Broken Homes

February 10, 2014
With irreverent humor and a fast-paced plot, Aaronovitch cheekily marries the ancient Arts with the Internet age in the fourth installment (after 2012's Whispers Underground) of an excellent series featuring modern-day Constable Peter Grant on the trail of a new magical mystery. Two grisly murders, an apparent suicide, a stolen book from the Bodleian Library's secret collection, and a militant Russian Night Witch lead Peter inexplicably to Skygarden, a threatened housing project built by an eccentric 1970s architect. He and Lesley, his partner-in-solving-crime, must go undercover to discover what exactly is happening at Skygarden, and whatâif anythingâit has to do with the twisted, dangerous and ever-elusive Faceless Man. The case comes to an explosive conclusion just as Peter pieces it together; but as with the previous books, though he solves the mystery he does not necessarily win in the end. Leaving the reader with more questions than answers, every plot revelation brings with it the realization that the reader has only begun to scratch the surface of backstory in this deeply-layered, richly imagined London. Smart and gritty, twisted and whimsical, Aaronovitch has proved yet again that secrets are his specialty. Agent: John Parker, Zeno Agency.

January 1, 2014
Another entry in the Rivers of London urban fantasy series (Whispers Under Ground, 2012, etc.). In a city with a thriving supernatural community, including river gods, dryads and fairies, narrator and PC Peter Grant works for the London Metropolitan Police. He's also an apprentice wizard and he, along with PC Lesley May and DCI Thomas Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, comprises the Folly, the Met's supernatural department--they're known as Isaacs after their founder, Sir Isaac Newton. The case begins with a murder in Sussex that may have magical associations, followed by a suicide that may have been magically coerced. And when a valuable stolen book of magic is recovered, the thief turns up burned to a crisp--from the inside. The book, it seems, was owned by expatriate German architect Erik Stromberg, whose masterpiece, an eccentric tower block called the Skygarden Estate, in Elephant and Castle, clearly is magically inspired--but is the development itself some sort of magical artifact? Are these seemingly unassociated elements related to the Faceless Man, a powerful rogue wizard with whom the Folly has crossed swords in the past? To find out what's really going on in Skygarden, Peter and Lesley must go undercover. All this is even more shapeless than the summary indicates--a phenomenon mystery fans will be familiar with--and it's only in the last 50 pages or so that the plot coheres and the title's significance becomes apparent. Still, you've got to like a book where the city itself is the main character--literally. And there are plenty of surprises for alert readers. Worth a try for series fans, although, since Aaronovitch provides no catch-up help, newcomers are best advised to begin at the beginning.

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February 15, 2014

Peter Grant is still learning the ropes as both a police constable and as an apprentice to England's last official practicing wizard, DCI Thomas Nightingale. Their department, the Folly, catches all the cases in London that have a whiff of the supernatural about them, and one recent case seems to point Peter and Nightingale to the trail of the rogue magician they have been chasing, known only as the Faceless Man. VERDICT The minutia of police work combines with a unique take on a secretly magical London for one of the more original urban fantasy series around. This fourth volume (after 2013's Whispers Underground) meanders a bit, and one could wish for a little more character growth from the wisecracking Peter, but once the action picks up, it races to an exciting finish.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2014
It's hard to understand why Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, of which this is the fourth installment, is not more well known in the U.S. It's quite popular in Britain, and rightly so because it has everything: a plucky hero, London Metropolitan Police constable Peter Grant; clever mysteries; entertaining villains; and, just for fun, wizardry. Yes, wizardry. It seems Peter Grant, an ordinary police officer, has been recruited into a special branch of the police department, known as the Folly, which deals with matters of witchcraft, sorcery, and the supernatural. He's an apprentice wizard, too, which comes in handy when dealing with cases that are decidedly weird. Take the murdered man who might be the latest victim of the Faceless Man, a powerful rogue magician; or take the old German textbook of magicwell, you can't take that because someone already did, took it from its rightful home in Germany to England, where it turned up in the London police department's recovered-goods repository (but was never reported stolen in the first place). Oh, and let's not forget the weird goings-on at a housing estate with an odd past and, apparently, an even odder present. Honestly, this series is so much fun it really deserves an enormous audience on both sides of the pond. It's a natural for grown-up Harry Potter devotees but also for urban-fantasy fans in general.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)