Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series gets better and better. We last left Peter Grant devastated by a massive betrayal in Broken Homes. Weeks later in Foxglove Summer he’s off to Herefordshire to check a former Folly member, now retired, as a possible suspect in a case of two missing 11 year old girls. Peter quickly rules the former wizard from suspicion and offers his help to the local police who are overwhelmed.
Peter is pretty sure this will be a straight forward police case and is looking forward to something simple – no wizardry, no Faceless Man, no Tasers, no Mother Thames or her brood. His happy certainty lasts right until he checks out the girls’ cell phones, found abandoned and non functional. Peter recognizes the tell-tale pitting of electronics exposed to magic.
This is our first time seeing Peter operate alone and he does a grand job. He searches all the past witness statements for “oddities” and sure enough, finds that one of the girls had an invisible friend. Sleuthing the modern way, with cheapo cell phones set up to register magic, plus plenty of gumshoe work and listening to what’s not said yields success.
Peter’s developed his magic skills immensely, witness the fact he could blow out fence gates on the run, something Nightingale said only about half the older generation could do. He gets tantalizing clues about Nightingale and the debacle at Ettersberg and further insight into magic’s place in the world beyond London.
New Characters
Peter’s been entranced by Beverly Brook, sort-of 20-something daughter of Mama Thames and this time she shows up to help him out. He helps her too, in several interesting ways. Beverly is more human when she’s with Peter but she still has her river goddess innate presence.
We meet several new characters: DCI Windrow and Inspector Edmondson, the leads on the kidnapping case, Dominic Croft, whom Windrow assigns to work with Peter, normally shrewd journalist Sharon Pike who bizarrely accuses the cops of covering up the real culprit, offering as evidence a piece of the plastic backing from a candy bar, the parents, Hugh Oswald the former wizard now bee keeper and Mellissa his granddaughter who may be part bee herself. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Dominic or Sharon knock on the Folly door sometime to learn magic.
Aaronovitch makes these people real to us. We don’t get a full character dissection on any of them but he shows us enough that we recognize them. They are types yes, but with enough added humanity that they are people, not cardboard cutouts.
Setting
Peter’s way out of his element in the wilds of Herefordshire but in true Peter Grant spirit quickly learns his way around and gets familiar enough with the local background to spot anomalies in the reforestation efforts. He’s a amazing person whom I’d like to meet sometime.
The only map is on the front cover and I’m not familiar with Herefordshire – good thing we have Google maps and Google Earth! – but you don’t need to know the real countryside to follow the idea of wooded hills, pastures, fields, small towns, ridges and creeks. Aaronovitch gives enough detail to make it interesting without trying to make it too realistic.
Plot
The plot was great. As with all the Rivers of London novels we have lots of unanswered questions. Who is the fairy queen and why did she want the girls? Why did she want Peter and what did she plan to use him for? Why did the unicorns chase the escaping girls right into the arms of Peter, Beverly and Dominic? How did the fairy queen make a second, identical girl?
And last, how on earth would Peter et al explain the second daughter? And that they were giving the spare girl, who happened to be the biological human daughter, to Fleet to raise?
Summary
I have loved all the Rivers of London novels, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be a tie among Midnight Riot, Broken Homes and this one, Foxglove Summer. It’s fun seeing Peter grow personally and as a wizard, London commentaries are hilarious, tension ever increasing, and minor characters are fun and well developed with just a few sentences.
5 Stars
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