To start off: I loved this series! It really took me back to the old days of spending an entire weekend indoors reading in increasingly uncomfortable positions. I got thorough all 6 novels (there’s also short stories but I skipped them to get to the main story) in two weekends and spare change. It’s incredibly fun and easy to read.

Peter Grant is a young London cop that ends up in the small branch of the Metropolitan police that investigates the supernatural. It’s an Urban fantasy for geeks, with a lot of humor. Because I read them all in such rapid succession, I find it hard to say much about the characters as I’m afraid of accidentally giving away spoilers. My favorite parts were:

The City (and countryside): The first two books especially, Rivers of London and Moon over Soho take place in the really touristy zones of Covent Garden and Soho. It was a treat tagging along with Peter and I think the books do an excellent job of describing modern London. There were even some chase scenes where I was able to vividly follow along the streets they were running down, knocking over Londoners that were were smoking outside pubs Friday after work. Foxglove Summer (book 5) takes place in the countryside and that was really well done, but at times I did glaze over the very precise description of just what hill and which tree they were going round. The fact that I was already in love with London probably helped me fall in love with these books.

The Magic: Peter’s takes an empiric approach to magic, constantly trying to figure out its limits and how to integrate it with the modern world. It’s nice contrast between his teacher that’s all just, go check in the library, and Peter blowing stuff up to find out instead. There’s a good mix of small gods and goddesses, mostly goddesses really, and other kinds of fae. The fae felt pretty different and fresh, compared to what I’ve recently read. Did remind me of American Gods/Neverwhere.

The Police: It’s a lot more realistic police wise than what’s normally on TV. Being very junior Peter gets stuck with a lot of paper work. There’s a lot of attention to putting on crime scene suits and evidence chain of custody, planning an operation, and getting told off if he gets himself into trouble without orders from a superior officer. Crime solving and following up leads is really a central part, maybe even more than the magic part.

The geekiness: So many references! From mainstream stuff like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, lots of Doctor Who, to more strictly British stuff like Time Team, and many many cunning plans. Some I’ve had to google to get, some I skipped. Peter’s also an architecture geek, well he’s generally a huge geek.

The Diversity: London’s the most diverse city I’ve visited, and I think this reflects really well in the books. I don’t really know how to explain it without sounding weird though, so here goes. Peter’s mum is West African and that relevant in a lot of situations, especially when he interacts with other people of colour. Many of the episodic characters are in same sex relationships, one of the main other police characters is in a lesbian marriage, one character that’s probably gonna be present in many books is a trans woman, the morgue guy is a ginger Scottish Muslim. There’s even a few Romanian immigrants here and there. It’s all very normal, and everyone raises an eyebrow if an old geezer with racist attitudes shows up.

I remember when looking the series up that some people did not find it that easy to read. I think it depends what you’re used to, it’s pretty different from american English I’d say. I tend to glaze over stuff I don’t understand or get, if you’re the sort that needs to understand every word or acronym it might be more work. There’s a lot of police talk, acronyms that get explained at one point and then you’re supposed to remember what they were, I didn’t but I generally accept that I’m forgetful. I’m not a native speaker, but I’ve watched a lot of English TV Shows, I found it really funny and easy to read. Honestly you should just try it. Try it.