I'm a big fan of the Rivers Of London series by Ben Aaronovitch, and the latest entry was just as appealing as the others.
This time, Peter Grant, our resident detective inspector meets trainee warlock, seems much more confident in his magical ability and prowess, and his mysterious senior office Nightingale seems to have more confidence and trust for him to carry out investigation and altercations on his own.
Again, the stories locations around London town are well described and really give the sense of Peter's familiarity with his surrounding area. I especially like the scenes taking place in The Chestnut Tree pub, a sort of Rivers of London version of The Leaky Cauldron from Harry Potter.
The story this time sees us eventually discovering the identity of the Faceless Man, and involves lots of action sequences between familiar characters, principally around our magical cast trying to make an illicit bob out of selling important magical artifacts and texts, and everyone else trying desperately to be the first to get them.
Whilst not a lot new occurs here in terms of the wider story arc, and actually I felt I had a few blanks from not having yet read the graphic novels, it didn't really detract from the enjoyment of the thrilling story in this book. Sometimes series get to reliant on the underlying arc (looking at you Doctor Who!) so it's nice for this entry to give some meat to the encounters between characters that we already know of. For me, it just makes it feel more solid as a believable story.
So, whilst not groundbreaking, a definite must for fans of the series, and if you're not a fan of the series - go and become one!
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