Meanwhile, his colleague, Lesley May, has barely survived having her face destroyed by a magical creature.īefore discussing Moon Over Soho, the second novel in the sequence, it's worth considering the nature of the magic at work in the series in greater detail. Along the way, he has helped solve a series of supernatural murders, brokered a deal between Mama Thames, who rules over the tidal river, and Father Thames, who controls everything above Teddington Lock, to stave off a turf war across the city variously made friends and enemies of Mama Thames's children, the rivers of London, accidentally burned down Covent Garden market, and at the close of the novel is wondering what to do about a man who has apparently had his penis bitten off by a woman with unusual dentition. By the end of the novel Grant has become a Detective Constable and is Nightingale's apprentice. This is followed by Grant's discovery that he is sensitive to the impressions left by the use of magic, all of which draw him to Nightingale's attention. Peter Grant, an enthusiastic but undistinguished probationary police constable, dreading an assignment to a desk job, is recruited by Nightingale after an incident in which Grant takes a witness statement from a ghost, following the unexplained death of a man in Covent Garden.

DCI Thomas Nightingale, a survivor of the Battle of Ettersburg, the only serving police officer who is also a classically trained wizard, and at the opening of Rivers of London, the only member of the Folly, finds himself dealing with an abnormal caseload as magic erupts all over the city. The overarching narrative posits that while the use of magic might have dwindled after the Second World War (thanks in part to thousands of magicians, on both sides of the war, being annihilated during one particular battle), suddenly magicians seem to be active again, and their intentions are not benign. What place do wizards have in twenty-first-century policing? Obviously, given that Rivers of London was the first in a series, more than you might initially suppose. It’s generally known as 'the Folly,' in reference to its base of operations, but implicit also is the idea that the continuing existence of such a unit is anachronistic nonsense. Aaronovitch coupled the idea of the breezy police procedural with that well-worked fantasy trope of secret London, creating a small and obscure special unit which lurks under the capacious aegis of the Metropolitan Police, and dedicates itself to investigating cases where the occult represents a clear threat to the citizens of London.

It is not difficult to see why Ben Aaronovitch's first novel, Rivers of London ( Midnight Riot in the US, 2011) attracted so much attention.

Moon over soho by ben aaronovitch