Whispers Underground
Whispers Underground is the third book of Ben Aaronovitch's The Folly series charting the career of PC Peter Grant who in the original novel Rivers Of London was drafted into the magic department of the police force.
Firstly, I love the world which Aaronovitch has created here with The Folly, I like Peter Grant and Lesley May, and the cast of supporting characters. I enjoyed the fact that the Folly Universe was expanded with this novel to include new kinds of "different people" and "unexplained phenomena".
I enjoyed the return of the sassy Rivers girls, who are all great characters, but, I would have liked to have seen Peter and Lesley learn more spells and develop more skills, though I like the conversational style of narrative I felt like there was a lot of moments of hasty exposition, to justify how Peter knew something or could do something, as though the author came up with a cool idea, then realised, after the fact that there had to be a reasonable explanation for this development.
I also found it a little odd that the story of the Ethically Challenged Magician which was our cliffhanger from Moon Over Soho was only continued on from the previous book in a minor sense.
Though the "I won't tell anyone about this because they won't believe me and think I'm mental" is a handy Get Out Of Jail Free card for explaining how information about these phenomena doesn't break into the public sphere, I also believe it's a truism, which makes it useful for the author!
I did feel a bit "Clay pots and plates?...couldn't it have been something a bit more...magical...?" about the objects of interest but I liked the cliffhanger and I look forward to the fourth. 7/10
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