London calling to the underworld

Ben Aaronovitch’s Moon Over Soho was the first book I ever reviewed for Cannonball Read (CBR 4, 2012), and I loved it – it was dark, fresh, funny and deep. Broken Homes pales in comparison–both the light and shadow of Rivers of London and Moon Over Soho have faded, and things seem to be deliberately slowed down rather than allowed to proceed at their natural pace.

When the book opens, Peter Grant, Nightingale and Leslie are still on the trail of the Faceless man, London is still studded with architectural quirks and possibly-magical marvels, the Rivers and their courts are still vaguely competitive, if not combative, and we still don’t know who or what Molly is. There are some slight developments – Leslie is getting better at magic, Peter is getting better at avoiding the backlash of using magic, and they’re all getting comfortable in their between-world. The novel is almost as fluently written as the first two, and better than the third, Whispers Underground, (which in my edition was bizarrely stilted sprinkled with typos) and Grant continues to be an engaging hero. The emphasis on London’s layered and historical multiculturalism is always a big point in favour of these books, as does the commentary on modern police work. Nevertheless, when I got to the end, I was disappointed, and even more so when I looked at Aaronovitch’s website and found that a few more novels in the series are contracted. Some things that I think should be resolved by now are not, and it’s time to get on with doing so.

There’s a further somewhat spoilery comment on my blog, drdoombiscuits.wordpress.com.