BEN ARRONOVICH
THERE IS A LOT OF URBAN FANTASY ON THE BOOK MARKET AT THE MOMENT AND MOST OF IT IS RECYCLED CRAP WITHOUT ANY REAL IMAGINATION INVOLVED.
HOWEVER, MIDNIGHT RIOT (AKS: THE RIVERS OF LONDON), DESPITE ITS DERIVATIVE PHOTOSHOPPED COVER, IS ACTUALLY QUITE AMUSING AND ENGAGING . . . ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS SO FAR THIS YEAR . . .
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost.
Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny.
Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.
THE SEQUEL IS DUE IN MAY 2011
BODY AND SOUL
The song. That’s what London constable and sorcerer’s apprentice Peter Grant first notices when he examines the corpse of Cyrus Wilkins, part-time jazz drummer and full-time accountant, who dropped dead of a heart attack while playing a gig at Soho’s 606 Club. The notes of the old jazz standard are rising from the body—a sure sign that something about the man’s death was not at all natural but instead supernatural.
Body and soul—they’re also what Peter will risk as he investigates a pattern of similar deaths in and around Soho. With the help of his superior officer, Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, and the assistance of beautiful jazz aficionado Simone Fitzwilliam, Peter will uncover a deadly magical menace—one that leads right to his own doorstep and to the squandered promise of a young jazz musician: a talented trumpet player named Richard “Lord” Grant—otherwise known as Peter’s dear old dad.
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