Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
Aug. 15th, 2013 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
A mutilated body in Crawley. Another killer on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil. Is he an associate of the twisted magician known as the Faceless Man? Or just a common or garden serial killer?
Before PC Peter Grant can get his head around the case a town planner going under a tube train and a stolen grimoire are adding to his case-load.
So far, so London.
But then Peter gets word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on a housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans and inhabited by the truly desperate.
Is there a connection?
And if there is, why oh why did it have to be South of the River?
A fatal car accident in Crawley draws the attention of PC Peter Grant when he sees that the driver responsible is Robert Weil, a Little Crocodile. The accident leads Peter to the discovery of a mutilated female corpse buried near woodland but it isn’t clear who she is or how she died. Nightingale suspects that the Faceless Man is responsible but Weil isn’t talking and with no clear evidence of magic, the case is taken over by the ‘normal’ police and Peter’s distracted by the suicide of a city planner on the Tube that Jaget Kumar thinks has a magical cause.
Soon Peter and Lesley find themselves dealing with the consequences of the German and Russian magical programs, a stolen grimoire and a run-down housing estate in Elephant and Castle. Faced with dryads, Molly’s experimental cooking and Toby the dog, Peter’s already got his hands full without having to worry about saving the world again …
The fourth in Ben Aaronovitch’s PETER GRANT SERIES is an enjoyable but meandering affair that felt like filler. I welcomed the return to the Little Crocodiles storyline and the revelation about a returning character but the plot moved through contrivance rather than investigation and the rushed ending with its telegraphed twist may infuriate some fans. I kept turning the pages and enjoyed what there was, but this isn’t as great as the earlier books.
Central to the story is the dynamic between Peter, Nightingale and Lesley. I really enjoyed seeing how this had developed, particularly when Nightingale goes into teaching mode and it was great to get more information on how magic works in this world. It’s also refreshing to have a book with a male and female character who fancy each other but see other people. Once again, Aaronovitch nails London’s character. The council estate is credibly depicted albeit the inhabitants are little more than stock characters there to move the plot.
However the plot drifts from event to event and I felt it relied too much on contrivance rather than investigation and there are lots of side events, e.g. the Thames storyline, the hint that Molly’s up to something, which slowed the pace. I also worked out the ending early on and Aaronovitch really rushes the final chapters, which made for an unsatisfying read.
It’s an enjoyable enough read and I’ll read the next one but this did feel like filler.
The Verdict:
The fourth in Ben Aaronovitch’s PETER GRANT SERIES is an enjoyable but meandering affair that felt like filler. I welcomed the return to the Little Crocodiles storyline and the revelation about a returning character but the plot moved through contrivance rather than investigation and the rushed ending with its telegraphed twist may infuriate some fans. I kept turning the pages and enjoyed what there was, but this isn’t as great as the earlier books and felt like filler.
A mutilated body in Crawley. Another killer on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil. Is he an associate of the twisted magician known as the Faceless Man? Or just a common or garden serial killer?
Before PC Peter Grant can get his head around the case a town planner going under a tube train and a stolen grimoire are adding to his case-load.
So far, so London.
But then Peter gets word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on a housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans and inhabited by the truly desperate.
Is there a connection?
And if there is, why oh why did it have to be South of the River?
A fatal car accident in Crawley draws the attention of PC Peter Grant when he sees that the driver responsible is Robert Weil, a Little Crocodile. The accident leads Peter to the discovery of a mutilated female corpse buried near woodland but it isn’t clear who she is or how she died. Nightingale suspects that the Faceless Man is responsible but Weil isn’t talking and with no clear evidence of magic, the case is taken over by the ‘normal’ police and Peter’s distracted by the suicide of a city planner on the Tube that Jaget Kumar thinks has a magical cause.
Soon Peter and Lesley find themselves dealing with the consequences of the German and Russian magical programs, a stolen grimoire and a run-down housing estate in Elephant and Castle. Faced with dryads, Molly’s experimental cooking and Toby the dog, Peter’s already got his hands full without having to worry about saving the world again …
The fourth in Ben Aaronovitch’s PETER GRANT SERIES is an enjoyable but meandering affair that felt like filler. I welcomed the return to the Little Crocodiles storyline and the revelation about a returning character but the plot moved through contrivance rather than investigation and the rushed ending with its telegraphed twist may infuriate some fans. I kept turning the pages and enjoyed what there was, but this isn’t as great as the earlier books.
Central to the story is the dynamic between Peter, Nightingale and Lesley. I really enjoyed seeing how this had developed, particularly when Nightingale goes into teaching mode and it was great to get more information on how magic works in this world. It’s also refreshing to have a book with a male and female character who fancy each other but see other people. Once again, Aaronovitch nails London’s character. The council estate is credibly depicted albeit the inhabitants are little more than stock characters there to move the plot.
However the plot drifts from event to event and I felt it relied too much on contrivance rather than investigation and there are lots of side events, e.g. the Thames storyline, the hint that Molly’s up to something, which slowed the pace. I also worked out the ending early on and Aaronovitch really rushes the final chapters, which made for an unsatisfying read.
It’s an enjoyable enough read and I’ll read the next one but this did feel like filler.
The Verdict:
The fourth in Ben Aaronovitch’s PETER GRANT SERIES is an enjoyable but meandering affair that felt like filler. I welcomed the return to the Little Crocodiles storyline and the revelation about a returning character but the plot moved through contrivance rather than investigation and the rushed ending with its telegraphed twist may infuriate some fans. I kept turning the pages and enjoyed what there was, but this isn’t as great as the earlier books and felt like filler.
