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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
funny
mysterious
On the surface, this book is something I should really have enjoyed. The river gods, the ghost murder mystery, the witty writing… it’s all right up my alley. But for some reason, it didn’t quite land the way I thought it would. The writing felt sort of flat and emotionless during what should have been devastating or amazing scenes, the jokes were sometimes prioritised over the overall writing quality, the plot seemed a little disjointed… Oh, yeah, and the way every single woman’s breasts were described in graphic detail put me off a bit. There were also a few sentences that, if written by a Black person, might have been a funny observation about their own community, but since they’re written by a white man, come across as slightly racist and trying too hard to be “cool” and “one of you” just because he has a biracial protagonist.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Look, it suffers a little bit from Straight Dude Writing (the first three female characters are introduced by how much our protagonist wants to fuck them), but it is from 15 years ago, so. Despite that, I found it a thoroughly engaging and compelling read. Excited to read the rest of the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence
Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Racism
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sharp and witty dialogue peppers this fast action paranormal serial killer murder mystery.
The main character is a man of many flaws and some delightfully glaring contradictions—readers might complain he’s a chauvinist womaniser, and maybe he has a streak of this, but he’s honest about it, and in these pages we read all his innermost thoughts and desires, bitter and ugly or self-deprecating and heroic or biting snark—he hides nothing from the reader. I appreciate that in all its naked unpretentiousness.
What an academic rollercoaster of a story.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I thoroughly enjoyed this book - so some might wonder why I'm only giving it three stars. Well there's only so many times a male character can notice women's breasts before it starts to get weird, especially when it's like every woman he comes across. WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
From a throw away line about a plump, round-faced woman needing to have a good personality because her other option is suicide to the convenient way that Officer Lesley's face being ruined isn't such a big deal since he's already kissing another woman in about ten pages, Aaronovitch has a not so subtle message about women - namely, it's that he likes to use them as a plot device rather than as characters. Beverley is the pretty, young thing apt to replace the original main female protag when her face gets ruined, whilst never being written more deeply than she's young, hot and kind of a cool girl. Lesley is the 'good cop' turned puppet who probably has more lines dedicated to how bad PC Grant wants to bone her than lines describing her back story or motives.
Extreme gripes with female representation aside I did like the book and felt it had more twists and turns up it's sleeve than classic mystery novels of the sort. The world building was good; the POC main character is fleshed out, the Folly is interesting with enough of it's backstory left as an intriguing mystery and I found the 'Punch' antagonist to be fascinating if not always well fleshed out.
My main gripes with the book other than what I've already mentioned are probably the strange throw away chapter and odd pacing at times. We see PC Grant go and kill vampires for no other reason than to introduce the Fire Fighters and notice the sand. Never again it explained why he went there other than to bolster up some later plot points. Also, some of scene ordering gets a little ascew and tension builds but is dissipated with no pay off. Specifically thinking of the terrifying claustrophobic build up of the tube scene only for it to end pretty suddenly with no real explanation or climax.
Definitely a series I will be continuing just out of curiosity for the next case... and to see Molly again!
From a throw away line about a plump, round-faced woman needing to have a good personality because her other option is suicide to the convenient way that Officer Lesley's face being ruined isn't such a big deal since he's already kissing another woman in about ten pages, Aaronovitch has a not so subtle message about women - namely, it's that he likes to use them as a plot device rather than as characters. Beverley is the pretty, young thing apt to replace the original main female protag when her face gets ruined, whilst never being written more deeply than she's young, hot and kind of a cool girl. Lesley is the 'good cop' turned puppet who probably has more lines dedicated to how bad PC Grant wants to bone her than lines describing her back story or motives.
Extreme gripes with female representation aside I did like the book and felt it had more twists and turns up it's sleeve than classic mystery novels of the sort. The world building was good; the POC main character is fleshed out, the Folly is interesting with enough of it's backstory left as an intriguing mystery and I found the 'Punch' antagonist to be fascinating if not always well fleshed out.
My main gripes with the book other than what I've already mentioned are probably the strange throw away chapter and odd pacing at times. We see PC Grant go and kill vampires for no other reason than to introduce the Fire Fighters and notice the sand. Never again it explained why he went there other than to bolster up some later plot points. Also, some of scene ordering gets a little ascew and tension builds but is dissipated with no pay off. Specifically thinking of the terrifying claustrophobic build up of the tube scene only for it to end pretty suddenly with no real explanation or climax.
Definitely a series I will be continuing just out of curiosity for the next case... and to see Molly again!
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Love the concept, hate the rampant casual misogyny of the protagonist (and presumably the author). I shan't be reading the rest of the series.