4 stars. Really good. Peter is a brand new member of the London Metropolitan Police Force or the “Filth” as they are known. While working a case he takes a witness statement from a dead man and, what’s that you say? DEAD MAN!?!!? Well, yes, dear reader-the witness was dead and Peter had quite the same reaction as you! As our story unfolds, Peter finds himself an apprentice wizard, oh, dear, you appear to be quite overcome. Please, just stay calm, suspend your disbelief, and allow this tale to unfold around you. Peter must navigate vampires, Gods and Goddess of the Thames and ghosts to solve the puzzling murders. Oops, there you go again; perhaps a cup of tea will set you to rights. Maybe it would help to know there is also a very good dog deeply involved in the plot? Ah, yes, I thought that would do it!
Now, let me tell you my tale of reading this book. When it was first published way back in 2011, I waited impatiently for it to show up at the local library. Ben Aaronovitch was a writer for the greatest television show of all time: DOCTOR WHO. So, obviously I was primed to tuck in with the book and love it. Checked it out, read the first chapter, took it back. It didn’t blow my skirt up, as they say. I’ve checked it out many times over the intervening years because I just knew it was a good book. Didn’t matter. First chapter-return it. Amazon had recently made it a recommendation for me and I thought, well, here we go again. It’s the 10th anniversary edition, new intro by the author, blah, blah, blah. Okay, I checked it out. This time around, something clicked and I blew through this thing like the pages were on fire. It really is a good book-I knew it all along!
If you’re not into Doctor Who/wizard-y/weird/supernatural things this might not be for you. And, to be fair, this was book one of the series and the script writer does show through with some of the transitions, dialogue, and the way the scenes flow. Minor, minor little nit picky things. The plot is great as Peter just kind of goes with it as he learns wizard/magic things while using plain old police skills to work through the crimes and figure it out.
I enjoyed it, glad I kept trying to read it and have already checked out book two in the series.