Moon over Soho
2011
- the folly
- magic
- police
- mystery
- newton
- fantasy fiction
- wizards
- fiction
- fiction, mystery & detective, police procedural
- london (england), fiction
The story
The second novel in Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series takes the police constable cum apprentice magician into Soho and the world of jazz, where somebody seems to feed of the musician's vibes, while a black magician is expanding his territority.
What it’s like
Wry, brisk and grounded in the London streets, with a voice that does most of the work: first-person chatter that jokes through rain-slick back alleys, smoky basement jazz clubs, a riverside Victorian police station and the sticky heat of a city summer. The atmosphere is urban and nocturnal, part gritty police procedural, part magic-tinged mystery, with the folklore of old London seeping through modern streets and the sound of live jazz threaded through the dark. Pacing is quick and conversational, with long stretches of investigative legwork (interviews, records, pub lunches) broken by sharp bursts of supernatural danger. The emotional register is warm and mildly sardonic, following a young, earnest constable learning his craft and his own odd new powers, with a relationship to his mentor and to the city that grows more layered as he goes. Intensity is moderate: some violence and brief scenes of fear and peril, a few gory moments from magical attacks, but no gratuitous gore and little sexual content. Good for readers who want a witty, bookish urban fantasy for a long train ride or a late-night read, and for fans of London as a character in its own right.
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