These are proving to be addictive

The third in the delightful Peter Grant series, Whispers Under Ground sees Peter’s world expand again in more ways than one. Now joined by Lesley as his partner apprentice, he’s also got his own junior to keep an eye on in Abigail, who’s led them to a ghostly graffiti artist in a railway tunnel near her school. And when an American art student staggers out of a tunnel into an Underground system, stabbed with a piece of magical pottery, Peter pauses his search for the Faceless Man and finds himself instead exploring the world under London, coming up against much more than just foul stretches of sewer system.

Still keeping in touch with the characters that have come before – Peter ends up owing Lady Ty a pretty big favour which I’m sure won’t come back to bite him in the ass sometime soon – but also adding a world of other unusual folk to enjoy, I’m really enjoying the way this world is growing both paranormally and geographically. The city of London itself is as much of a character as anyone else within, and I’m loving getting to know its different aspects and histories in each book.

The pay offs aren’t always quite what I’m expecting, but I really do enjoy the way we get there…so much so that I then dived straight into the next, Broken Homes, which took us south of the river and introduced the residents of a grim and strange housing estate, made many Lord of the Rings references, delivered a badass demonstration of why Nightingale is so well respected within the magical community, and ended with a betrayal that felt like a kick in the gut. Bringing The Faceless Man back into the fray, the journey this time was a little more jumbled than those that came before, and I did find that I struggled to remember how and why we’d reached certain plot points at times, but if I could have I’d still have read straight on to the next in the series. Unfortunately, having already spent far more on books this month than I should have, I’m going to have to wait.

Goddammit.