Nocturnal Book Reviews

4.25/5
Another great story from Ben Aaronovitch. It's not as intense as the first one, but the humor and the observations are just as wry and brilliant.

I think what attracts me to this series is the language; you get unexpected bursts of laughter out of it and pretty much can quote from any page.

“Would you like me to arrest you?” I asked. That’s an old police trick: If you just warn people they often just ignore you, but if you ask them a question then they have to think about it. Once they start to think about the consequences they almost always calm down, unless they’re drunk of course, or stoned, or aged between fourteen and twenty-one, or Glaswegian.


There’s no such thing as a full-service forensics team. It’s very expensive, so you order bits of it up from the Home Office like a Chinese takeout. Judging by the number of noddy suits filing past us Stephanopoulis had gone for the super-deluxe meal for six with extra egg fried rice. I was, I guessed, the fortune cookie.

Peter's life as an apprentice to the magician is not an easy one and it only gets more and more difficult with each case but what I love about this guy is that he takes everything in stride and he improvises like mad. Peter has this brilliant mind of a crazy scientist. He learns spells, takes them apart and improves them - that's what's so fascinating about him. He's got a questioning mind.

This time when he investigates dying jazz musicians, the case hits close to home as his dad is trying to revive his career.

There is also a side case of an evil magician, who is playing havoc in Soho, and whose roots go back to the school where Peter's master learned his craft.

There are clubs with live music, sunrises on Soho's roofs, mad chase for magical creatures, wisps of vestigium... - all of it covering the old secrets and tragedies. There are no happy-endings, instead the end is always bittersweet which somehow makes what ifs of The Metropolitan Police magic even more real.

This is a solid series with great writing and world-building, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes urban fantasy with witty and wry male lead characters.