Skip to main content

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch: book review



Rivers of London (2011) is set in London in contemporary times. Peter Grant is a probationary police constable called to duty when a murder occurred on the steps of St. Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, London. The first witness he interviews about the murder of William Skirmish is the 120-year-old ghost of Nicholas Wallpenny. When viewing the CCTV footage, the police have two suspects. The ghost has told Grant that there was only one person – the murderer changed clothes. So what does Grant do?

With the help of his female partner, Police Constable Lesley May, and his new boss, Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the action takes them along the rivers of London. Grant has a good sense of smell, and May is good at checking facts on the police database. Grant gets his first lesson in magic in the laboratories with Nightingale. Here readers learn of vestigium (the trace of clues), tactus disvitae (the smell of anti-life), dissimulo (the hidden), and in fact the Principia Artes Magicis (the Principles of the Art of Magic).

Aaronovitch wrote two serials for the BBC ‘Doctor Who’ series, and his novels are enormous best-sellers. Rivers of London, the first of the Peter Grant police series, is difficult to classify. It is part police thriller, part fantasy, part magical realism, part scientific, and part travelogue. I am not a fan of the magic genre, and this novel has not convinced me to be a fan. Yet, I liked it.

Rivers of London is witty and humorous with a distinct style and language, especially the voice of Peter Grant. It blends traditional police investigations, procedures and problem-solving (realism) – which I like – with a bizarre sense of the unreal (magic) – which  I don’t like. However, I particularly like the way Aaronovtich sets a very vivid pictorial view and history of the streets, shops, river, bars, and churches of London.

But I am still not convinced. That’s because setting police investigations in the phantasmagoria means that the writer can conjure up any solutions to a ‘crime’ - no matter how far-fetched and fantastical. Overall there was nothing memorable about the plot – but the main character and the location were memorable (London is the real star in this novel). And it’s too long. It needs an edit. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend Rivers of London to readers who love a well-crafted yarn with a unique experimental style that is very readable.


MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing
1 comment
Read more