Because of the way that Lies Sleeping ended, Peter Grant finds himself suspended, temporarily he hopes, from the London’s Metropolitan Police. Because expenses don’t stop just because a job does, he signs up to work in the security department of one of London’s biggest and flashiest IT start-ups, the Serious Cybernetics Corporation. The founder, an …
Category: England
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/05/false-value-by-ben-aaronovitch/
Jun 16 2024
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch
Through most of the first six books in the Rivers of London series, a rogue magician known as the Faceless Man has been leading the mystical branch of the Metropolitan Police on a merry chase. Well, not so merry for his many victims. But he’s a formidable practitioner, and while Peter Grant, Nightingale, and company …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/06/16/lies-sleeping-by-ben-aaronovitch/
Dec 29 2023
The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch
Peter Grant, one of two official wizards of the London police force, owes his life to Lady Tyburn, one of the genius loci of the city’s numerous rivers. So when she wakes him with a pre-dawn phone call to say that one of her daughter’s friends has had an accident — the “fatal” is unstated …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/29/the-hanging-tree-by-ben-aaronovitch/
Nov 11 2023
The Portable Door by Tom Holt
I hope The Portable Door is a cracking good movie — it’s an Australian feature released in early 2023 — because the premise is terrific. Young graduate Paul Carpenter lands a job at the venerable London firm of J.W. Wells & Co., though even after the job interview he’s not entirely clear what it is that …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/11/11/the-portable-door-by-tom-holt/
Oct 29 2023
What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
All three Rivers of London novellas that have been published to date — The Furthest Station, The October Man, and now What Abigail Did That Summer — have left me wanting more, which is a fine recommendation for books that are meant as light, if occasionally spooky, entertainment. The stories all take place in and …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/10/29/what-abigail-did-that-summer-by-ben-aaronovitch/
Sep 17 2023
The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
Odd reports from the Metropolitan Line of the London Underground have come to the attention of Peter Grant and the Special Assessment Unit he’s a part of. They’ve come through as part of a project to deal with sexual assaults and offensive behavior on the transport system, and part of that was “improving reporting rates …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/09/17/the-furthest-station-by-ben-aaronovitch/
Aug 31 2023
The Queen’s Favourite Witch #2: The Lost King by Benjamin Dickson & Rachael Smith
The first volume of The Queen’s Favorite Witch turned out to be an unexpected surprise, combining historical fact with an empowering tale of believing in yourself, and ending with a shocking twist. I’m genuinely impressed with how Benjamin Dickson and Rachael Smith have continued this series with a book that, while not as big on …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/08/31/the-queens-favourite-witch-2-the-lost-king-by-benjamin-dickson-rachael-smith/
Aug 29 2023
Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs
Long-time readers here will know that I’m a huge mythology aficionado, so when I say that this book taught me so much that I didn’t already know about the history and myth of Britain, that is no mean feat! The book started out pretty roughly, for me, as I tried to settle into the somewhat …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/08/29/storyland-a-new-mythology-of-britain-by-amy-jeffs/
Jul 29 2023
Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
One of the ways that the Folly — the secret unit of London’s Metropolitan Police Service that deals with the supernatural — is integrated into regular police work is that they receive reports concerning missing children. Apparently in previous eras, rogue practitioners used to use children for some very rogue practices. And so Nightingale dispatches Peter …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/07/29/foxglove-summer-by-ben-aaronovitch-2/
Jul 23 2023
Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins
Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes is something of a second-hand autobiography. Wilkins was Pratchett’s personal assistant from 2000 until Pratchett’s death in 2015 of a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s. He was also in possession of the notes toward an autobiography that Pratchett made but never turned into a full manuscript. As time went …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/07/23/terry-pratchett-a-life-with-footnotes-by-rob-wilkins/