Inspiration: Rivers of London

Time for a quick book review. This time - Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.

I might be the last person at this party, but I loved this book. I've ploughed through it really quickly, which shows how much it took control of my imagination. What it does well:

• Convincing, clear rules for the magic system
• A solid grounding in a place and an understanding of how that feeds the story.
• Constant building of tension and lots of twists and turns.

I was left a little wanting by the story arc of the main character, which is something I'm trying to work with. Although he had a good backstory and was funny and witty, I wondered exactly what made him different from other wise-cracking detectives/cops in similar stories. This may just be a hangover from the really strong characters of Super Sad Love Story, which was my previous read. It doesn't put me off reading the rest of the series though - the world is interesting and there's always time for characters to develop.

Something for me to take on board when pulling together my current crop of stories.

One more for the virtual bookshelf.