Foxglove Summer
2014
- wizards
- police
- missing children
- fiction
- fiction, mystery & detective, general
- england, fiction
- fiction, crime
The story
"When two young girls go missing in rural Herefordshire, police constable Peter Grant has to leave London to check that nothing supernatural is involved. It's purely routine, Nightingale thinks he'll be done in less than a day. But Peter's never been one to walk away from someone in trouble, so when nothing overtly magical turns up he volunteers his services to the local police, who need all the help they can get. But because the universe likes a joke as much as the next sadistic megalomaniac, Peter soon comes to realise that dark secrets underlie the picturesque fields and villages of the countryside and there might just be work for Britain's most junior wizard after all."
What it’s like
Wry, breezy urban fantasy with a summer-country sheen: sun-warmed hedgerows, green fields and sleepy market towns in Herefordshire, set against the dry London-cop banter that runs through the series. Its prose is quick and conversational, first person, full of jokes about police procedure, tea, and the absurdities of being a junior wizard, with long lazy stretches of walking through villages that give way to sudden odd unease when the countryside turns out to hide something older and stranger. The mood is playful with a thread of creeping dread rather than horror: there is some menace and a few tense, unsettling moments, but the violence is limited and generally offstage or brief, with no gore and little sexual content. Pacing is steady and chatty, the emotional register warm and self-deprecating, and the central arc follows a young officer finding his footing, becoming more confident in both his craft and his loyalties. It suits a lazy weekend, a long train journey, or a comfort read for people who enjoy British crime with a supernatural wink, and who want their dark things lightly handled.
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