Rivers of London

 

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, 392 pages

Probationary Constable Peter Grant is hoping for any permanent assignment that saves him from a position in the bureaucracy department, and a ghostly witness to a strange murder proves to be just the ticket for getting into a much more interesting department. Peter finds himself under Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who is currently the whole department handling supernatural problems around London, the police's single wizard. Peter is pulled into the politics of rivers and casting spells, even as the gristly murders keep multiplying. 

While it was nice to get back into urban fiction, which was at one point a lot of what I read, I don't know that I'm jumping to recommend this book in particular. The general consensus among the Orcs & Aliens book club was that Peter was a bit of a boring protagonist, and there's a fair bit of sexism that isn't surprising for a book published in 2011 by a fifty-year-old man, but did make it less enjoyable. Part of me is curious to see where some of the settings open paths go, but I'm unlikely to continue the series.