The Hanging Tree (Rivers of London, #6) in The Folly Irregulars

Jul 19, 2015 carol. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: supernatural-mystery, my-library-hardcover, my-library, urban-fantasy, favorites, represent

Possibly perfect.

The more I love a book, the harder it becomes to review, because I don't want to move out of my state of enjoyment to one of analysis. That said, this was quite possibly my favorite installment of Peter Grant's story yet. The characterization is interesting, there are developments in Peter's personal life, and the overall arc of the series takes a satisfying and solid step forward.

I love the variety of characters and backgrounds, although this particular edition spends more time Possibly perfect.

The more I love a book, the harder it becomes to review, because I don't want to move out of my state of enjoyment to one of analysis. That said, this was quite possibly my favorite installment of Peter Grant's story yet. The characterization is interesting, there are developments in Peter's personal life, and the overall arc of the series takes a satisfying and solid step forward.

I love the variety of characters and backgrounds, although this particular edition spends more time with the upper crust. Particularly for a mystery, one needs a wide enough cast for there to avoid obvious red herrings or red shirts. The broad number is appropriate for Peter balancing between his more magical life in the Folly, his personal life and his investigations. For the most part, I usually get the feeling that the diversity of characters is merely a representation of the city and not a checkbox; it is a part of who they are, but not the only important trait. DC Guleed, a female who wears a hijab, was introduced as a minor character in Whispers Under Ground, but is starting to play a significant role. Most of this seemed to be developed in the graphic novel Rivers of London: Body Work, #1, but for the most part one needn't have read it as she starts to come into her own as the logical and level counterpoint to Peter's leaps of logic and daredevil spirit. I particularly love her diplomatic skill on the phone:
"I heard Guleed pass this on and some grumbled swearing from Seawoll. 'Tell him to get his arse down here pronto,' he said. 'He wants you to come in,' said Guleed and gave me the address."

Plotting remains pleasantly unpredictable for me. While the stories ostensibly have a main investigation, Peter leads a busy life. There are opportunities to learn more about magic and its practitioners, Peter's family, the ongoing investigation into Leslie, side investigations such as hunting down the Little Crocodiles, learning about the history of the Folly and so forth. Because of it, both the plots and the pacing often surprise me. I also enjoy that it is very much a 'police procedural.' Peter occasionally goes to a desk, he works a computer, he explains to the reader the structure of a murder investigation within the London police. He frequently has asides to explain the approach and legality of police actions: "Guleed circled around the names and the timeline for twenty minutes, twenty minutes being about the amount of time it takes your average suspect--sorry, I mean witness--to forget the details of the lies they've just told you, before asking about the drugs."

But at the end of the day, it's always the writing that hooks me. Aaronovitch does a lovely job of giving us a scene, or Peter's thoughts about how he is approaching something, but he rarely tells us how we are supposed to feel about it. That ability to show without telling seems particularly rare in UF. The suspect's eyes may "glance at" something, but they usually don't "furtive" anything. I don't precisely know how Peter feels about Inspector Seawoll, for instance, although my best guess is that it is a complex combination of respect, fear, and a tiny bit of appreciation. It's a technique I first recognized in Agatha Christie, where people are presented, implications perhaps drawn, but it's left to the reader to draw the conclusions, and they may be different. For instance: "Lady Ty... asked the question again in a tone I recognized from my own mum. The one that says: Yes there's going to be trouble, but that is as nothing to the trouble you are going to be in if you continue to cross me." I had a crystal clear visual/audio on that one, but mine is likely going to be different from yours. There's no "icily," "stonily" or "scathingly" or any other of the hundred routine descriptives I feel pepper the average UF.

Ben Aaronvitch's Peter Grant series has become one of the most satisfying urban fantasy detective novels in the field. Read it, and then listen to Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's audio version. You can thank me later.

Speaking of thanks, I owe some to Orient, Caro, Milda and Mimi for allowing me to crash their buddy read. It extra fun to read with other people as enthusiastic as they are for Grant.

Re-listened September 2018, because it's just that awesome. One of my favorite books in a favorite series. Can't wait until the next comes out--already ordered from Waterstones. ...more

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Jan 14, 2017 carol. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, supernatural-mystery, urban-fantasy, my-library, my-library-hardcover, audio, bring-to-the-desert-island

You know how parents say certain kids love hearing that one book over and over? This is that book for me.

I know, I know: I'm always waxing enthusiastic over Kobna's reading of this series, but the audio version of a story set in London, filled with a wide variety of characters, brings a whole new level of appreciation to the story. Kobna's work on the London stage since 2003 would seem to be ideal preparation for the range of accents, voices and emotions used in the Peter Grant series. One offi You know how parents say certain kids love hearing that one book over and over? This is that book for me.

I know, I know: I'm always waxing enthusiastic over Kobna's reading of this series, but the audio version of a story set in London, filled with a wide variety of characters, brings a whole new level of appreciation to the story. Kobna's work on the London stage since 2003 would seem to be ideal preparation for the range of accents, voices and emotions used in the Peter Grant series. One official site lists a dizzying array of accent skills, along with fluency in English, Fanti and Ghanaian, (site: https://www.spotlight.com/interactive...) all put to good use on the occasions Peter's mum makes an appearance.

In this particular book, much of it takes place in the world of the 'posh' elite, giving us a chance to appreciate a range of upper-class/highly educated accents. Somehow, Kobna is able to give us the sassy tones of Bev, the clipped tone of Lady Ty controlling her temper, Nightingales' measured and articulate speech along with the working-class, foul-mouthed drawl of Inspector Seawoll and the swarmy, entendre-laden tones of Reynard the Fox and make me believe each character. That, to me, is flipping ah-maz-ing. For comparison, one of the first audiobooks I listened to was a female reader for Stephanie Plum book, and her voicing of the males in the books felt so false, so awkward, that I was thrown out of the story every time they spoke. Not so here. The only misstep to me is the brief appearance of American Kim Reynolds, and I'd say he's improved that since Whispers Underground. Other Americans fair better. I'd also like to remember that one dangerous moment for Peter (oh, shush; there's many in every book) where Kobna drops his voice nearly to a whisper to read, sending chills up my spine. Just perfect.

To my delight, there's an interview at the end between Aaronovitch, Holdbrook-Smith and one of the marketers from Gollancz that answers many wonderings. For instance, it seems Ben can't avoid Kobna's voice either, and sometimes when he writes he thinks of how the words will sound when read, particularly because Peter is prone to long chunks of distracted thought 'missing a full stop.' And, somewhat reassuringly, other listeners would agree with me that the only voice not done wonderfully is the American. Kobna's mock-outrage at the charge is endearing.

In the interview, Ben mentions that he doesn't have a 'meta' plot all worked out for the series, that his philosophy is 'take care of the story and the meta will work itself out.' I think that explains a great deal about the immediate and meta plotting of the books, which might prove unsatisfying for those who look for an explicitly "progressing" arc rather than episodes in the adventures of life (Note: I too wish my own meta-life would make more progress, but my approach to my own life must be something like Ben's writing). At any rate, my take-away is that Kobna and the series are reassuringly linked. Thank the urban-fantasy audio gods. Or the river ones.

May 2019: Ben made a mistake (because Peter would never make this one) and had Peter say, "the smell of carbon monoxide." Whoops. Like iocaine powder, carbon monoxide is odorless. ...more

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Feb 15, 2018 Lyn rated it really liked it

Now we are in the springtime of our discontent, when I must wait until JUNE!! for the next installment in this freakin’ great series!

Ben Aaronovitch has created one of the best urban / contemporary fantasy series of recent date, or HELL for that matter EVER, with his Peter Grant series. Grant is the protagonist, a police constable in the Metropolitan police force of London who, a few books back, saw a ghost and then was approached by a dapper Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale who intr Now we are in the springtime of our discontent, when I must wait until JUNE!! for the next installment in this freakin’ great series!

Ben Aaronovitch has created one of the best urban / contemporary fantasy series of recent date, or HELL for that matter EVER, with his Peter Grant series. Grant is the protagonist, a police constable in the Metropolitan police force of London who, a few books back, saw a ghost and then was approached by a dapper Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale who introduced him to a very small section of the Met whose job it was to investigate and sort out crimes of the ... eh, um … magical sort.

Grant soon learned that using the “M” word was generally frowned upon, that the existence of this branch of the service was known to the higher ups, mostly accepted, though grudgingly and with not a small tough of standoffishness and HEY PRESTO! Nightingale settled Peter in as his next apprentice – wizard.

Or practitioner as they say in the Folly, the name of the HQ of this mysterious department.

And so we come to Aaronovitch’s brilliant sixth book in the series (though there are a few short stories and some graphic novels – of which I am ravenously reading). Published in 2016 we are now in the desperate wait for the next in the series, 2018’s(!) Lies Sleeping.

Up to now we’ve seen plenty of the “M” word as Peter learns to make spells and to get better at his new craft. All the while he is also maintaining and getting better at being a proper copper in the old London sense. We’ve learned of magical creatures, Fae, underworld characters of vague origin and, of course, the Rivers.

Unlike some other urban fantasies with your garden variety vampires and werewolves, Aaronovitch has only given us hints of such folks, or when he does it’s in a new style, with new rules, and only subtly hinted at. And unlike resurrecting the old Celtic and Norse (and Greek, Egyptian, Slavic, etc. etc.) pantheons, our writer describes Genius loci – or gods of the rivers. These are incarnations of the rivers themselves with godlike powers. We meet Father Thames, up near the source, and Mother Thames in the city and then all the tributaries as lesser gods and goddesses.

And there is a recurring mysterious villain called the Faceless Man, whose nefarious machinations keep creeping up to endanger Peter and lure Nightingale into a magical duel.

And it’s FUN, FUN, FUN!

The Hanging Tree finds Peter and the Met allies of the Folly investigating a possible overdose that involved one of the daughters of Tyburn, the most powerful of Mother Thames children. This search leads to more clues about the Faceless Man and more magic tomfooleries than you can shake a whomping willow at.

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Dec 20, 2016 Mimi rated it liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, mystery, paranormal, 2016, 2020

The tag line on the cover says: Back in London, back in trouble which pretty much sums up this book. We're back in London, and Peter Grant and friends are back in trouble. And it's the same kind of trouble that's been plaguing them since Moon Over Soho.

But finally, we stop chasing after ghosts and faceless mysteries and come face to face with the man behind the mask. And there really is a face behind that mask. This reveal was indeed a surprise, but whether or not it does anything for the serie ...more

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Nov 07, 2016 keri. rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, urbanfantasy, ebook, 2016

OH PETER!! we're starting to really hit that point of too many characters to juggle in a fair and considered fashion, but these dumb books are so charming, I don't even care. ...more

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Mar 16, 2017 Paul Sparks rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

Is there a word that's a blend of love and frustration? Because that's how I feel about this book. ...more

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Jul 17, 2018 Holly Booms Walsh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, urban-fantasy, fiction, paranormal-fiction, magic, detective, police-procedural, audible

I adore this series, and this book is one of my favorite installments. There is a nice development of Peter's character and relationships within the Falcon community and with Beverly and her River family. Kobna Holdbook-Smith's narration is five stars all the way, with multiple accents and perfect inflections of pacing and intensity. I appreciate the diversity in the series, in nationalities, mythologies, and the inclusion of LGBT characters. ...more

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Nov 04, 2016 Snicketts rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, contemporary, magical-realism

I've waited so long for this next part, and now I'm horrified that I was so greedy as to read it in 24 hours!

There's a lot in this book that adds to the plot and to what we know of the Rivers and magic. There's a real feeling of building up towards a resolution as the past and the present collide. The feeling of the timelessness of the city and the Rivers in conjunction with the modern narrative and view is excellent and brings the tone of the book away from the mystical or the police procedura ...more

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Feb 02, 2017 Rosey Waters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: type-full-length, author-male, read-published-in-2017, category-fiction, tag-genre-fantasy, 5-star-reads

WHY DID I FONISH THIS SO QUICKLY?!? Damnit now I have to wait for the next one.

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Dec 24, 2016 Pearl rated it it was amazing

It's 2:19 am here and officially Christmas! I've finally finished all of these in a sort of audiobook marathon. Enjoyed every minute of it, I'll definitely have to do a re-read/listen sometime next year for sure so that I catch all the details I might have missed, plus i'm already missing all the characters I've enjoyed throughout the whole thing. 10/10 would recommend! ...more

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Feb 06, 2017 Patricia Burroughs rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, british-isles, fantasy, 2017

Every book in the world Aaronovitch created for Peter Grant is, for me, a return to a world that fascinates me and entertains me in all of the best ways.

This one is no different.

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