Broken Homes

Peter Grant has gotten himself an arch-nemesis; a twisted magician known as the Faceless Man is reeking having on London’s underground. On the case of a suspected serial killer named Robert Weil, Peter Grant has discovered a deeper conspiracy involving his nemesis and weirdly enough a neo-brutalist housing estate. Will Peter finally stop the Faceless Man? Can he work out just how he feels about his partner Lesley Mai? Or can he make it through one case without destroying a major landmark?

As most people know, I am a fan of the Peter Grant series and Broken Homes (the fourth book) did not disappoint. Ben Aaronovitch has created a great world that mixes police work, urban fantasy and humour together perfectly. So much so, that as soon as I finished Whispers Under Ground, which is book three, I picked up Broken Homes.

The best thing about this series is the overarching story that unfolds. This does mean you have to read the books in order but it is something that I found was missing in many crime series and The Dresden Files. I enjoy watching the characters grow and discovering new details about this world. So much so that I was ready to pick up book five, which is called Foxglove Summer right away. I haven’t done that but I suspect it will happen soon.

In every book there is something that is revealed about the world or characters that really helps cement my love for the series and the world that has been created. This time there was more around Inspector Nightingale’s back story including the elite wizardry school he attended when he was young; which means plenty of Harry Potter jokes to be told.

I have talked a lot about this series, since I have reviewed every book but one thing I find hard about reviewing a series, especially a crime one, is how to avoid spoilers. There is so much to love about these books and I highly recommend them but I cannot say much about them. This does make it difficult to recommend them or convince people to read them but know that I enjoyed Whispers Under Ground so much that Foxglove Summer will probably be read very soon. Then I will have to wait til November for The Hanging Tree (book six) to be released.

This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2015/03/06/broken-homes-by-ben-aaronovitch/

This book seriously confused me by using mph to estimate speed on the second page, causing me to believe I had some kind of american edition, and then being so british I had to look up the following terms: mullered, nonce (not that one), muggins, 'sling your hook', 'do me a favour'.

So, maybe mph is more British than I had thought, but it's 53 mph, which is clearly a conversion of a more normal estimate of 85 kph. Which is really a dumb thing to have bothering you while you are trying to read a book.

The plot in this book was either a bit too complex for me, or didn't quite make sense, and I am leaning toward the first. There were a number of murder victims and suspects who I couldn't quite keep straight, and there was an entire architecture plot that I'm going to admit sounded like adults talking to Charlie Brown, to me.

That said, this was a really enjoyable read. I liked the dynamics between all the characters, I liked seeing more of all the secondary characters who have been so carefully established, I was pleased with all the Folly and Nightingale backstory I got. The only thing missing was having Kobna Holdbrook-Smith narrating the entire thing.

I finished it in about three hours, and immediately went looking for some good fanfiction, because I didn't feel at all done with the characters.

I spoiled myself for Lesley's end by accident, and so I was bracing myself for it throughout the book, and prepared to be really pissed off about it when it turned out that Lesley had betrayed the Folly for the sake of her face, but by the end I wasn't even mad? First, Peter really does manage to be an ass to Lesley about her face. It's like he just can't quite get over his horror that while he still likes her, his penis no longer does, and he can't deal with this.

I mean, not that this justifies Lesley's actions, but the second thing is that Lesley's motivation and goals are left ambiguous, so it doesn't have to.

Broken Homes is the latest in the Peter Grant Urban Fantasy novels. And in the early chapters it definitely felt as though it was suffering from creeping serialization.

This is a common feature in novels that are part of a long series. We get more and more elements that relate to what has happened previously or will be happening in future installments and less and less time devoted to this particular story. Having continuing elements isn't a bad thing, but it is a delicate balancing act.

As Aaronovitch introduced more and more unrelated plot elements in the first half of the book I was wondering if a storyline was going to emerge at some point. It's not that all the scenes were boring, on the contrary the characterization is so strong in this series that almost anything that happens is entertaining. It was just feeling very directionless.

Indeed the early sections focussed on the "Festival of the River God" really don't pay off at all in this book, though I suspect they will... eventually.

But then about half way through things began to firm up and we had a clearer story to follow. One that does receive a solid resolution (while still leaving some unanswered questions). By the end in fact things are happening at a breathless pace and there's a twist I didn't see coming that really makes me want to read the next book in the series.

And the truth is that this book can get away with almost anything and still have me hooked. Because it's really the characters and the main characters' sarcasting point of view that I love. Aaronovitch has a knack for making even relatively minor characters just distinctive enough that you care about what happens to them.

He pulls that particular trick off at least twice in this novel once to added an element of tragedy to the mix and a second time to turn a hired thug into something a bit more.