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Rivers of London (book series)

The Rivers of London series (alternatively, the Peter Grant or the PC Grant series^[2]) 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.

(American title: Midnight Riot)

The novel centres on the adventures of Peter Grant, a young officer in the Metropolitan Police; who, following an unexpected encounter with a ghost, is recruited into the small branch of the Met that deals with magic and the supernatural.

Peter Grant, having become the first English apprentice wizard in over seventy years, must immediately deal with two different but ultimately inter-related 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.^[3]

Following the events of Rivers of London 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.^[4]

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.^[5]

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.^[6]

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.^[7]

Back in London, Peter faces the legacy of London's hangings. Investigating suspicious murders in the world of the super-rich, Peter is in a different world to the one he is used to investigating.^[8]

In this novella, published in September 2017, Peter needs to deal with commuting ghosts, forgetful commuters, and deciphering a ghost's urgent message.^[9]

Published in November 2018, Peter continues the investigations into Martin Chorley.^[10]

Published in June 2019. 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 is going to join the KDA in the end as well.^[11]

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. The book was released on 20 February 2020.^[12][13]

Tales from the Folly, a short story collection, was published in November 2020.^[14]

What Abigail Did That Summer is a novella set at the same time as Foxglove Summer. In the series chronology it is the first novella, taking place before The Furthest Station.^[15]

• Hardback: ISBN 9781473224346, First edition 18 March 2021
• eBook: ISBN 9781473224360, First edition 18 March 2021

This novel, the ninth in the series, was released on 7 April 2022.^[16] Peter Grant, now an expecting father, is tasked to investigate a suspicious magical death in London's silver vaults and uncover a centuries' old mystery.

Winter's Gifts is a novella set after Lies Sleeping,^[17] published in June 2023. It follows FBI Agent Kimberley Reynolds, introduced in Whispers Underground, who has subsequently become an ally of the Folly.

The graphic novel series, cowritten by Andrew Cartmel. Initially published serially, the individual story arcs later appeared as graphic novels.

Involves a cursed car. It takes place between Broken Homes and Foxglove Summer.^[1] Originally released as five monthly issues. ^[18]

• Hardback: ISBN 9781785853647, First edition March 2016
• Softback: ISBN 9781782761877, First edition March 2016

A Russian Oligarch's daughter is kidnapped. He kidnaps Night Witch Varvara Sidorovna in return.^[19] Set between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree^[1] Originally published as five monthly issues.

• Hardback: ISBN 9781785853647, First edition November 2016
• Softback: ISBN 9781785852930, First edition December 2016

An investigation of a black mold infestation and a haunted ice cream van.^[20] Set between Night Witch and The Hanging Tree (A reader's guide in Black Mould places this story after The Hanging Tree^[1] but a brief reference is made in The Hanging Tree to the events shown here.)^[21]) Originally released as five monthly issues.

• Hardback: ISBN 9781785863851, First edition June 2017
• Softback: ISBN 9781785855108, First edition July 2017

Peter encounters difficulty in making Detective. Set between The Hanging Tree and Cry Fox. Originally released as four monthly issues.

• Softback: ISBN 9781785861710, First edition December 2017

A story centered around Reynard. Set between Detective Stories and Water Weed and originally released as four monthly issues.

• Softback: ISBN 9781785861727, First edition June 2018

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, June 2018 – September 2018.

• Softback: ISBN 9781785865459, First Edition December 2018

Nightingale searches for a serial killer in 1957 London.

• Softback: First Edition: November 2019

A story centering on Peter.

• Softback: First Edition: November 2020
• Set after the events of Lies Sleeping

A routine undercover operation leads to a Swedish werewolf.^[22]

• Softback: ISBN 9781787736269, First edition November 2021

• Follows on from The Fey and the Furious and is set after the events in Lies Sleeping^[22]
• Originally released as four monthly issues between July and October 2021

• Softback: ISBN 9781787738591, First edition January 2023

• Originally released as four monthly issues between May and September 2022

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!^[23]

• Softback: ISBN 9781787736269: First edition January 2024

• Originally released as four monthly issues between July and October 2023

Listed below are forthcoming titles, as confirmed on Ben Aaronovitch's blog.

Aaronovitch has also 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,^[17] who Aaronovitch describes as a "temple official/Londinium wideboy" – i.e. set in Roman London which Peter Grant briefly visited in the first book of the series.^[24] Also planned is an untitled Novella focusing on Peter's mentor Thomas Nightingale.^[17]

• 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, of not entirely clarified species, but she has been referred to as fae-like in the PC Grant 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 barking
• 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

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In a blog entry,^[25] the author has provided a list of the stories, by internal chronology.

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 Guardian's Sarah Shaffi wrote:

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.

She added:

Aaronovitch’s work has been translated into 14 languages and sold in excess of five million copies worldwide, and has its own wiki, Follypedia.^[32]

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.^[33]

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.^[34] However, according to Aaronovitch, the series is "still in the same state of permanent pre-pre-production".^[35] On 7 July 2022, a new TV adaptation of the book series, produced by Pure Fiction Television, See-Saw Films and Unnecessary Logo, Aaronovitch's production company, was announced.^[36] On 2 November 2023, it was announced that John Jackson would be lead writer on the television adaptation.^[37]

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.^[38] The game was released in PDF version on 30 November 2022, pending book version.

• GURPS Infinite Worlds#Azoth-7, also based on the premise of Isaac Newton as a major wizard.