Leslie May, the ghost is actually right about what happened. In an attempt to follow-up with the ghost, Peter accidentally outs his abilities to Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale; luckily, the man is the last wizard in England, and takes him on as a trainee.

So opens Ben Aaronovitch's first novel, Midnight Riot. Both Peter and the reader get a headlong introduction into the realms of magic as it fits in with "normal" modern life. Both the case and Peter's new career direction have surprising twists and turns, involving ghosts, gods both old and new, and the hunt for a killer hidden in plain sight.

An intriguing story, the first chapter is a bit slow, but it picks up smartly from there. Peter is an interesting character, and it's a joy watching him feel his way through his new powers and life. This is definitely a worthwhile read; a slight detour from the usual urban fantasy stories that is still familiar to devotees of the genre. Looking forward to the sequel, Moonlight over Soho to see how Peter grows and changes now that he's settling into being a wizard-in-training. Aaronovitch is an author to keep an eye on - he's just going to keep getting better as time goes on.

Not a lot of "urban fantasy" is masculine these days - only Glen Cook's Garrett PI and Jim Butcher's Dresden files fit the bill, at least for some definitions of UF. This is more police procedural with magic than soft porn bodice-ripper with vampires/werewolves/demons/etc: I say that not to throw stones at anyone's favourite genre, just to make the point clear. There is no explicit sex, brief (but eye-popping) nudity, and while blood is drunk, its not really romantic and nor is it drunk by a vampire.

So...what is it about? Well, imagine being a young mixed-race copper in London, about to get posted to a dull dead end existance shuffling paper, while your glamourous almost-girlfriend gets a plum posting...and then a ghost gives you a tip-off and you discover a whole new world. This is a London of spirits and ghosts, groaning under the weight of history and geography. And someone is commiting murder by magical possession.

The London here is as much a character as setting, with the various rivers and streams all having human forms (the UK edition is called Rivers of London, the US Midnight Riot - both are appropriate for different reasons).

Most of all though there is an intriguing crime story which happens to involve ghosts, and the odd realistic tangent of dealing with a nest of vampires or settling scores between Father Thames and Mother Thames. Aaronovitch has written an story which runs along as a good pace, and you really don't want to put down.

The sequel, Moon over Soho, is out now, and the next volume, Whispers Under Ground, is out later this year. If they are as good as this, then there is a lot to look forward to.

It is always such a pleasure for me to find an author who manages to write a book that piques my interest and holds my attention. Both are true here because Ben Aaronovitch created something new for me. Normally when I read an urban fantasy book the plot requires that all those involved in that world are aware of the magic components active all around them. In this book that is not the case. Probationary PC Peter Grant had been left to guard a crime scene when he met a ghost. Not just any ghost either, no, this one was a witness to the crime. In very short order PC Grant finds himself assigned to a unit of the Metropolitan Police which up until he joined it had only one other member, a wizard. Peter is now on his way to becoming an apprentice wizard, learning magic and trying to help solve the crimes of completely unexplained violence which are breaking out all over London. Peter's best answer is to use his interest in scientific knowledge and experimentation in conjunction with the magic to explain some of the things that are happening.

I really enjoyed this book for its humor and the unusual combination of scientific investigation paired with utilizing magic. It put a different spin on the plot for me by having the entire London scene be so solidly in the present time, with the citizens of that great city completely unaware of the magic or the horrors within their city. I also enjoyed the great amount of research this author has obviously done regarding the many rivers around London. And to have each of them portrayed as an individual character was quite a successful undertaking. I also want to compliment those responsible for the artwork map on the cover of this book. No matter how many times I look at it I keep finding names of areas or a street that I recognize. I have to admit that, as an American, there were just a few times when I felt a little lost because I didn't understand some of the English slang or references, but it was certainly not anything that kept me from enjoying the novel. Book two, Moon Over Soho, is next in the series and if this one is anything to go by it should be another fascinating reading experience.

I'm not normally interested in paranormal mysteries at all, hated Harry Potter, don't like the Dresden books, iffy about Dr. Who. But the first book, Midnight Riot, was highly recommended by someone whose opinion I trust. What a delight to read. I laughed out loud many times at Peter's wry, self-aware comments about the Met and humankind. Peter is charming and intelligent and tells a good story. The descriptions of London, the rivers, the buildings, make you want to visit or re-visit them to see them through his eyes. Aaranovitch makes London magical on many levels.

Before I was even halfway through Midnight Riot, I got the rest of the series and read them in one delightful long weekend, where dishes didn't get done and meals weren't made.

Do read these books in order, though.

I'm not normally interested in paranormal mysteries at all, hated Harry Potter, don't like the Dresden books, iffy about Dr. Who. But the first book, Midnight Riot, was highly recommended by someone whose opinion I trust. What a delight to read. I laughed out loud many times at Peter's wry, self-aware comments about the Met and humankind. Peter is charming and intelligent and tells a good story. The descriptions of London, the rivers, the buildings, make you want to visit or re-visit them to see them through his eyes. Aaranovitch makes London magical on many levels.

Before I was even halfway through Midnight Riot, I got the rest of the series and read them in one delightful long weekend, where dishes didn't get done and meals weren't made.

Do read these books in order, though.

Peter Grant is a bumbling, easily distracted constable on the fast-track for a paper-pushing job. His luck unexpectedly turns when a ghost approaches him at a murder scene. Apparently Grant does have a talent - he can see dead people. Suddenly, he is adopted as the sole apprentice of Detective Chief Inspector Nightengale, who heads the supernatural division of the police. Grant is up to his ears in weirdness as he tries to solve the murder while learning the ropes in the unexpectedly supernatural world. I mostly enjoyed Midnight Riot for its interesting world-building and a lot of dry humor. The character of Grant was likable enough - even if he was bumbling - and I suspect I'd grow attached to him after a few books in the series. The plot tended to stray a bit more than I prefer, though. Nothing too bad, mind you, but there were a few moments where I wondered if we were still trying to catch the murderer or just enjoy the scenery. I prefer a little more focus. But these passages were never very long, and the book was, for the most part, quite enjoyable. I'm sure I'll pick up the next in the series some day.

As for the narration by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith...I think his cadence, tone, and delivery was done perfectly for our character. He was so dead-pan with the dry humor that I sometimes only caught the humor by delayed reaction. Which made it funnier. On the other hand, he was a rather loud (and wet) breather. I figured at first that this was put on for the character effect - but then I realized that such breathing would be difficult to fake unless he narrator was really congested. So...the loud breathing wasn't enough to put me off, but it might be enough to put SOME people off.

My only complaint, really, is that the original English edition had a MUCH better and more appropriate title and cover.

If you're a fan of Neil Gaiman's American Gods and/or Anansi Boys, and if you like the Dresden Files, I suspect you will ADORE Midnight Riot, just as I did. Peter Grant is a not-quite-rookie cop in the London Metropolitan Police, just about to get his first non-trainee posting (and sadly consigned to the "not a real cop" paperwork division) when a ghost accosts him at the scene of a particularly baffling murder.

It only gets weirder from there.

Before he knows it, he's apprenticing for a detective-wizard, caught up in a turf war between the river spirits of London, investigating said baffling murder, and oh yeah, learning magic and Latin in his spare time. The Latin's harder.

Peter's a wonderful character - easily distracted, inquisitive, brave, resourceful, and possessed of an interesting little backstory (he's mixed race, the son of a Sierra Leone immigrant mother and a junkie jazz musician Londoner father, and not AT ALL bitter about the whole junkie thing, nuh-uh). He's a normal guy, really, and a pretty average cop who just happens to be able to sense vestigia - traces of magic and place - and to turn them into happenings in the real world - magic.

And oh, the magic in this book! It was codified and explained by Sir Isaac Newton himself, and acts more like a slightly wonky branch of chemistry and physics combined than anything - with the aid of Latin keywords, Greek concepts, and a good stiff dose of British exceptionalism. It's a very fresh take on contemporary fantasy's usual magic-using systems of ambient magic and the like, and it's nicely complicated, down to the fact that "going beyond your capabilities" destroys your brain and magic turns microchips to sand. Yeah.

If you're in the mood for some good, old-fashioned police procedure, a fascinatingly rigid magical system, and a romp around the London metro, you're going to love this book.

As a young teenager I dived into the genre of Scifi/Fantasy. There was a time when I could walk into the local bookstore and say that I had read pretty much every book on the shelves in that section. Then life took over and reading a good book because a thing I used to do. Now well into my 40's I've found the joy of audiobooks. I have a wicked commute, one that would kill most people and the only thing that keeps me alive is my subscription to Audible (the audio book division of Amz).

I tell you all that just so you can weigh my opinion accurately. So my new love is Urban Fantasy. I fist found out about it about 8 years ago with the Dresden files. I'm a big fan of the Iron Druid series but I must say that this is the best of the genre that I have read to date. It's a lot more subdued on the magic side then you get with dresden or the almost monty python esque'ness of the iron druid series. You definitely feel teased and each new magical discovery is slowly drawn out.

This is the kickoff for an ongoing series that has now reached three volumes, with a fourth on its way in 2013. Set in contemporary London, it posits a world in which magic is real but unknown to the general public. Where there is magic, there will magical villains, and so the Metropolitan Police have a special branch dedicated to handling supernatural cases, said branch consisting of one individual, Thomas Nightingale, a skilled wizard. And it has finally come time for him to take on an apprentice.

Constable Peter Grant is our narrator, and when it's found that he has a touch of inherent magical ability, circumstances dictate that Nightingale take him under his wing during the course of an investigation into some eldrich shenanigans. This ultimately involves encounters with ghosts, evil mages, and the quarreling broods of Father Thames and Mother Thames, antagonistic clans of river spirits. Will Grant be able to stop the bad guy while at the same time brokering a peace between the dueling Thames clans?

Most introductory novels for a series have to spend an inordinate amount of time in establishing the milieu and setting up the chief characters, leaving comparatively little time for a gripping plot. Aaronovitch, though, has a deft hand with narration and dialogue and is more than able to spotlight the major characters, sketch out a framework for the whys and wherefores of magic, and keep the plotline moving along smoothly. A former writer for "Doctor Who" (he banged out a couple of episodes in the late Eighties, and subsequently has written audio tales and novelisations for both that series and for "Blake's Seven"), Aaronovitch creates appealing characters here and also seems to have an in-depth knowledge of both the neighborhoods of London and the workings of the Met from the viewpoint of its rank-and-file.

A very entertaining debut, the promise of which is borne out in the ensuing volume as well. Readers of more traditional mysteries or police procedurals might not quite cotton to this, but genre fans should eat it up and be well satisfied.

I binge read trough these two books and I have to say it was worthy, even because I liked the second more than the first and all that jazz ;) Peter is getting stronger and a little bit better as a magician, but he is seriously lacking when choosing new girlfriends....we got to know other wizards as well and so I have hope for the next books, because it seems there are 4 more to read, yeah!

I primi due libri li ho divorati e sono contenta, specialmente perché il secondo mi é anche piaciuto piú del primo e poi c'era tanto jazz...Peter sta diventando piú forte e capace come mago, ma nel versante fidanzate é veramente scarsissimo. Conosciamo inoltre altri maghi e quindi c'é speranza per i prossimi libri, anche perché, siccome sono arrivata tardi, me ne aspettano altri 4 :))))

Ben Aaronovitch isn't really breaking new ground with his Rivers of London urban fantasy series. We have most if not all of the standard trappings after all. But perhaps more important he's doing the genre with style.

Of course we have our mysterious wizards, now including some black... ahem ethically challenged wizards. And our hero quips and gets beaten up in a suitably stoic manner. But the majority of the magical creatures we get to see are refreshingly different, so this certainly doesn't feel like a re-tread.

Aaronovitch picks up a number of hints that he dropped in the first book in the series Midnight Riot, but while he expands on them, he keeps them trailing. And this story doesn't have the same complete feel that the first did. Yes, the immediate case is resolved, but not all of the villains are caught and there are a lot more unanswered questions.

That's not a bad thing from my perspective, since I'm really enjoying the series and want to read more, but it does mean you should start with book 1.

It was also nice to see both the author and the characters address some of the nastier aspects of what happened in the first book head on. Again not resolved, but then... this was something that wouldn't be resolved so quickly.

I'm really looking forward to reading the next in the series. I think this is probably right up there with the Harry Dresden books for favorite urban fantasy.

If I was to give a quick description of this book I'd probably call it a UK version of the Harry Dresden series. But that doesn't really give it the credit it deserves.

Ben Aaronovitch may be known to some of you as the script writer for a couple of solid Doctor Who episodes (Remembrance of the Daleks and Battlefield). Here he shows not only a good grip on the basics of urban fantasy but also some nice background on the Metropolitan Police Force. Which gives the book an authentic feel.

Setting is critical to this book. In the UK it is titled _Rivers of London_ and that name has significance. In the US it's been called _Midnight Riot_ because... Americans.

Not only are the rivers themselves physically embodied in the book, but the locations add character and color. You couldn't simply transplant the story to New York and have it work the same way.

The book is also refreshingly multicultural (appropriate given the London setting) without making a big deal about it. The characters simply come from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.

If I have complaints it's that certain things are glossed over. None of the characters seem terribly upset or disconcerted by the sudden discovery of magic. Similarly they're not as upset as I might expect when things go almost catastrophically wrong.

And yet there's so much going on so fast that these are really only things I notice after the fact. There are three novels in the series so far and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

So this guy Peter Grant is a new plod in the London Metropolitan when he sees and speaks with a ghost at the scene of a grim and grisly murder. Not the ghost of the victim, but an informant who tells him things about the murder which are later confirmed.

But (a) no murderer is caught and (b) for his acute senses Grant gets sent to the branch of the Metropolitan that deals with magical stuff. The size of this branch? Prior to his arrival, one, a Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who begins to teach Grant the ways of magic.

The murder turns out to be the first in a series of bizarre murders with a pattern that becomes obvious to those familiar with the source material; not so much for most Americans though. Aaronovitch eventually lets the puppet out of the sack and clues us in, and it's quite a nasty pattern.

Lots of action, moderately witty writing, and a magical London with a truly macabre menace make for an interesting read.

The magic in this book has an innocence and freshness that reminds me of Harry Potter (I know I'm not the first to point this out); indeed, hero/ingenue Peter Grant is, like Harry, a slightly abashed apprentice just discovering that he is a wizard by nature, though a mortal by experience, and both delighted and nonplussed by his new abilities. The scenes in which he practices creating a werelight could have come right out of J.K. Rowling. The human and magical worlds exist side by side in a delightful humdrum solidarity, which leaves one eager for more cross-over. This aspect of the book is just really a lot of fun.

"Midnight Riot" also bears welcome marks of its other primary source-genre, the detective novel, with that form's charmingly ironic just slightly noir detective, its crisp dialogue, and its fully realized sense of the city where it is set: London. The city's sites--the tube, the bridge, Covent Garden, Russell Square, and many other locales--really come to life under Aaronovitch's skillful pen (in fact, rivers actually become characters). As in the typical detective novel, the relationships are not the focus, so I won't be too critical of the under-motivation of Peter's various love interests. This is a genre-typical blemish on the book, even when, as here, more than one of those relationships turns out to be essential to the development of the plot.

The book is also historical fiction. But who can complain? In a compelling interlude near the end, in pursuit of the arch-villain, Peter takes London back in time. The description here is masterful, truly riveting, and justifies the introduction of this additional formal context.

And yet--the multiplication of genres finally becomes too much, causing the book to feel like a slightly incoherent literary sampler. I was less than excited by the vampire-aspects of this otherwise skillfully executed novel. Did we really need the introduction of the Goth-inspired Molly's possible (s)excapades at the end? But I'm in the generation of the Twilight Zone rather than the Twilight series, so I'm a little lacking in sympathy in this area. "Midnight Riot" is an enjoyable and smart book. I'll be continuing to follow the adventures of Peter Grant; he has made a fine debut.

I absolutely love this whole series & have read (listened) to it twice now. The audiobooks are so well done. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Is a brilliant narrator, great at doing different accents from all across Great Britain. Highly recommend,

This book was quite unique—a police procedural crossed with urban fantasy. Peter is a policeman in London, and learns that he has a unique talent for magic which could help solve a baffling case. Aaronovitch is a really good writer—some of his sly humor was reminiscent of that found in the novels of the late great Douglas Adams. I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Right from the start, Peter Grant’s narratorial voice makes itself comfy in your reader’s brain and settles down for what turns out to be a rollicking good criminal case in the magical underbelly of London. It’s been hailed as what happens if Harry Potter became a policeman, and you know what? It really does have the same sort of laid-back, magic-is-just-another-part-of-the-fabric-of-society tone that JK Rowling managed with the Muggle and magical worlds of Harry Potter.

Aaronovitch has a methodical approach to setting scenes and gives the reader a detailed tour of London and surrounds. In the beginning this was a fantastic opportunity to really visualize the places Peter Grant moved through, but … well, by the middle to end of the book I was tiring of the almost excruciating detail given to streets and buildings. It worked well to set up the story and seriously establish an authentic London, but once the story gathered its momentum the layers of detail just seemed to slow everything down.

I enjoyed the characters of this book: they were a mix of familiar and new. I’m assuming Aaronovitch is building up his magical world for future books, which is a very good thing in my mind. I’d like to see a continuity unfold as Peter Grant gathers more experience in future books. The exploration of London’s (and Britain’s) river ‘gods’ was pretty unique and worked well alongside the more macabre criminal case.

The only drawback, apart from too much detail given to the streets and statues and ephemera of London, was the main character’s all-too-sudden expertise with magic. As the story opens, Peter Grant is just your regular under-performing police rookie, just about to be assigned to a desk job. A chance encounter with a charismatic ghost leads him to the magical police – which works well. However, Grant uses his rudimentary knowledge of science to really make leaps and bounds in his apprenticeship. His ‘master’, Inspector Nightingale seems to be happy to let Grant do all the hard magical work. That didn’t ring true to me. The case is quite dangerous and for most of the novel, the police (including Nightingale) are clueless about who is responsible; so when opportunities arise for some magical investigation (such as trying to raise ghosts in a graveyard) I couldn’t really reconcile the idea that Nightingale would let his apprentice do the spells.

Anyway, that’s just a gripe. I really recommend this book to those hordes of Harry Potter fans, and even to the fans of Harry Dresden. Aaronovitch is quintessentially British and his hero, Peter Grant, is equally so.

A promising jazz drummer is found dead of a heart attack shortly after playing a gig in London. At first, the only odd circumstance surrounding his death is the fact that Peter Grant, apprentice wizard and police constable, faintly hears the notes of the jazz standard "Body and Soul" rising from the corpse, indicating that magic was somehow involved in the musician's death. However, when further research reveals that several jazz musicians have died in similar circumstances over the years, it suddenly becomes much more urgent for Peter and his supervisor Thomas Nightingale to find out what's really going on...

So begins Moon over Soho, the second book in the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch. Let's get the most important news out of the way first: if you enjoyed Midnight Riot (or Rivers of London, as it's called outside of the US), you'll love Moon over Soho. The new novel does just about everything its predecessor did so well, but a little better and with enough new twists to make you wish the third book in the series was already on the shelves.

One of the reasons Moon over Soho is an even more fun read than the first book is the fact that it doesn't have to spend as much time setting things up for the reader. We already know who police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant is, we know about Thomas Nightingale and his secret magical department in the London police force, we have some background about how magic works, we know about the Folly. Thanks to all of this, Ben Aaronovitch can kick the story into high gear right from the beginning, with Peter's investigation into the jazz drummer's death (and into another seemingly unrelated but much more gruesome incident) quickly setting up a few side-plots and new characters. At the same time, there's space in the story to fill the reader in on things like Thomas Nightingale's past and the history of magic in England, and to throw in hilarious side-bars such as the goofy way of determining the strength of residual magic by measuring how loud Toby the dog barks ("0.5 milliyaps").

The cover's catchphrase is "Magic and murder to a jazz beat", which is surprisingly appropriate in several ways. Jazz is a running theme throughout the novel, from the drummer who is found dead in the opening chapter to Peter's father, a famous jazz musician in his day, who plays a more important role in Moon over Soho than in the first book. There's a comical group of side-characters called "the irregulars" who are all jazzmen (or at least wannabe jazzmen) and who will hopefully appear in future novels. Several chapters bear the title of famous jazz songs or albums. And finally, this may be a stretch but the book is written in what I'd pretentiously like to call a highly propulsive style. That's probably not a real jazz term at all, but nevertheless, the fact that the story rarely slows down (and when it does, it's for a good reason) makes Moon over Soho hard to put down and never boring. It's like one of those songs you can't help but tap your foot along to.

Going back to that cover for a moment: the "Neth Space" blog has an excellent article up about the noticeable difference between the US and UK covers. It's painfully obvious they're different, and while the term "white-washing" is not entirely appropriate (given that the model's actually turned into a black silhouette), it's still hard to imagine why Del Rey felt the need to change these covers in this day and age. (For some reason, the store shows the UK cover. The US version is the same, except the male figure is a silhouette, so you can't determine his race.)

Regardless, Ben Aaronovitch delivers another winner with Moon over Soho, a realistic modern day police procedural (aside from all the magic, of course) populated by increasingly solid characters and written in the same consistently witty style as the first Peter Grant novel. It features a gripping mystery plot with some truly creepy, borderline horror elements and a few incredibly tense action scenes. Moon over Soho is one of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time, and really made me look forward to the next installment in the Peter Grant series. Check it out, even if (like me) you usually don't enjoy urban fantasy.

Very good, a delicious, satisfying read. It moved fast, but not so much that the pace was unsustainable or unlikely.

I felt like Peter was exceptionally naive in dealing with Simone; shouldn't he wonder why he had this intense lust/fascination? Shouldn't he be more bothered that her last lover died abruptly two weeks ago and she doesn't seem to have any grief? I feel like most police wouldn't make the mistake of interacting on a very personal level so quickly. I found the shagging interludes kind of distracting, and not particularly congruent with the Peter of Midnight Riot, but perhaps Aaronovitch is trying to expand Peter's life. Still, he's been opened to this world of magic and discovering how like attracts like; it was hardly a surprise when Simone turned out to have very magical properties. I was only surprised by Peter's efforts to bring her into the Folly. I think Nightingale was right in pointing out that she and her sisters are responsible for 200 plus deaths. "Mental disorder," perhaps, but according to all copper standards, that still warrants locking up.

I was most pleased with how Peter interacted with Leslie. The most common way authors seem to handle tragedy in their male protagonists' lives is through excruciating guilt, and by telling us about the guilt. Instead, Peter visits, continues somewhat normally by texting, and then through the phone. He's used to bouncing ideas off Leslie, and this trend continues. There are hints at his guilty feelings, but they do not dominate their interactions or Peter's thoughts.

There's a fair amount of British colloquial slang and police terms, the most obvious is "copper" instead of police. Aaronovitch doesn't even explain in passing, so sometimes meaning is a challenge to pick up. This is only a minor bother, however. Overall, the language is fun, and sophisticated, and a thorough reading will generate a lot of chuckles, particularly in scenes with Peter and Stephanopoulis.

I'm a big fan of urban fantasy. I love Charlaine's Harris'quirky Southern Vampire series, Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld, Richelle Meade's Dark Swan, Patricia Brigg's Iron Kissed, The Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston and Mike Carey's Felix Castor books. So when I read the preview for Midnight Riot, I was pretty excited.

I've long thought that Urban Fantasy could use a good police setting, I've grown a bit weary of supernatural storylines that take place in private and never come to the attention of the police (so annoying and a bit unbelievable when buildings are falling and people are dying in bizarre supernatural ways).

So I was a bit disappointed to find out that the main characters would be performing their odd investigations away from the regular police.

But other than that little misstep, I liked this book.

Other reviewers complained about the voluminous descriptions of London locations, but I found it interesting. I've never been to London and the scene setting made it easier for me to imagine the characters investigating in Jolly old England.

The main character could have been fleshed out a little more. His likes and dislikes, what motivated him, why he liked the girl so much, but there was so much going on that I didn't have time to get bored and that's saying a lot. I have a short attentions span.

But the best part of the story was Peter's development from a bench sitter to a star player. I liked his occasional fumbles, it's tiring to always read about characters who are perfect, you know the type, they kick butt, dress like a badass and all the members of the opposite sex (sometimes the same sex) want to jump their bones. Peter's kind of a dork. He's smart, but not a genius and he's nice and you know what they say about nice guys.

Maybe it was me but I saw a real similarity in the relationship between Peter and Inspector Nightingale to another couple that I love, Agent Pendergast and homicide cope Vincent Dagosta from the series written by Lincoln Childs and Douglas Preston (if you haven't read them, you should, get a copy from the library because I think they are only available in hardback). Mentor and apprentice, the older male who takes the younger man under his wing and helps him to develop his special abilities. I guess it's called a heroes journey.

Anyways, Peter's story begins with him seeing a ghost. The ghost gives him info on a recent murder and the story develops from there. Like I said before, there's a lot going on, a lot of details, characters, supernatural and human and the plot moves at a pretty crisp pace.

One part I didn't like was the love interest. She didn't seem real and couldn't figure out why a guy like Peter would like her, they didn't seem to mesh well. Oh well, it's a minor thing, this doesn't rely on a romance to keep the readers interest.

I was disappointed when it ended but I've just found out the next book in the series will be released soon. Yay.

"Midnight Riot" was a fun book to read, and Diana Gabaldon, the reviewer who likened it to Harry Potter growing up and joining the Metropolitan Police, was so right. Although "Midnight Riot" isn't as rich as a Harry Potter book, it's a satisfying read that's fun to escape into for the time it takes to get through it. It's my brand of "paranormal," which is just paranormal enough to raise the hair on my arms, almost, but not so much that the freak-out lasts for days. There's a little London mythology thrown in, in the form of the personifications of the London rivers, and some magic- not pages and pages of magic 'procedural' or anything, but enough for a reader to get the gist. It's also written with a sense of humor. There are parts that are just laugh-out-loud funny.

The story takes place in London, and although we get a different title here in the States from what a UK audience would get (There it's called "Rivers of London"), there's enough of the London slang still intact in our version to lead me to believe and hope that it hasn't been changed too much so an American can get it- part of the fun of reading a book set in London is to figure out what the Cockneys are talking about! The narrator's voice, and his interactions with other characters, and their dialogue all rang true in my ears. The plot really moves along. I tried keeping this as a bedtime-only book, and found myself staying up until the wee hours for the couple nights that lasted, and taking the book with me to appointments to find out what happens.

Needless to say, this book on its own left me wanting too much more, but happily, there's a sequel already out, and a third to crown the trilogy, which I am about to pre-order, just based on how much I liked Midnight Riot. With Summer Vacation coming up, I think this one would be a good book to take along to the beach, or airport, or anywhere else you want a gripping book to pull you in and take you for a spin.

Despite the grisly, gruesome nature of the crimes and the realistic procedural detail within the modern London Metropolitan Police, the tone of this novel is lighthearted and comical. There were moments when I laughed out loud - which is rare for me when I'm reading. The magical and supernatural element is worked seamlessly into the realistic backdrop of 21st-century London with an impressive dose of historical trivia as well as contemporary detail.

At the start of the book, Peter Grant (the first-person narrator) has just finished his probationary period and is about to become a sworn London constable and be given his duty assignment. It looks like he will be getting a boring desk job, but after he briefly interviews a murder witness who turns out to be a ghost, he attracts the attention of Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the head (and apparently the only member) of a special division dealing with occult crime. Peter becomes Nightingale's apprentice and moves into "the Folly," an Edwardian mansion which is Nightingale's headquarters. In between magic lessons, he works on a bizarre case involving a series of murders and a plague of unexplained violence centering around Covent Garden.

Peter is extremely likable, as are most of the other characters who are briefly but solidly described. Hats off to Mr. Aaronovitch's ability to economically delineate his characters. It's an interesting cast, including a burly & disagreeable Chief Inspector, an Arabic/Scottish medical examiner, two rival factions of river spirits consisting of a bevy of beautiful African women and a band of quaintly creepy carnival folk, and the Folly's housekeeper who is some sort of unnatural creature...

The story is very readable but I experienced some dissonance between the seriousness and the silliness. The villain (when he finally appears) is a bit too over-the-top, and the climactic scene which gives the book its title is too big & melodramatic. At that point I felt the story was labored and I had trouble keeping up my suspension of disbelief. Also the book is very, very British. I appreciate the fact that it isn't overly "localized" for American readers because it makes the setting more authentic, and stopping to explain would ruin the mood. But some of the slang terms and odd details which are part of daily life for a Londoner are completely opaque to this hapless Yank. Perhaps a glossary or an occasional footnote would be in order?

Anyway, I enjoyed it. I recommend it for those who like the lighter, less serious side of occult thrillers and police-procedural mysteries.

I got a copy of this book through the the store Vine program. This is the first in a series of books that feature Peter Grant as the lead. The book was well put together and engaging, but I had a little trouble getting into the writing style.

Peter Grant is about to be given his permanent job on the London Police force and he is praying it's not a job as a paper pusher. Unfortunately that's where it looks like things are going until Peter bumps into a ghost that he can talk to. This is a ghost that witnessed the murder he is helping investigate. Suddenly it looks like Peter won't be pushing paper but instead will be apprenticed to Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, a man who works in the supernatural division of the London Metropolitan police force. From there Peter is drawn into a murder investigation that will have him consorting with Gods and dealing with all sorts of supernatural creatures.

Aaronovitch does an excellent job of putting together a great plot and story. Peter is a great character, as is Nightingale. Both of them are somewhat mysterious, but have a healthy sense of humor. The pace of the plot is pretty much non-stop from the beginning to the end.

I loved the London setting and enjoyed how the author incorporated the different deities with the rivers in the London area. The plot was twisty, turny, and hard to predict which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed that the whole murder ties in with an old school play.

There was only one thing that kept me from thouroughly loving this book and I had a hard time pinpointing exactly what it is. I think I just had a hard time with Aaronovitch's writing style; the writing is so dense and includes so many intricate details. Some of the details help the reader picture the story, but others are just too much. So I would find my mind drifting as I read through all of these little details, then have to go back and re-read to make sure I hadn't missed anything while my mind wandered. Because of this, the book wasn't as enjoyable for me to read as it should have been and at points it was just down right hard to get through.

Overall a solid entry into the urban fantasy genre; for the most part I really liked it. I love the world created here and really enjoyed the characters as well. There was something about Aaronovitch's writing style though that turned me off a bit and I think it was all of the little intricate details included throughout; they just drew out the story too much and at points my mind would start wandering. I think fans of investigative urban fantasy from a male perspective might like this book; it really does have some great stuff in it. I would recommend reading a sample first though to make sure the detail heavy narration works for you. I probably won't be picking up the next book in this series, Moon over Soho, there are just too many other urban fantasies out there where I enjoy the writing style more.

Peter Grant is a constable-in-training in London's police force. At the end of his probation period, it looks like he's in line for a long career of boring desk work in the Case Progression Unit, but that all changes when he draws the luckless duty of guarding a crime scene overnight where, earlier that day, a headless body was found lying on the street. While Peter is freezing his heels off in the cold London night, he is approached by possibly the crime's only witness -- who also happens to be a ghost...

Peter is swiftly recruited into a secret department that focuses on the supernatural and magical, and apprenticed to the mysterious Thomas Nightingale, the leader and only other active member in this centuries-old department. Peter begins the long process of learning exactly how magic works and, at the same time, investigating who is responsible for the headless corpse, which will lead him on a complex and surprising adventure on the streets -- and rivers -- of London.

So begins Midnight Riot, the first book in the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch -- and the good news is that it's simply a blast from start to finish. The novel is fast-paced and exciting from the get-go, and there's barely any let-up in the action until you've turned the final page. It almost reads like a particularly exciting episode of a good detective TV series (just add magic), which makes perfect sense because Ben Aaronovitch has written extensively for TV, including two Doctor Who serials. Then again, he also knows how to describe visuals in such a way that you don't need a picture to get what he's talking about. His prose is consistently witty and never boring. Take, for example, this description of a building in London:

City of Westminster Magistrates' Court is around the back of Victoria Station on the Horseferry Road. It's a bland box of a building built in the 1970s; it was considered to be so lacking in architectural merit that there was talk of listing it so that it could be preserved for posterity as an awful warning. Inside, the waiting areas maintained the unique combination of cramped busyness and barren inhumanity that was the glory of British architecture in the second half of the twentieth century.

The novel is full of this type of quirkily effective prose, and the dialogues are likewise snappy and snarky (especially Peter's, who sounds like a less annoying version of, well, almost every John Scalzi character). Combine that with the rapid but steady pace of the plot and you end up with one of those books you occasionally look up from, realizing you've been reading much longer than you thought.

Peter Grant is the most well-defined character in the novel, mainly because Ben Aaronovitch deftly balances Peter's various struggles throughout the book. On the one hand, he's trying to master his magic (there are hints that magic has a methodical, even scientific underpinning going back to centuries of research) and investigating the strange, random murders occurring in London, but he's also a bachelor in the city, dealing with the various young women he encounters, including an attractive colleague and the female personification of a Thames tributary (the original title of the novel is Rivers of London). Also, because Peter has a mixed-race background, the novel gives an interesting look at what life's like for vaguely Arabic-looking young men in modern day London, especially when he's out of uniform. The other characters in the novel never reach the same level of depth as Peter, but then again, this isn't a novel you read for the deep character studies. It's a fun, fast story, part police procedural (Aaronovitch has evidently done his research) and part urban fantasy, but it's best not to take it too seriously and just go along for the ride.

As for the main intrigue, set in motion by the headless corpse in the very first chapter but quickly becoming more and more involved -- I'm not going to spoil it for you here. Suffice it to say that I didn't see the big twist coming at all. Once Ben Aaronovitch suddenly puts the various pieces together (at right about the start of chapter 8), I was extremely surprised and very impressed. Even more promising are the hints that this is just the start of a larger story, as we're sure to learn more about the nature of magic, the history of Peter's mentor Thomas Nightingale and his mysterious maid Molly, and several other items that are only hinted at in this first volume of the PETER GRANT series (book 2, Moon over Soho, is due on March 1st).

On the book's cover, Diana Gabaldon describes Midnight Riot as "[...] what would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz." This is a good sound bite and probably will get many people to pick up the novel, but if you really need a comparison, it's probably more accurate to go for something like Mike Carey's Felix Castor series or even Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. Regardless of comparisons, Midnight Riot is an excellent novel: it reads like a breeze but has just enough substance to keep you coming back for more. If you've read my reviews in the past, you may know I'm not a huge urban fantasy fan, but this novel was so refreshing and fun that I'm eager to read more of Peter Grant's adventures soon.

Midnight Riot is a refreshing urban fantasy that manages to feel cozy, but not cloying. I hesitate to call it a feel-good read, because then you start to picture the kinds of stories that my grandmother likes to read, but even in the midst of a horrific crime, it still felt chipper. Maybe it's because it's told from the perspective of British constables, and cops have a different take on things. If they let every investigation throw them into the depth of despair, they'd be in serious trouble, so I suppose they learn to be very pragmatic and even hold onto a sense of levity no matter what they're facing. Peter's coping mechanism is to crack jokes, even in the middle of a crisis, and that undercurrent of humor makes this book especially fun to read.

Midnight Riot is refreshing on several fronts. First off, it's highly detailed, and if you love a nice, juicy police procedural with accurate details, then you're going to groove on this story. Second, if you're tired of the typical, urban fantasy formula with a deeply traumatized heroine doing impossible ninja moves, then you'll love Peter's beta male approach to things. He's not a complete bad-a**, or a genius, or a magical prodigy. He's just good enough to figure things out, and fumble his way to the solution, and this makes him extremely likable and human. Third, the mythology and world-building is superb, and the things I learned about London were pretty cool. It satisfied my inner nerd on so many fronts that I can't help but give this book a perfect rating. It was so many things that other stories are not, and it impressed me no end. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to read this in my usual four-hour marathon, but coming back to it again and again over the course of a week was a real treat.

The second book about apprentice wizard Peter Grant is Moon Over Soho, and it came out on March 1.