Known in your neck of the woods as ‘Midnight Riot’

I’ve been unsuccessfully casting about for a new urban fantasy series to sink my teeth into ever since I devoured every Dresden Files and Women of the Otherworld book I could find. Having tried (and failed miserably) to get into Laurell K. Hamilton, JR Ward, Alexandra Ivy and many others who made my shit itch,  it’s taken a little while but, filled as this is with fun characters and a brilliant (and very British) sense of humour,  I think this may be The One.

DC Peter Grant is something of a newbie to the Metropolitan Police. Wanting to be assigned to a prestigious detail, like the Murder Squad, he instead gets assigned to the infinitely more boring Case Progression Unit. That is, until he’s approached by a ghost that’s witnessed a gruesome murder and finds himself the new apprentice of DCI Nightingale, head (and until now only member) of the secret supernatural unit and finds himself rubbing up against magic, local deities, people whose faces keep falling off, and much worse.

I loved the world built – pretty much ours, but with a police force that knows that there really are things that go bump in the night – as well as our main character, Peter, whose delivery in my head was pure Richard Ayoade (someone really needs to adapt this and cast him immediately).

The supporting characters, including the well realised and very memorable personifications of our titular rivers of London, and Peter’s frequent asides made me genuinely guffaw at least once a page, and I can’t wait to find out who and what else we’re going to bump up against throughout the series, which I will definitely be reading more of.

For some reason, it looks as though this one had a title swap for the version available in the States and is known as Midnight Riot if you’re hoping to track down a copy there.