Police Constable Peter Grant responds to an incident involving a headless corpse in Covent Garden and finds himself taking a witness statement from an 18th century ghost. As soon as Grant's 6th sense becomes apparent to his superiors, the hapless plod finds himself paired with Detective Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the Met's only remaining wizard. Together they investigate a mystery that connects the dark origins of Punch & Judy to the warring sprites in charge of the capital's waterways.
Magical realism is obviously big business in the publishing world these days, but it's always a tricky proposition for me as a reader. Aaronovitch is pitching this novel to the adult end of the Harry Potter audience, there's a little too much horror and bad language for kids, yet personally I'd have preferred Rivers Of London to have even more edge. There are some great ideas here, the best of which wouldn't have been out of place in Vertigo's Hellblazer - though John Constantine would have made short work out of this rambling mystery. The author's attempts to portray magic as a pseudo-science also left me cold. Attempting to explain wizardry as a dark cousin of physics or chemistry just seemed to take away the magic.
I'm probably not the target audience though. I was never much of a JK Rowling fan and I prefer my horror a little more visceral. And real. If fantasy's more your thing, you might want to give Rivers Of London a go. Because Peter Grant and Thomas Nightingale will definitely be back...
