By Ben Aaronovitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My name is Peter Grant, and I used to be a probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service, and to everyone else as the Filth.<\/em> A really original story mixing policing with the hunt for what is essentially a serial killer, but with magic and fantasy where the rivers of London have human forms; Thames, Tyburn, Fleet, etc, the Met Police has a ‘magic squad’ and ghosts, vampires plus whatever Molly is (you have to read it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Loosely based on Mr Punch from Punch and Judy fame there is a lot of humour and mystery to entertain the reader and keep the book moving at a fast pace. It’s also quite accurate in terms of the way it portrays how the police work (I think). I think the author spoken to someone with a lot of insider knowledge, due to the terminology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Likeable characters and familiar to anyone who knows the area of Covent Garden. A great crime story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ben Aaronovitch. My name is Peter Grant, and I used to be a probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service, and to everyone else as the Filth. My story really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,48,3,49,52,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-fantasy","category-fiction","category-horror","category-mystery","category-rivers-of-london"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/rivers_of_london.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrisstone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
My story really begins when I tried to take a witness statement from a man who was already dead…<\/em>
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. After taking a statement from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost, Peter comes to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny.
Suddenly, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n