Broken Homes: A Rivers of London Novel

In this episode of the Peter Grant series, Peter, Leslie and Nightingale come closer to finding the Faceless Man. First, is the case of one of the Little Crocodiles is found after a car crash with unexplained blood in the back seat of his car which leads to a body with its face blown off. Next comes a man from the town planning commission who inexplicably throws himself under a train. Then the thief who stole a rare magical grimoire is found burned from the inside out.These things come together and lead Peter and Leslie to stake out an odd architectural structure called the Skygarden Tower that was built by Erik Stromberg, German expatriot and famous architect. The building has been listed as a historical monument which is getting in the way of developers who want to use the land for something else. It also seems to be something that the Faceless Man is very interested in.Peter and Lesley need to find out why the Faceless Man wants the building and stop him before his plans are completed.Along the way, there are river spirits and tree spirits and a Zach, who is half human and half something else. Then, there's Toby the magic sniffing dog.The book has all of Peter's snarky comments and lots of action. For those reading the series in publication order, the ending comes as quite a surprise.

This is the fourth book in the Rivers of London urban fantasy/mystery series. I have come to like the series and its narrator, Peter Grant, very much, and I think this is my favorite installment to date. The narration is crisp and dry, often humorous, gripping during the action scenes, and, on occasion, very moving. Unlike many mystery series, there is an important long-running background arc, and so it would be best to read the books in order, rather than jumping in where convenient. (Confusingly, book one is titled "Midnight Riot" in the USA, but "Rivers of London" in England.) Of this specific book, in the attempt to minimize plot spoilers, I will only say that the final quarter of the book was especially strong. Highly recommended.About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).

A lot of people seem to say this series is kind of like a what if Harry Potter he up and became a cop.I read the Harry Potter series. While entertaining, the magic was too random, inconsistent, and there was no relative power scale. It was as powerful or weak as Rowling needed for the plot she desired.I tell everyone this is the British Dresden Files, because this is as rock solida juxtaposition of gritty reality and a relay scaled magical reality as portrayed in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files.(Which is high praise indeed)

Every so often we're lucky enough to find a wonderful novel that balances out all the yucky ones. Aaronovitch's  Midnight Riot  was one of them for me, and I've pressed it on several friends -- all of whom have professed gratitude. (If you somehow ended up here without reading Midnight Riot, fix that _immediately_.) The author manages to combine urban fantasy, smart-aleck wit, and police procedural mystery with perfect balance.The books that follow aren't QUITE as awesome, but every one of them is worth your time. (As one of those friends opined, "I think it's only okay, and then he'll deliver something with really amazing prose that really surprises me.") Broken Homes is, like the other follow-on novels, really good, though perhaps not to the point where I will FORCE you to read the book.As with any novel of derring-do, I must be coy about the plot to avoid spoilers. Suffice to say that several odd deaths raise the suspicions of Police Constable (and apprentice wizard) Peter Grant and his boss -- for good reason. Yeah, I know, that doesn't tell you much. Trust me, it works.But as in the previous novels, it's the characters and sparkling conversation that make this series so enjoyable. And the people you liked in the earlier stories at least make an appearance in this one, too.Aaronovitch is a superb writer who can draw a character in a few sentences. And then make you burst into laughter even in a public place. (Guilty.) Such as, "You don't get to be a senior investigating officer unless you have a degree in skepticism, an MA in distrust and your CV lists suspicious bastard under your hobbies."I really liked this novel. If you liked the earlier books in the Rivers of London series, I am 100% you will like this one, too.

Aaronovitch’s storytelling always amazes me! Broken Homes is now my second favorite book in the Peter Grant series. Much of the book is centered around a fictional council estate in Elephant and Castle. It carries forward the case of the Faceless Man that has been building for the last three books, and develops some of the River characters that were previously introduced. There are a bunch of twists and turns that are creepy and satisfying. The council estate and its architecture are the things I enjoyed the most. Although it is all fictional, it blends into the real historical details that are in every Peter grant book seamlessly. I cannot wait for the next one!

This is undeniably a readable novel, with fascinating twists of a magical London very different from the real safely non-magical city. However I take exception to the constant over-the-top use of the f*** word which is awful. I have London family, my grandfather was a true Cockney born within the sound of Bow Bells, but neither he nor any of my family, friends nor people in the streets of London EVER used that word! If any of we children had been caught swearing like that at school we would have been expelled. There are so many other words and expressions, including expletives, that could be used instead that are not so offensive, and the constant use of the same word over and over gets really tedious and boring. I also got sick of him saying expressions like 'me and Lesley', because although I know it is meant to be amusing, when I was young and even now, I believe, no-one over the age of 5 would use that expression as it is childish and they wouldn't want to be laughed at as childish, ignorant and stupid. I found it impossible, every time he used that awful grammatically incorrect expression, to see anything in my mind's eye other than a small scruffy boy with his front teeth missing, looking up at his parents while playing dress-up and looking tiny in his Dad's huge jumper and jacket, the hem and sleeves of which are pooling on the floor. It is so infantile that it is impossible to take him seriously after that. The book is at least a reasonable length, though I was really confused at the descriptions of the SkyGarden tower. My other cause for disgruntlement is the escalating cost of these books. I am dubious about continuing to purchase them for my Kindle as they are now beyond my personally agreed ceiling of £5, which I think is quite high enough for something that I can neither donate to a charity shop nor sell on after I have finished with it. There is a lot of knowledge shown in the books, though how much of it is actually true I don't know, but the books are brought down by the flaws mentioned above.

Right now I hate myself, if hate isn't too strong a word to direct at yourself. The fourth book in a series and I am still lavishing praise and coming over all fangirl (seriously, the last time that happened was the Harry Potter books).Broken Homes brings us everything we have come to expect from Peter Grant - a tediously normal setting where exceptionally peculiar things happen. I did miss the MIT from previous books who regularly exhort Peter to keep the weird stuff away from them, but this book is set off their patch; unfortunately nobody at the Crawley Nick, or the Elephant & Castle one measure up. Nightingale is also fairly absent in this book with the majority of the action set around a fictitious London Sink Estate with Peter and Lesley undercover.As always Peter narrates the tale and it is the, by now well-loved, series of dollops of realism for procedure and sarcasm. I think this is why this series is giving me so much reading enjoyment - the narrator's voice is a strong thread throughout and one that urges you to keep reading, find out what happens next - even if it is only going out to walk Toby.There is a major twist at the end of this book that really did come out of the blue for me. So much so I sat with my mouth open like an idiot for a few seconds before continuing to read. Peter reacts in his usual semi-naive way to it all and I really hope his rationalisation of the events is borne out.When a fantasy world this strong is created you cannot help but fall a little in love. An exceptional series that I just know I will be re-reading over the years to come.

A mutilated body in Crawley. Another killer on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil - an associate of the twisted magician known as the Faceless Man? Or just a common garden serial killer?Before PC Peter Grant can get his head round the case, a town planner going under a tube train and a stolen grimoire are adding to his case-load.So far so London.But then Peter gets word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on an housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans and inhabited by the truly desperate.Is there a connection?And if there is, why oh why did it have to be South of the River?This is the 4th installment of the rivers of london series. It's written in the same way as the other books- 1st person point of view, with Peter as our narrator. Again, there are descriptions of death and violence in this book as week as swearing. But I don't think the author goes into as much detail as he could do, in my opinion it's quite restrained. However, there is reference to animal abuse in this book. We don't see anything, but there is a mention. The chapters again are quite short averaging about 10 minutes per chapter.I enjoyed this book, I enjoy Peter's character and I like the way that the Folly works alongside the police force. I also enjoyed the twists and turns of the plot in this book.However, I don't think I liked this book as much as I did other books in this series. I found the plot a bit slow moving and I wasn't 100% sure all the time what was going on or the significance of some things that happened. The book felt more of a filler book to me than a standalone read that furthered the overall plot of the book.That being said, I did enjoy this book and the twist it took really saved it in my opinion. I will read the next one, as I already have it, hopefully I enjoy it more than I did this one.

The fourth in the series of novels, taking the magical apprenticeship of P.C. Peter Grant to new heights (read it and you'll get the pun!). Without giving it away, the plot can be explained by saying, here's some old characters, here's some new ones and here's a massive little surprise, that sets up the next books nicely and keeps those pages, full of dry one liner's, police procedures and the strangest examples of 'One Man And His Dog' you'll ever read. I can't praise this series highly enough, with lots of action, calamity and humour sprinkled on a soup of magical excellence and then on top of that, there's Molly and Nightingale, who I really hope get featured more in the few books in the series I've got left to get through. Brilliant stuff for anyone with a sense of humour and the odd ounce of tongue in cheek!

I enjoy all the Rivers of London series novels. The whole notion of Operation Falcon as a code/dept for handling "weird b*ll*cks" that the police come across and the steady pursuit of a wrong 'un by an ordinary copper who just happens to have a talent for "the science of magic".....and with that comes contact with the fae, the ancient and not so ancient gods and goddesses of nature...…brilliant gripping stuff. I find it hard to believe Ben Aaronovitch hasn't been a copper as Peter Grant comes across as believable, so believable and his world hangs together so well...I've read all the novels and the new ones on preorder.Start with Rivers of London and work your way through, its worth it