A Fop in Harlem and Abigail's Undinal Adventures

It took me a bit longer than I had anticipated but I have finished reading the last couple Rivers of London entries. Well, a novella and a novel; not sure if there's been a comic or short story lately.

Finishing The Masquerades of Spring was slightly bittersweet as my wife and I were supposed to see Ben Aaronovitch at a promotional event for it back in 2024. But she unceremoniously cancelled our trip to the UK and I was unable to get a refund on my ticket to the event. I hope Mr. Aaronovitch put my $15 or whatever it was to good use.

A novella, it is told from the point of view of one Augustus Berrycloth-Young, a British ex-pat residing in New York City during the 1920s who is more than a bit of a dandy. His libertine lifestyle is interrupted when Nightingale shows up seeking help investigating a saxophone with seemingly supernatural powers.

It's a fun trek through the demimonde of 1920s New York. Since Augustus is gay and his lover is black, the story deals with homophobia and racism, though I don't feel that it ever got preachy.

Stone & Sky is a full-length novel and features Peter Grant on summer holiday in Scotland - the Aberdeen area. He's there with his significant other, Beverley Brook, their twins, and his parents to boot. Also enjoying the sights is Nightingale and his latest novice, Abigail Kamara.

Things are going alright with Peter having to keep the twins out of trouble and helping his dad's jazz band with their gigs. Then he gets dragged into an investigation of a murder by the local constabulary where it is discovered that the victim has gills.

Peter's sleuthing yields that the local fae - think selkie, kelpie - have become entangled with a large energy company looking to milk the North Sea oil taps dry.

Another fun entry in the Rivers of London series. Nightingale has a minor role and, in a twist, the narrative is split between accounts by Peter and Abigail. Peter juggles obligations family and Folly while Abigail strikes out on her own, largely. Of course she has the snarky fox Indigo to accompany her. In pursuit of a panther of unknown origins, Abigail encounters Ione and develops a Sapphic fondness for her and learns that there is more to Ione that meets the eye.

I loved the Scottish dialogue and hearing that accent in my mind. 

At one point I encountered this text: 

After my trip to Birmingham last year, I read this knowing where the Black Country is and what a Brummie is. Travel really does broaden the mind. A little Londoner prejudice on the part of Aaronovitch? Ha!

Two very fun tales. It was really nice to get caught up in the series. I shall have to see if any new Rivers of London comics have been published in the last few years.

Better Late Than Never

Well, it finally arrived.

I ordered it from Mystery to Me (thanks!) back in August and here we are nearly 3 months later. I wonder what makes it so hard to get a hold of. After 1 month of waiting I found myself in the UK so I sought it out. However, neither the Waterstones on High Street in Birmingham nor the bookstore at the Birmingham airport had it.

At least I have it now. But it'll have to wait to be read. Right now I am plowing through Locke's Second Treatise of Government and this follows on the heels of selections from Leviathan as I am reading and listening along to a recording of a semester of ILS 206 (Western Culture: Political, Economic, and Social Thought II) as taught by one of my old profs, Charles Anderson, back in, oh, the late 1980s.

After reading bits of Hobbes I've decided I need to start using the word "peradventure" more often. Locke is interesting. A couple parts read just like the Declaration of Independence. Or vice versa. And when he goes on about men owning the fruits of their labors I can understand how Marx was influenced by the man.

I expect to get caught up with the Rivers of London series just in time to find out that Aaronovitch has released a new novella.

Bookish

At some point the decline and fall of my marriage so preoccupied my mind that I failed to keep up with Andrew Cartmel's The Vinyl Detective series. Forsooth!

Once I became conscious of the situation I set out to rectify it by putting in an order for the 2 latest entries in the series. Many thanks to Mystery to Me.

They arrived in time for my UK trip and I brought them with me.

I managed to finish Noise Floor while across The Pond. As always, it was a very fun read. It sees TVD and his partner Nevada being hired to find Lambert Ramkin, a.k.a. Imperium Dart, an EDM god from the 90s who has gone missing and his wives are very concerned. As always, Tinkler is ably assisting his friends when not making lewd comments.

The dialogue is fast-paced and witty as usual. Plus the retro-faux-rave scene gave me 90s flashbacks.

Underscore was no less fun. Here, TVD & Nevada are hired to find a rare soundtrack album to a giallo classic called Murder in London and Bikini of Blood and The Black Dog Murders, et al. The seeker is the granddaughter of composer Loretto Loconsole.

Plenty of banter about wine and coffee, Tinkler is in fine form, and the Swingin' Sixties sounds like it was a hoot. Not a whole lot of Agatha here as she is busy elsewhere much of the time, though her driving skills are utilized in a life or death situation as usual. As with Noise Floor, Nevada takes the lead more often than in previous books. I think. It's been a while since I've read the predecessors.

In addition to The Vinyl Detective, I also enlisted Mystery To Me to help me catch up on the Rivers of London series by Andrew Cartmel's pal, Ben Aaronovitch. I have so far received the latest entry in that series, the novel, Stone and Sky, which came out this summer, but I am still waiting on the novella from last year, The Masquerades of Spring.

While in Birmingham I had my first visit to a Waterstones, which I gather is a bit like their Barnes & Noble. I found exactly what I was looking for, a history of the city.

New reads

My to-read pile continues to grow unabated.

First there's this courtesy of my friend Jason. Thanks!

The there's these new titles from Andrew Cartmel and Ben Aaronovitch. Many thanks to Mystery to Me Books.

In case of emergency, break for Angel of Death

It took me longer than usual to get my hands on a copy of Ben Aaronovitch's latest Rivers of London novel, Amongst Our Weapons, but, once I finally did, I was extremely glad.

As the tale opens, our hero, Peter Grant, is investigating the death of one David Moore who lies on the floor of a shop in the London Silver Vaults, a subterranean marketplace. Originally vaults for dealers in the precious metal to store their wares, it soon took the place of the above ground shops. Moore had come to one of the stalls seeking a ring engraved with strange symbols that his ex-wife had said she sold it at. But instead of the ring, Moore ended up with a hole where his heart should have been.

Ere long a second victim with a hole in his chest is discovered - Preston Carmichael. Carmichael had been in touch with Moore recently and soon a photo of the pair, along with several others, emerges. They were all members of a small coterie involved with a strange religious group at Manchester University in the 1990s who were given these strange silver rings and it seems they are being hunted down by a killer with wings and a halo and who wields a rather deadly spear.

Grant is on the case with his trainee Danni and they attempt to track down this avenging angel. Their investigation leads to a discovery involving the Spanish Inquisition. While they knew the Inquisition's weapons were fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, Grant and Co. did not expect them to have also used magic in their daily rounds of rooting out pretend Catholics on the Iberian Peninsula.

Amongst Our Weapons is the 9th novel in the Rivers of London series and it ranks amongst the best. Grant is no longer a novice under the tutelage of Nightingale and has his own neophyte to train. His lady, Beverly, a river goddess, is quite pregnant for most of the book and she gives birth to twins at the end. Not only does Grant become a father here, but he also gets some new job duties as his superior and mentor, Nightingale, announces his retirement.

Ooh! Almost forgot. Grant's former pal and co-trainee at The Folly, Leslie May, makes a return here. She turned to the dark side after being possessed by a real baddie and having her face disfigured. She's been a presence looming in the background, and occasionally in the foreground, for the entire series. Here she unwittingly sets events in motion and pops up a few times and ends up saving Grant's life. It was good to see her return and have a pivotal role but still retain a lot of mystery about her.

I really enjoyed Peter Grant here. He has matured but he's still a wiseacre. We get the expected doses of London history and a great murder mystery. Aaronovitch does it perfectly here as we don't really even have much of a clue about the nature of the killer until about two-thirds of the way through and it's not until even later that all is revealed about its identity. I much prefer the investigation into the mystery over simply running around London chasing an elusive but fully identified killer.

Aaronovitch let the mystery unfold at a measured pace that allowed for diversions from the police procedural into the history of London, The Folly itself, the Reconquista, et al. Beverly doesn't get many pages here but perhaps she'll become a working mom and have a more active role as in books past.

Amongst Our Weapons simply pushed all the right buttons for me.