Book of the week

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch, reviewed by Alex Haydn-Williams



Foxglove Summer is the fifth book in Aaronovitch’s bestselling Rivers of London series, which follows Peter Grant, an apprentice in the magical division of the Met Police, The Folly, as he balances his life between learning spells, upholding the rule of law in the worlds of fairies and demi-gods sustaining a less-than-professional relationship with one of the aforementioned gods and trying to understand how this whole “magic” thing works.


Foxglove Summer follows Peter as he leaves London to participate in the search for two young girls who have disappeared from their rural Hertfordshire homes, and to check that no supernatural beings are involved. At first he simply takes part in the manhunt, but it’s not long until he begins to find hints that this is not a run-of-the-mill investigation. Soon, the sleepy villages and English Heritage sites begin to reveal their darker side - and their darker inhabitants - and the book spirals into a descent towards a psychedelic ending that leaves the reader wanting more.

As with the other books in the series, Foxglove Summer is amazingly addictive - the book is around four hundred pages long, but only takes anyone without anything else to do - and many with lots to do - two or three days to read. The descriptions are so brilliantly witty as to immerse the reader in the world of Peter Grant, and by the end we feel as if he is a close friend, one who, from the perspective used, we know the inner workings of his mind.

However, when compared to other books in the series, Foxglove Summer seems to lack something - that something is London. The vibrancy of the capital seems to be radiating from the pages of the earlier books, and the unique perspective of a policeman lends those who know the city well a new way to see it. Hertfordshire, despite Aaronovitch’s best efforts, simply cannot seem anywhere near as good.

The author masterfully combines both Peter’s daily life as a magical bobby and his struggle to find out about the history of the wizarding community from his tutor, DCI Nightingale - who is over a hundred years old and destroyed a Tiger tank with a fireball in the Second World War. The worlds of everyday London and magical, ancient London are mixed sublimely, making the reader able to be a part of the fictional community and to find different ways of seeing the city they already know.

The book, although its ending seems abrupt and almost beyond the realms of possibility, makes the series seem even better, but I will be hoping for a return to a traditional London setting in the next one.