I listened to this as an audiobook because that didn't have a wait list.

Pro: I was able to listen on my commute, and tore through it.

Con: I wasn't wild about some of the voices the actor did, and I feel like i missed a lot of Aaronovitch's fun writing because it goes by too fast spoken. I ended it feeling like I needed to reread the book in print, and I probably will. ( )

Others have described the storyline of this book and series, so I'll just fuss a bit. I love the Rivers of London (PC Peter Grant) books; but I'm less satisfied with this 5th installment of the series. I was hoping for continuation, exploration and perhaps some resolution, of the (character-wise) paradigm shifting events at the end of book 5, Broken Homes. Instead, we wander off in a different direction, during which, the major character revelation of the previous book almost comes across as incidental.

It feels rather as it does when, a on a TV series, a secondary-lead actor goes away on maternity leave or to make a film. Then the writing staff has to pivot heavily to sub-plots within the Meta-plot in order to work around the extended absence. Ben Aaronovitch has TV scripts to his credit; but as this is a book series, perhaps he just wanted to keep things fresh or take Peter out of his element, or develop a different character dynamic or something else... writerly. As a reader, I just bloody well wanted to know what the devil is going on with that grenade he dropped on the mantelpiece ending Broken Homes! Grump! Crank! Grump!


- now that I've got that out of my system... My fussing really is a testament to the author's skills. I'm thoroughly invested in his characters and story.
I had suppositions as to where this book would go, and it didn't go there. (Hurumph!) Still, if FoxGlove Summer, is literally off the beaten trail, it is yet a really good Peter Grant read. It also opens the cabinets on some of the other character's goods, consummates a serious point of tension, and yields hints to coming conflict. It just didn't delve in to, and advance the Faceless Man Metaplot as much as I would have liked. (...and now I've got to wait another writing/publishing cycle to get more!) So, I fuss;. As will continue to fuss whilst I purchase the the Foxglove Summer audiobook, (Kobna Holbrook Smith's voice IS Peter Grant's), search for more news blurbs on a future Rivers of London TV series, and wait, very impatiently, for the Sixth installment. :-) ( )

as with many series a bit slow to get back into and remember what had happened in previous books, but the standalone parts were strong ( )

read 12/9/2023 ( )

This is a police procedural with a difference, as there is a department which deals with magic and magical beings and at least some of the more senior policemen in other forces are aware of it. Magical beings foregrounded in the book are the spirits of rivers, one of whom is the girlfriend of the main character, Peter. Peter himself is a lowly constable, but he works in the magical department and is a wizard in training.

I liked some aspects of this book, which I realised was set some way into a series. There are a lot of mentions of a character called Lesley who apparently betrayed the organisation for which Peter works. At various times, she contacts him and he eventually obtains a disposable mobile phone on which he can return her texts and actually phone her, as another policeman, who is trying to arrest her, wants Peter to try to entrap her if possible.

There are some things which don't seem to go anywhere in this book, such as a couple of characters who live in a strange house and are very involved with bees. And there are some creatures which could be the Sidhe, but a rather nastier lot than the traditional ones, at least from a physical point of view.

Peter is out in the countryside, away from his comfort zone in London, initially to interview the bee people but then staying on to help out in a search for two missing schoolgirls. The police procedural side is well done, with much officialise and jargon, and various references to modern police practices. Where I felt the book didn't do so well was with the portrayal of murderous unicorns, which I somehow could not take seriously, especially as Peter jokingly makes My Little Pony references about them, and the whole wrapup to the book which came across as a bit of an anticlimax leaving far too much unresolved. So on balance I would rate this at 3 stars and probably won't bother with any more of the series. ( )