A very happy World Book Night to you all in advance of tomorrow’s festivities! For a Literary Agency to celebrate a single Book Day/Night is rather peculiar – and, to be sure, every day is a Book Day and every night is a Book Night, as far as we are concerned – but this year is a bit more special. This is because our very own Ben Aaronovitch‘s RIVERS OF LONDON is one of the selected titles that will be given away.
The novel, in case you have been living on Mars for the past few years, is the first in Ben’s critically-acclaimed, fan-favourite, best-selling Peter Grant series. Here’s the synopsis… (Be sure to click through on those links for details about the book giveaways and events.)
CSI London, Urban Fantasy-style!
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 (and 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.
The first four books in the series – RIVERS OF LONDON, MOON OVER SOHO, WHISPERS UNDER GROUND, and BROKEN HOMES – are all published in the UK by Gollancz. The next novel, FOXGLOVE SUMMER, is due to be published in Summer 2014. Watch this space for more Ben Aaronovitch news as-and-when we have it! (And we’re sure we will!)