Hi Cara
Today on my blog I am reviewing Moon Over Soho. This is the second book in Ben Aaronovitch River of London series.
The first book in the series is Rivers of London.
I was my dad’s vinyl-wallah: I changed his records while he lounged around drinking tea, and that’s how I know my Argo from my Tempo. And it’s why, when Dr Walid called me to the morgue to listen to a corpse, I recognised the tune it was playing.
Something violently supernatural had happened to the victim, strong enough to leave its imprint like a wax cylinder recording. Cyrus Wilkinson, part-time jazz saxophonist and full-time accountant, had apparently dropped dead of a heart attack just after finishing a gig in a Soho jazz club. He wasn’t the first.
No one was going to let me exhume corpses to see if they were playing my tune, so it was back to old-fashioned legwork, starting in Soho, the heart of the scene. I didn’t trust the lovely Simone, Cyrus’ ex-lover, professional jazz kitten and as inviting as a Rubens portrait, but I needed her help: there were monsters stalking Soho, creatures feeding off that special gift that separates the great musician from someone who can raise a decent tune. What they take is beauty. What they leave behind is sickness, failure and broken lives.
And as I hunted them, my investigation got tangled up in another story: a brilliant trumpet player, Richard ‘Lord’ Grant – my father – who managed to destroy his own career, twice. That’s the thing about policing: most of the time you’re doing it to maintain public order. Occasionally you’re doing it for justice. And maybe once in a career, you’re doing it for revenge.
(Synopsis from Goodreads.com)
Moon Over Soho expands the magical world of P.C Peter Grant and gives the series a mysteries bad guy.
P.C Grant is pulled on to two separate cases, one that looks obviously like murder the other not so much. I enjoyed reading bother cases, especially when Grant tries to understand the impact of magic on the human body by using science.
The humour in Moon Over Soho is one of my favourite elements, from referencing Hogwarts to Jazz Vampires.
Moon over Soho is very British, with it quips about leaving London and British men not hugging. I like that even with the magic, mystery and murder it still has that English charm.
Peter Grant is a likeable character that is a mixture of smart and inexperience. The job hasn’t jaded him. Grant still has a good heart that sees the best in people that Nightengale cant see.
I hope in the next book there is more hope for Lesley and we see more of the Muslim Ninja.
Overall an enjoyable read for anyone that enjoys a book that mixes multiple genres really well.
My Rating for Moon Over Soho is 4.5 out of 5.
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Thanks for reading,
