Moon Over Soho

 

Moon Over Soho (Rivers of London series #2) by Ben Aaronovitch  375 pp.

Peter Grant returns as a London Police Constable / Sorcerer's Apprentice in this second magical installment of the series. This time his investigations turn to the deaths of jazz musicians dropping dead but carrying supernatural signs which show the deaths are magical instead of natural. In the mean time Peter has a new "girlfriend" who is also supernatural but doesn't realize it. While Peter's magical teacher recovers from injuries sustained at the end of the first book, he has to do most of the investigating alone with his limited magical skills. Constable Lesley May, Peter Grant's love interest in the previous book is recovering from the extreme disfiguring injuries she sustained in book one. Because she cannot actively investigate she instead is analyzing old records from Oxford to help with the investigation. To add to the mysterious, magical crimes, a creature Grant calls "The Pale Lady" is killing men she mutilates with her vagina dentata. With all the dangerous supernatural creatures there is quite a bit of grotesque goriness but it is all integral to the story. I have to read the next one to find out how the wizard Thomas Nightingale and Constable May are getting along.