Midnight Riot (Rivers of London #)1by Ben Aaronovitch

Format 392 pages, Hardcover
Published January 10, 2011 by Gollancz
ISBN 9780575097568 (ISBN10: 0575097566)

Peter Grant’s a constable on the cusp of being assigned to what comes after the obligatory two-year apprenticeship on the streets of London. His superiors don’t think he’s a “proper copper,” a heads-down thief catcher and keeper of the peace, and they’re right. All his life he’s been too easily distracted to keep on one track, he’d failed out of his science courses to the dismay of his professors, and now he’s about to be consigned to a desk to do the paperwork for cops too busy (or illiterate) to fill out their own forms.

But things go sideways, as they often do for Peter, when he and Leslie May, his best friend and fellow copper, are assigned to block off a particularly gruesome murder scene in Covent Garden. While Leslie heads off to grab coffees for them, Peter notices a man in a “shabby old fashioned suit, complete with waistcoat, watchfob, and battered top hat” standing in the graveyard of the church where the murder took place. Then things get interesting.

“Now, sir,” I said. “If you could just tell me what it was you saw.” “I saw plenty, squire.” “But you were here earlier this morning?” …“I’m here morning, noon, and night,” said Nicholas..“If you’ve witnessed something,” I said, “perhaps you’d better come and give a statement.” “That would be a bit of a problem,”…”Seeing as I’m dead.” – –Aaronovitch, Ben. Midnight Riot (Rivers of London Book 1) 

When Leslie returns, Peter looks like he’s seen a ghost, because, well…he has. It turns out that he’s susceptible to seeing things that aren’t there, or are hidden to mundane eyes. Possibly he ge3ts it from his father, a jazz musician, and junkie. Leslie doesn’t see anything but a search of the CCTV system confirms too many details of the murder that the specter had given that he decides to go back the next night to see if the ghost will reappear. While he’s waiting he’s approached by a well-dressed gent who inquires as to what he’s doing, who he is, and where he lives. Questions no Londoner would answer unchallenged.

“I beg your pardon?” He reached into his jacket and pulled out his wallet. “Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale,” he said and showed me his warrant card. “Constable Peter Grant,” I said. “Out of Charing Cross nick?” “Yes, sir.” He gave me a strange smile. “Carry on, Constable,” he said and went strolling back up James Street.” — Aaronovitch, Ben. Midnight Riot (Rivers of London Book 1)

Which is how he meets the man destined to be his boss and mentor, and suddenly finds himself not assigned to filling out forms after all, but seconded to London’s finest’s only wizard. From there it’s down the rabbit hole for Peter as he takes on the role of wizard’s apprentice and crime solver. Leslie, on the other hand, has gone on to work with the prestigious Murder Team, which turns out to be immensely useful as she and Peter share information about what has now become a series of equally gruesome and puzzling murders.

But it’s not just murders that Peter has to deal with. Soon he and Nightengale are off in the middle of the night to the scene of the first skirmish of a turf war between Mother and Father Thames, powerful spirits who have long divided the river at the point at which the tides abate and the river flows in. He’s like to visit the city, it seems, and it’s up to Peter and Nightengale to keep a war between their worshipers from disturbing the Queen’s Peace.

Midnight Riot is at once a police procedural and urban fantasy. It has elements of Christop[her Fowler’s Bryant & May: Peculiar Crimes Unit as well as Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, and fans of either should find much to enjoy. With the publication of Amongst Our Weapons (April 7, 2022) the series has nine novels, a number of short stories, some precursor novels and more.