Lies Sleeping

October 15, 2018
Aaronovitch’s seventh Peter Grant urban fantasy (after 2016’s The Hanging Tree) is more funny than memorable, with the plot overshadowed by the laugh-out-loud prose. Peter, a London police detective constable assigned to the pursuit of paranormal crime, has magic powers himself, and is also an extreme nerd able to distinguish between the depictions of dwarfish iconography in Tolkien’s books and those in filmed adaptations. He’s on the trail of Martin Chorley, the wizard known as Faceless Man II, who’s viewed as a major security threat to the U.K. Chorley has begun stealing artifacts, apparently as part of a plan to “bring back King Arthur... the one that was totally made up by a bunch of Welsh Nationalists and romantic Frenchmen.” Aaronovitch’s adeptness at injecting humor into the story outweighs the lessening of suspense that results, and his fans will delight in this outing. Agent: John Berlyne, Zeno Literary.

With a rumbling baritone and the deft familiarity of a series veteran, narrator Kobna Holdbrook-Smith returns to the seventh installment in the Rivers of London series. Peter Grant, wizard and detective, continues the hunt for The Faceless Man, with help of his colleague and former friend, Lesley May. As Grant meets a wide cast of characters, Holdbrook-Smith shows remarkable comfort switching between personalities of various ages, backgrounds, and accents in the many scenes of dialogue and interrogation. A measured pace helps listeners unravel the latest turns in Aaronovitch's fantasy. While prior knowledge of Grant's journey is certainly helpful at this advanced stage in the story, Holdbrook-Smith's delivery works to orient new audiences quickly. K.S.B. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine