The Rivers of Londonseries (alternatively, the Peter Grant or the PC Grantseries[1]) is a series of urban fantasy novels by English author Ben Aaronovitch, and comics/graphic novels by Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, illustrated by Lee Sullivan.
Peter Grant, having become the first English apprentice wizard in over seventy years, must immediately deal with two different but ultimately interrelated cases. In one he must find what is possessing ordinary people and turning them into vicious killers, and in the second he must broker a peace between the two warring gods of the River Thames and their respective families.[2]
Police Constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant is called in to help investigate the brutal murder of a journalist in the downstairs toilet of the Groucho Club in London's Soho district. At the same time, Peter is disturbed by a number of deaths of amateur and semi-professional jazz musicians that occurred shortly after they performed. Despite the apparently natural causes of death, each body exhibits a magical signature which leads Peter to believe that the deaths are far from natural.[3]
The son of a US senator is stabbed to death, and magic involvement is suspected. An FBI agent is involved with DC Grant's case. Meanwhile, in the sewers near the tunnels of London's Underground, something is happening.[4]
Another killer is on the loose, and the prime suspect could be an associate of the twisted magician known as the Faceless Man. A town planner goes under a tube train, and a grimoire has been stolen. And when Peter gets word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, he has to investigate whether there is a connection.[5]
Leaving London, Peter goes to a small village in Herefordshire, where there appears to be a supernatural element to the disappearance of two local girls. Having to cope with local cops, as well as local gods, Peter finds the mystery deepens.[6]
Back in London, Peter faces the legacy of London's hangings. Investigating suspicious murders in the world of the super-rich, Peter finds himself in a world different from the one he is used to investigating.[7]
Peter needs to deal with commuting ghosts, forgetful commuters, and deciphering a ghost's urgent message.[8]Set between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree
Tobias Winter, the only apprentice in the "Abteilung komplexe und diffuse Angelegenheiten" (KDA) (Department for Complex and Diffuse Matters – the German equivalent of the Folly) investigates a suspicious death in a vineyard near the Moselle. His local colleague is Vanessa Sommer, who joins the KDA at the end as well.[10]
Peter Grant is facing fatherhood, and an uncertain future, with equal amounts of panic and enthusiasm. Rather than sit around, he takes a job with émigré Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner's new London start-up: the Serious Cybernetics Company.[11][12]
Ghost hunter, fox whisperer, troublemaker. It is the summer of 2013 and Abigail Kamara has been left to her own devices. This might, by those who know her, be considered a mistake. While her cousin, police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant, is off in the sticks, chasing unicorns, Abigail is chasing her own mystery..[13][14]Set between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree, before the Furthest Station
Peter Grant, now an expectant father, is tasked to investigate a suspicious magical death in London's silver vaults and uncover a centuries-old mystery.[15]
The Masquerades of Spring follows Nightingale and an old acquaintance of his from The Folly in 1920s New York, tracking down the history of a cursed saxophone.Set before Rivers of London
Tales from the Folly, a short story collection, was published in November 2020.[17]
Graphic novels
The graphic novel series is cowritten by Andrew Cartmel. Initially published serially, the individual story arcs later appeared as graphic novels. All the graphic novels are published by Titan Comics.
Originally published as five monthly issues. A Russian oligarch's daughter is kidnapped. In response, he kidnaps Night Witch Varvara Sidorovna.[19]Set between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree
Originally released as five monthly issues. An investigation of a black mould infestation and a haunted ice cream van.[20]Set between Night Witch and The Hanging Tree
Originally released as four monthly issues. A story starting with an encounter between the river goddesses Chelsea and Olympia and a crew of possibly magic-using drug dealers.
Originally released as four monthly issues between July and October 2023. After a rash of strange UFO sightings above the capital, a Met Police helicopter night patrol is attacked by what can only be described as a dragon![22]
Originally released as four monthly issues between May and August 2024.
Future instalments
Aaronovitch has announced some forthcoming titles on his personal blog.
Aaronovitch has announced several works within the same fictional universe, but set outside the chronology of the main series. These works include a short story entitled 'Cock of The Wall' focusing on Petrus Aelius Bekemetus,[23] who Aaronovitch describes as a "temple official/Londinium wideboy" – i.e. set in Roman London which Peter Grant briefly visited in the third book of the series.[24]
Main characters
Police Constable Peter Grant; an officer in the Metropolitan Police and the first official apprentice wizard in sixty years.
Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale; head of the Folly and the last officially sanctioned English Wizard.
Lesley May; Police Constable colleague of Peter's in the Metropolitan Police.
Detective Chief Inspector Alexander Seawoll; Senior Investigation Officer at the Westminster Murder Investigation Team.
Detective Sergeant Miriam Stephanopoulos; case officer of the Belgravia Murder Investigation Team and 'right-hand man' to DCI Seawoll.
Detective Constable Sahra Guleed; attached to Belgravia Murder Investigation Team, often works with Peter when his cases are in London.
Dr Abdul Haqq Walid; world-renowned gastroenterologist and cryptopathologist.
Frank Caffrey; LFB (London Fire Brigade) Fire Investigator, ex-para and a key "associate" of the Folly.
Professor Harold Postmartin D.Phil. FRS BMon, "Postmartin the Pirate", Archivist and expert for the Folly.
Molly; The Folly's domestic helper, whose species is not entirely clarified, but she has been referred to as fae-like in the novel Foxglove Summer.
Abigail Kamara; an annoyingly persistent teen-aged girl who is the de facto founding member of the Folly's Youth Wing. Lives at the same estate as Peter's parents.
Beverley Brook; "daughter" of Mama Thames and goddess of Beverley Brook, a small river in South London; in later books, Peter Grant's girlfriend.
Cecilia Tyburn Thames; aka Lady Ty, "daughter" of Mama Thames and goddess of the River Tyburn.
Oxley; god of the River Oxley, one of the "sons" of Father Thames and his chief negotiator.
Toby; Peter's dog, who can detect magic, indicated by yapping.
Varvara Sidorovna Tamonina (aka. Varenka Dobroslova); Russian/Soviet witch (Night Witch), magical WWII veteran (365th Special Regiment of the Red Army), later living on her own in Britain with a magically extended lifetime.
Waterstones edition of Lies Sleeping, included in Tales from the Folly
Cry Fox (graphic novel)
8 November 2017, collected 26 June 2018
Water Weed (graphic novel)
Parts 1–4, June 2018 through September 2018, collected 18 December 2018
Prologue dated 14 November 2014.[30] Main events summer 2015, based on reference to Michelle Obama's visit to a London school[31] (in reality, Tuesday 16 June 2015[32])
Vanessa Sommer’s Other Christmas List (short story)
Waterstones edition of The October Man, included in Tales from the Folly
Amongst Our Weapons (novel)
April 2022
Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby (short story)
included in Tales from the Folly
Cock of the Wall (short story)
unpublished as yet
Monday, Monday (graphic novel)
1 December 2021
On the page where the official order is given, the author writes: "One caveat – the short story The Home Crowd Advantage is obviously set in 2012 during the London Olympics, but because it was written before the chronology of the series had firmed up it contains a number of anachronisms. I've learnt to be philosophical about this sort of thing." Many of the stories give vague dates, and some of those dates conflict with the official series order (compare Foxglove Summer and The Furthest Station). The short story collection Tales from the Folly includes a note above each story indicating which of the novels it is set between.
Reception
Sarah Shaffi wrote for The Guardian:
The books have consistently featured on bestseller lists, with the most recent two novels – 2022's Amongst Our Weapons and 2020's False Value – going straight to No 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list...Aaronovitch’s work has been translated into 14 languages and sold in excess of five million copies worldwide, and has its own wiki, Follypedia.[34]
Reviewing the ninth book in the series, Amongst Our Weapons, in The Guardian, Lisa Tuttle wrote:
Aaronovitch has no peers when it comes to successfully combining the appeal of a down-to-earth police procedural with all-out fantasy: here are real places, real history and real problems complicated by the existence of magic, ancient spirits, fairies, ghosts and talking foxes, all dwelling alongside ordinary, clueless humans. His plotting is still satisfyingly inventive and the continuing characters maintain their charm in the ninth novel of a series that began in 2011.[35]
Adaptations
On 1 May 2019 it was announced that a television adaptation of Rivers of London would be produced by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's production company, Stolen Picture.[36] However, according to Aaronovitch, the series is "still in the same state of permanent pre-pre-production".[37]
On 7 July 2022, a new TV adaptation of the book series was announced, to be produced by Pure Fiction Television, See-Saw Films, and Unnecessary Logo—Aaronovitch's production company.[38] On 2 November 2023, it was announced that John Jackson would be lead writer on the television adaptation.[39]
At Dragonmeet convention in London, on 30 November 2019, it was announced that a role-playing game based on the book series would be published by Chaosium.[40] The game was released in PDF first on 30 November 2022, with the print version released 17 April 2023[41]
^This can be dated by a reference in the opening chapter of the novel, where Peter starts a new job on same day that David Bowie died, i.e., 10 January 2016
