This book was recommended to me by a friend who knows I like both a solid mystery and interesting SF/Fantasy worlds. This book delivers on both. Told from the first person POV of Probationary Constable Peter Grant of the [London] Metropolitan Police, it is a police procedural with a twist. The copper in question lives and works in a world where magic and the supernatural exist in parallel with the mundane.

The book starts with a series of gruesome beheadings (and grisly face breaking) in London. Grant and his partner, WPC Leslie May, have been sent on patrol to keep an eye out. While May is getting them a cuppa, Grant encounters Nicholas, a witness to the most recent assault. Unfortunately, only Grant can see and talk to him, since Nicholas is a ghost.

Though in denial about the existence of magic, The Met is not stupid. They assign Grant to Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale (the last magic user in England), with whom Grant begins his magic apprenticeship.

From Grant’s first sighting of a ghostly witness, through the evidence-chasing and magical skills-building, the pace never lets up. Aaronovitch does a great job of keeping the tension high. The plot development is well-paced, and characters are fleshed out and interesting.

Aaronovitch is a British TV screenwriter whose credits include several classic Dr. Who episodes. The humour is dark and dry, and readers will get a kick out of the pop cultural references sprinkled here and there.

What will be fresh to North American readers is the diversity in the cast of characters. It is handled in a subtle and natural way, with the varied characters part of the tapestry of the city. We are well into the book before we find out about Grant’s parents (he is a white drug-addicted jazz musician, she is an office cleaner from Sierra Leone). The physical embodiments of the Rivers of London are also a demographically diverse group, played against each other as part of a larger turf war.

The star of the novel is the city of London – both the present day, and thousands of years ago. There are interesting historical facts about the many rivers that became buried as London was built up. For those of you who are Anglophiles, Aaronovitch's vivid descriptions of locations and locales will beg you to whip out a city map and follow along. He clearly evokes what it is to live in The City – the traffic, the crowds, the smells, the diverse restaurants.

If you are like me, you will be charmed by the characters, laugh at the dry humour, and get hooked on the classic police procedural mystery plot. Fair warning: Have the sequel, Moon Over Soho, ready to hand.

Bonus: Here is a link to images and story about the Rivers referred to in the book. http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/river-fleet ( )

3.5 stars - witty, creative, a bit cheesy at times, but a fun romp. Great on audiobook. ( )

Like a pool ball, on the baize of a pool table, on a riverboat, on choppy waters, I found myself to-ing-and-fro-ing over 'The Rivers of London'. I hadn't particularly read the blurb closely and was therefore surprised as to the supernatural ambience of the tale; I took this in my stride and found the initial brushes with magic, wizardry and other mystic forces well-handled and quasi-believable within the book's format. It was clear Aaronovitch was well versed in history, his beloved city, the police force and everything else he wrote about, which made the story interesting and impressive - it gave a feeling of you being in a capable storyteller's hands. I suppose though, this was also the novel and writer's undoing: the protagonist, tale and as result, reader, became so embroiled in specific, obtuse facets of plot that it all seemed to grind down in its pace and effectiveness as the story should have been gripping and page-turning. instead I felt that avenues were forced, that the author had planned the tapestry-like narrative in such cross referenced detail, that the mystique disappeared and the happenings were glaringly more far-fetched and unbelievable. Don't get me wrong, there were parts of the book I really enjoyed and I think Aaronovitch is an intelligent and interesting writer but I think in his quest to make it all make sense, he lost the vim and vigour he has successfully created previously. Don't over-egg the pie, or something like that. ( )

Utterly marvelous and imaginative urban fantasy set in London and surprisingly absorbing. I only meant to read a few pages while my Kindle rebooted and haven't been able to put it down much this weekend.

Great characters, engaging and fun mystery, and like the blurbs note, it's like Harry Potter as a police procedural.

I'd been meaning to read this series for a while thanks to a good review from Charles de Lint in F&SF, but only now got around to reading this. Now I can't wait to nab the second book and keep reading about Peter Grant, apprentice wizard and probationary constable for London's Metropolitan police force. :) ( )

I was encouraged, nay, urged to read this book by my beloved bride. (She is already in at least the 4th book in the series at this point.) Who am I to resist such entreaties? (Even though she never reads the things I encourage her to take up.) And true to the promise, the book was really enjoyable. The main characters are well sketched out, the plot points unexpected (at least to me, an only occasional mystery reader). What I particularly appreciated was the thorough description of where locations were in relation to one another. I've never been to London. I'm familiar enough with many of the names of places and monuments there. But Aaronovitch gives us the courtesy of putting places in context to one another, which makes the whole story feel more real and grounded.
[Audiobook note: The reader, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, was excellent. For example, when reading sections where the first-person character had been running, KHS would be breathing heavily, giving a sense of immediacy to the story.] ( )