The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch

The October Man: A Rivers of London Novella by Ben Aaronovitch --- 209 pages

From Google Books: With this long new novella, bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch has crafted yet another wickedly funny and surprisingly affecting chapter in his beloved Rivers of London series.

If you thought magic was confined to one country—think again. Trier: famous for wine, Romans and being Germany's oldest city. When a man is found dead with his body impossibly covered in a fungal rot, the local authorities know they are out of their depth. But fortunately this is Germany, where there are procedures for everything.

Enter Tobias Winter, an investigator for the Abteilung KDA, the branch of the German Federal Criminal Police that handles "Complex and Diffuse Matters" --- ie., the supernatural. Tobias' aim is to get in, deal with the problem, and get out with the minimum of fuss, personal danger and paperwork.

Together with a frighteningly enthusiastic local cop, Vanessa Sommer, he quickly links the victim to a group of ordinary middle-aged men whose novel approach to their mid-life crisis may have reawakened a bloody conflict from a previous century and attracted the attention of a vengeful river goddess. As the rot spreads, literally, and the suspect list extends to people born before Frederick the Great, Tobias and Vanessa will need to find allies in some unexpected places. And to solve the case they'll have to unearth the secret magical history of a city that goes back two thousand years.

Presuming that history doesn't kill them first. An intriguing new spin off from Aaronovitch's previous canon.  Good fantasy isn't easy to do, and comic fantasy is a very rare beast indeed.  Aaronovitch delivers the goods!

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Locus Magazine.

Click HERE to read the review from Fantastic Fiction.com.

Click HERE to read the review from Track of Words.com.

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch

The Hanging Tree: A Rivers of London Novel by Ben Aaronovitch --- 292 pages

Book Six in the Rivers of London has been a long time coming but is definitely worth the wait. Our hero, London Police Constable Peter Grant (apprentice wizard of the Metropolitan Police's Falcon Squad under the command of Superintendent Nightingale) gets seconded into a drug overdose case in the exclusive Knightsbridge neighborhood of London when it turns out one of the suspects is the daughter of the formidable Lady Ty, Goddess of the Tyburn River.  Peter's interest ticks up when he finds cause to suspect that the Faceless Man, nemesis of all practitioners of the order of Sir Isaac Newton, is involved in the crime. With side forays into Peter's current relationship with Beverley Brook, another of the Rivers family, his new police partner Sahra Guleed, and tantalizing glimpses of his former partner Lesley May (now gone over to the dark side), and Peter's running commentary on police procedure amid the dizzying diversity of modern London. Plus the usual blend of explosions, buildings collapsing, sudden fires, flash floods, riots and weird bollocks that follows Peter wherever he goes. 

If you are not familiar with the series, then go back and start with  Book One. Highly recommended to all fans of snarky British humor, police procedurals, magic, folklore, fantasy, and the history of London neighborhoods.

Click HERE for a review from tor.com.

Click HERE for a review from Speculative Herald.com.

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch --- 298 pages

Peter Grant is a young mixed race constable in modern London. He's disappointed his family by flunking out of the advanced science courses that could have led to a university degree and successful career, because he has a tendancy to be too easily distracted by odd little details at critical moments. Now that same distraction could wind up relegating him to a back office job shuffling paperwork instead of the CID assignment he craves. Then he gets involved in the investigation of a seemingly random murder in Covent Garden, by obtaining a key piece of evidence from an eye witness --- who happens to be a ghost.

When the ghost lead pans out, Peter finds himself seconded to the Met's Specialist Crime Unit under the command of Chief Inspector Peter Nightingale, the Metropolitan's expert on matters seelie and unseelie, and the last practicing Wizard in London, of the school of wizardry established by Sir Isaac Newton. (Yes, that Sir Isaac Newton.) Nightingale undertakes to train Peter's supernatural apptitude as his apprentice in magic and criminal investigation.

It appears that the malevolent spirit of a murdered nineteenth century actor is taking over the minds of ordinary law-abiding citizens and orchestrating a series of violent assaults in the neighborhood of Covent Garden. The rampage culminate in a murderous attack on Nightingale that leaves Peter to cope on his own when the spirit commandeers a performance at the Royal Opera House and sends the performers and patrons out rioting in the streets.

As if he doesn't have enough on his plate, Peter also has to mediate a jurisdictional dispute between Mother and Father Thames before it results in a complete breach of the Queen's Peace. Aaronovitch not only knows his way around British Faerie and the history of magic and the occult, but the day-to-day inner workings of the Metropolitan Police, and just how to play one off against the other for comic effect. He looks like an excellent canddiate to join that very select group of writers who write really funny fantasy.

This is the first book in the Rivers of London series of urban fantasies.  Other books in the series are: Moon Over Soho, Whispers Underground, and Broken Homes (due to be published in the U.S. in February 2014).

A rollicking tale recommended to those who enjoy urban fantasy like Jim Butcher's Dresden Files or Charlaine Harris' True Blood (the books not the TV series), Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Aaronovitch has also written a number of award-winning scripts for BBC programs Dr. Who on television and Blake's Seven on radio. He lives in London.

Check out his web site at www.the-folly.com.