Midnight Riot (audiobook) by Ben Aaronovitch, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Midnight Riot is urban fantasy.

My read-alikes/watch-alikes list is a lazy, slight edited version of what I included in my review of the paper version of this book.

Review:

Probationary Constable Peter Grant wants to become a murder cop but seems far more likely to become a paper pusher. That all changes after he speaks to a ghostly witness at a crime scene and his abilities and willingness to keep an open mind bring him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the only member of the London Metropolitan Police who is also a magician. Peter becomes Nightingale's apprentice and tries to get a handle on magic and its rules, even as he investigates brutal murders and attempts to keep the peace between feuding river gods.

Moon Over Soho (book) by Ben Aaronovitch

Moon Over Soho is the second book in Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series. I'd call it urban fantasy plus mystery.

This review doesn't exactly contain spoilers, but some of the things I write about will probably make it easy to guess what happens, so read on with caution.

[Just noticed that I had this book down as being written by its main character. Whoops. I fixed it.]

Synopsis:

Peter Grant, apprentice wizard, spends most of this book primarily trying to solve one series of murders. Someone or something is using magic to kill jazz musicians just after or during gigs. Meanwhile, he's also helping out with another case involving vagina dentata: a woman whose vagina contains teeth. Sharp ones. Her victims die of blood loss after getting their penises bitten off during sex.

Review:

I loved the first book in this series, Midnight Riot, so I decided to read this one too. Sadly, I didn't like it quite as much as the first.

Peter's “voice” was still a lot of fun. I loved all the little snarky details, and I liked the scientific approach he took towards magic. I enjoyed the brief appearance of Ash, the river god exchanged for Beverley in the previous book, much more than I thought I would, and I loved how Aaronovich was able to turn London into a character in its own right. I love Molly enough that I hope she at least gets to have a storyline in a future book devoted to her. However, the mystery aspects made less of an impact than they did in the first book, and the stupidity level was unusually high.

Midnight Riot (book) by Ben Aaronovitch

Midnight Riot is the first book in Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series. I'd call it urban fantasy.

Janine's review of this book over at Dear Author was what first brought it to my attention. I eventually checked it out via interlibrary loan.

Synopsis:

Probationary Constable Peter Grant is keeping watch at the scene of a murder when he meets a ghost who happens to be the sole witness to the crime. Peter is shocked and a little freaked out, but he does his job and questions the witness, which is how he learns that the murderer has a super-human ability to change his face and knock people's heads clean off.

Soon, Peter comes to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the one and only member of a special branch of London's Metropolitan Police. Nightingale's job is to make sure that magic and magical beings don't cause so much trouble that ordinary humans start to notice them, and Peter is his new apprentice. They spend the book dealing with two primary issues: a bunch of murders, and a territorial dispute between Mother and Father Thames. Although the murders are all committed by different people, they each have magic and sudden, inexplicable violence in common. And also, the murderer's face always falls off afterwards.

Review:

This is one of those cases where my enjoyment of the main character's voice eclipsed my issues with the story. I loved Peter Grant. He had a dry, snarky, and often self-deprecating sense of humor, even when describing his work, London, or his childhood. When Nightingale took him on and started teaching him magic, he didn't begin to morph into a Gary Sue – his training involved lots and lots of repetition and practice, and he didn't become a magical whiz just in time for the final showdown with the killer. His strength lay in his ability to deal with people, including the not-quite-human sorts, and his interest in information of all sorts. I have no idea how much of it was true, but I loved all the little London details.