Rivers of London / Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.
 

Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden . . . and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.
 

The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.

It took me longer than it should’ve to learn that Rivers of London was released in the US as “Midnight Riot” hence why it took me so long to read this despite it being high on my to-read list. In hindsight the rename makes perfect sense as Midnight Riot is a much more appropriate title for the better of two core plot/cases covered in book (not to mention that the series this book ended up starting is also called Rivers of London).

Confusion on its dual-title release aside, I wanted to like Midnight Riot a lot more than I did as it has such an exciting premise. Peter Grant is a probationary constable/loose police officer who is assigned as an apprentice to Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale after having a run-in with a ghost while on surveillance duty following a grisly beheading murder at Covent Garden (as in the actual real Covent Garden, all locations are either real-life places or are heavily inspired fictional interpretations on boroughs of London). In training as both a supernatural investigative officer and a magic user, Peter Grant and Thomas Nightingale team-up to unravel the truth behind a series of seemingly random murders who’s only connection is their location at Covent Garden and sudden rage experienced by various perpetrators. It’s a serial murder investigation in a modern urban fantasy setting combined with magic apprenticeship, fantasy creatures like river trolls, river spirits, vampires, the works.

I was pleased to see how strong the London setting, history and tone runs throughout Midnight Riot. The writing style and narrative tone screams of British humor full of lowkey tongue in cheek jokes, sparring banter, and typical London slang and mannerisms. It has a casual style that’s never laugh out loud funny but nonetheless cheeky to read. The book also heavily incorporates real London locals and history into the plot which on one hand felt authentic, albeit sometimes hard to follow for myself as a non-British reader. I often felt like I was missing a lot of references and was constantly googling locations and events that were quite foreign to me (little did I know there’s a handy official google maps created by the author Ben Aaronovitch for quick reference). There’s been a bit of surge in British-set books and movies lately written by non-British writers that have felt contrived; this series is anything but.

Unfortunately despite the effective setting and lore established, I found the actual reading experience to be a mixed bag. Midnight Riot’s pacing and narrative felt disjointed due to the decision of focusing on two plot points. The first is the aforementioned series of murders in Covent Garden. The second is a growing conflict between Mother Thames and Old Father Thames, two powerful river entities (hence the “rivers of London” bit) and their anthropomorphized families engaged in a turf war of sorts. The two stories don’t really work with each other and frankly it felt like the Rivers of London plot constantly derailed the momentum of the Midnight Riot investigation story. The book frequently switches back and forth by deploying Peter to different locations for each of the two cases with almost no transition or purpose. The two cases also have almost no impact on each other than the inclusion of Beverly as a sidekick companion and one of Mother Thames’ daughters representing the physical Beverly Brook in suburban London. Although The Rivers of London greatly expands the fantasy lore of magical entities and powers, I found it to be rather boring to read. Its inclusion almost feels like it exists to add length to what was probably a concise yet short novella what would’ve been stronger as an independent story.

The other main drawback is character development. Peter Grant has an interesting background being mixed race and African roots through his mother’s family; this is highlighted on more than one occasion beyond his physical looks. However apart from Peter, characterization feels under-development and the sheer number of characters are tough to follow. The various river spirits are easy to track due to their distinctive looks and personalities, but countless superiors in the Metropolitan Police Force and other affiliated agencies are a lot. They’re also introduced in rapid succession and most are slight variations on standard police/supervisory stereotypes which quickly blended together for me (there’s a distinctive “riot” scene that has many officers and superiors responding and I had a hard time remembering who was who and had what responsibilities).

The characterization and writing is also quite overtly masculine, aka the book constantly sexualizes its female characters both in descriptions and Peter’s longing gaze. On one hand it is fine if the internal thoughts are appropriate to the characterization or events unfolding, but the description of women’s assets, actions (loose coworker Leslie shares a bed with him naked for literally no reason randomly just for kicks?) and Peter’s horny thoughts are just thrown in haphazardly. Their sudden appearances constantly interrupted the flow and my interest in the story and had me eye-rolling “really?” when it frequently came up. The sexual maturity and writing feels like that of an adolescent teenager rather than a strapping young adult which conflicts with the otherwise straight-laced narrative.

Ultimately, I do plan to at least read the next book before making a call on this series. On paper there are so many great things in Midnight Riot and the mystery investigation is interesting, the pacing is just slow and narrative disjointed and loose. The lore and setting is great but the plot is all over the place and random. I’ve heard that subsequent books in this procedural series are more focused so we’ll if Moon Over Soho and keep me interested.