On the HahaFiction shelf
Rivers of London
Rivers of London · Book 1 · 2011
A ghost gives probationary constable Peter Grant a witness statement and opens up an unexpected career in London policing. Detective Thomas Nightingale takes an interest in Peter, who must learn to handle magic while investigating a series of bizarre murders.
From the publisher’s blurb
“a witness statement from a man who was already dead”Read the full description at Gollancz / Hachette UK
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What makes it funny?
Peter can get absorbed in a lion statue’s inscription while his colleague struggles with troublemakers. Her scolding, quoted in Dear Author’s review, gives his curiosity an immediate cost: someone else has to keep doing the job.
The comedy at work
Police work requires attention, but Peter doesn’t always direct his to the expected place. His distracting curiosity supplies the friction in everyday exchanges and helps make him a plausible officer to stop and listen to a ghost.
Try this if…
London police procedure, supernatural investigation and a witty narrator share the appeal here. Readers in book-group discussions praise the wider series’ sarcastic humor and audio narration, though some describe comedy as a lighter ingredient in the fantasy adventures.
Good to know
Published in the United States as Midnight Riot, this is the same novel. The murders include gruesome bodily destruction.
A few distinguishing details
- A police witness who has already died changes Peter’s career.
From book groups
Questions readers ask
- Is there any romance?
- The reviewer answering readers in the Dear Author discussion says Peter has two potential love interests, but those relationships remain unresolved in this volume.
More funny private eye & detective
Sources & further reading
- Publisher
Publisher
- Dear Author review
Review
- Reader discussion
Reader discussion
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