It’s revealed later in the plot that the Mary Engine’s purpose is either to create or generate magic and it can open a portal to another, darker dimension. I was tempted to tell her that we had a book in our library that had to be restrained from roaming around the Folly on its own, but I didn't trust her enough to be giving away state secrets just to big up my ends. I didn’t for a moment think that Peter would want to leave the police force, so there wasn’t much suspense, it was just annoying. Chin’s, that of Johnson, his new boss, that of Nightingale, his old one, and that of the unknown magic user who set the demon trap. So unless Aaronovitch wrote something super terrible I was pretty sure I would enjoy the story, which doesn’t make for a very unbiased review, but at least I’m honest about it!

Thank you to the publisher, Berkeley Publishing Group / DAW, for providing me with an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Who could fail to love Nightingale (Peter’s long-lived, powerful, and elegant sometime boss), Molly and Foxglove (eerie, mute faeries who live in the nineteenth-century police building known as the Folly), the competent Detective Constable Sahra Guleed, the irascible Detective Chief Inspector Alexander Seawoll and the steady Detective Sergeant Miriam Stephanopoulos? Aaronovitch showcases a superlative blend of whimsy and grit in the eighth Rivers of London urban fantasy…. I was tempted to tell her that we had a book in our library that had to be restrained from roaming around the Folly on its own, but I didn’t trust her enough to be giving away state secrets just to big up my ends.Which version of this is true is something that Peter is finding hard to manage as well as the reader.

In her arms was an overwrought toddler in a green romper suit, whose tantrum paused briefly while he eyed me up, suspiciously. I still like the series, and Kobna narrates this book beautifully, but I hope the next instalment is more measured.

Speaking of combat magic, there's a scene in which Nightingale goes full combat mode on another equally skilled practitioner (Mrs. He needs more friends his own age who aren't other cops or river gods and goddesses or acquaintances of Nightingale. The Peter / Beverley / pregnancy stuff was terrific, and there was a conversation between Guleed and Peter about their respective relationships that I liked a lot. I’m a Hitchhikers fan from way back but even I was totally over the jokes by the end of the first chapter — and they just kept coming.

I think the foxes are originally from The Furthest Station and Maksim from one of the series comics but yes, they have both appeared in more recent books since then. That he so appreciates the value of the audio editions is wonderful, as a listener, because it all helps combat the snobbishness that still lingers around the format when compared to print. In a feeble effort to regain suspense, Aaronovitch frequently had Peter saying things like, “I was looking forward to enjoying my night at home with Bev. This scene at the end when they're in the Folly's storage putting away what's left of the Mary Engine: ‘What happened to the prisoners?So good that I'm no longer side-eyeing all those other things Ben Aaronovitch worked on last year instead of this book. The action is packed (I stayed up until 6am reading this because I couldn’t put it down) and Aaronovitch’s characters are as clever and interesting as always. Drawn into the orbit of Old Street's famous 'silicon roundabout', Peter thinks it should be a doddle compared to his last job.

A former Waterstones’ bookseller, Ben Aaronovitch cut his teeth writing for television including Doctor Who before turning to the inspiration of crime fiction to fashion Rivers of London. One of the things liked most about this eighth book in the Rivers of London series is the tender relationship between river goddess Beverley and Peter. Though he is supported by Nightingale, Guleed, and Silver, and we see more of the gentle domesticity of his life with Beverly and her growing "bulge", the true bulk of the story has nothing to do with the twins. A bit of wrangling needed to happen and the full interesting import of later spoiler territory plot items comes to fruition nicely. Things are popping up that the reader has no idea where they came from, and not in the "First time the characters see it" sort of way, but in the "We encountered this previously" way.

Some new American magicians arrive in London, but there’s no reference to the two groups of American magicians introduced in previous books. There were mass graves of prisoners all over Germany and occupied Europe, and once you were shot in the head and dumped in a pit nobody could tell a wizard from anybody else. Agent Reynolds of the FBI (and the one-person X-Files division) also makes an appearance, several actually throughout the book.