From the publisher: There have been ghosts on the London Underground, sad, harmless spectres whose presence does little more than give a frisson to travelling and boost tourism. But now there’s a rash of sightings on the Metropolitan Line and these ghosts are frightening, aggressive and seem to be looking for something.

Enter PC Peter Grant junior member of the Metropolitan Police’s Special Assessment unit a.k.a. The Folly a.k.a. the only police officers whose official duties include ghost hunting. Together with Jaget Kumar, his counterpart at the British Transport Police, he must brave the terrifying the crush of London’s rush hour to find the source of the ghosts.

Joined by Peter’s wannabe wizard cousin, a preschool river god and Toby the ghost hunting dog their investigation takes a darker tone as they realise that a real person’s life might just be on the line.

And time is running out to save them.

With this new novella, bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch has crafted yet another wickedly funny and surprisingly affecting chapter in his beloved Rivers of London series.

I've seen the Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London books and thought about picking one up many times, but just couldn't pull the trigger. When the opportunity to review The Furthest Station (a novella-length story in the same series) arose, I decided to give it a shot.

Peter Grant is a police officer who works in The Folly, the special unit that deals with the unexplainable or supernatural. His latest case has him looking for a ghost on the Tube. Grant undertakes the search with the help of his colleague Jaget Kumar from the British Transport Police. What they find is that there is a very real danger to someone's life, and the ghost on the Tube are just the beginning.

I enjoyed The Furthest Station. The characters are well developed and interesting. Peter Grant is a likable protagonist, with real flaws and an engaging personality. Kumar is an adequate companion, as well. It is easy to see that there is a history between the two. Other characters include Grant's teenage cousin Abigail and his boss Nightingale (who is a master practicer of magic). Abigail is somewhat of a prodigy who longs to learn magic and begin working with her cousin full time. She is very proficient with technology (as many teens are) and very intelligent. Abigail is a nice counterpoint to Grant. Nightingale fills the role of (somewhat) crusty mentor.

The mystery was engaging. It was nothing that seemed out of place in a book of this type, and didn't rely heavily on the use of magic. In fact, as far as police procedurals go, it was rather ordinary (this is not meant as a negative). I liked the fact that magic did not dominate the story but rather felt very natural and complimentary to it.

My only complaint was that I felt like I was missing out on some background or inside jokes, having not read any of the other books in the series. This is definitely not Aaronovitch's fault, but I found myself distracted by this from time to time. If The Furthest Station is meant as an easy entry point to the series (due to the length), then maybe those types of things should be explained or left out. However, I would guess readers who are already familiar with the series would enjoy those comments or events.

Overall, I thought The Furthest Station was entertaining. Ben Aaronovitch has created an interesting urban fantasy/mystery series with engaging characters. If as a reader, this fits in your sweet spot, it would be worth picking up and giving it a read. If you are already a fan, this is a must read.

I received a preview copy of this book from Subterranean Press and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Peter Grant and his cousin Abigail were hunting ghosts on the Underground. Strange ghosts that fell apart when confronted. Ghosts that kept wanting to send a message "The Master," whoever that was. In solving the ghost issue, Peter encountered a new river "godling," brought attention to the murder of foxes, and managed to be instrumental in solving a kidnapping. But the next problem to be solved involves getting Abigail's parents permission for her to learn magic. A nice tidy novella to whet the appetite until the next book comes out.

A great continuation to the Peter Grant series. I'm very much enjoying the Rivers' continued involvement and watching how Leslie has changed from the hero we thought she was into a conflicted maybe villain, maybe anti-hero.

Hello! I am back! Did you miss me? I hope so. I have been on holiday and my eldest sister was over so I wasn't able to keep you up to date on what I had been reading. Hopefully, this post will remedy that for you. Enough said, what did I read?

I am going to start with the book that was my favourite - White Hot by Ilona Andrews, which is the second instalment of the Hidden Legacy series. The story starts a few months after the dramatic events of book 1, Burn for Me. Nevada hasn't heard a peep from the hunky Prime Mad Rogan since the big smooch that followed Rogan's declaration that Nevada was going to be 'his'. Nevada is thrown, quite literally, back into Rogan's life when she takes a case to solve the who murdered the animal mage, Cornelius's wife. It's not surprising that this continues the plot arc of the mysterious and extremely dangerous organisation that wants to bring down the magical hierarchy and all Primes with it. A number of secondary characters we met in book 1 are back to help Nevada, including her family. It's not long before Nevada and Rogan are the target and it's a race to discover who is behind the killings before they become the assassin's next victims.

I really, really enjoyed White Hot. I read it a few times in close succession. It stops just short of being excellent and I will tell you why a bit later. I like both Nevada and Rogan as characters. I also think the world building is well executed and the plot arc has me guessing. Andrews has got a lot to tell along with relationships and romances to build in only a few books as this is trilogy. Unlike the Kate Daniel's series and many others like it, Andrews doesn't have several books to have a slow burn romance between the main characters so no time is wasted bringing the love interests together. I find this quite refreshing and it must be challenging for the writers to make it believable and engaging. I think they have succeeded. I am also very intrigued to find out who the evil force is. I have no clue and that is a major achievement as I usually always guess 'who dunnit'. I don't have too long to wait as book 3, Wildfire, is out in July. I can HARDLY WAIT! So I mentioned that I felt White Hot fell a bit short of being excellent and that is down to the cover. I know I am a cover snob and I also know that the author is quite defensive of the covers as they are controlled by the publisher however, I can't see that this cover is a selling point. If I wasn't already invested in this author or the series I would have passed on this series purely based on the cover. I think the publisher has missed a trick by not having a more dramatic cover or a model that doesn't look like his six pack was drawn on with crayon. Just a minor downside of a great book and series.

I am going to tell you about the next two books together as they are the first and second books of a new series by Dannika Dark called The Crossbreed novels. These books, I believe, are set in the same work as Dark's Mageri series. I have to say, I believe, as I haven't read that series. The story introduces the lead character Raven Black who is a crossbreed - part vampire and part mage. She has been living rough as a one woman vigilante, killing the baddies, that seem to be everywhere. So far she has been living on her wits and her crossbreed talents until she receives a proposition to join the covert organisation - Keystone - to take down baddies as part of a group of supernatural misfits. In book 1, Keystone, joining Keystone doesn't go quite to plan and that is mostly down to her partner, the vamp Christian but without giving too much away Raven overcomes her issues with being part of a team by book 2 - Ravenheart. In this instalment Raven and Christian are set to find a series killer who is targeting Breed women. The hunter becomes the hunter in this second instalment.

I have to be honest and say that Dark isn't one of my favourite authors but so far I like this series. It it isn't taking itself too seriously and so far, no one has jumped into bed together yet which isn't typical of this genre. If you enjoy a supernatural murder mysteries with a female lead character that is quite sarcastic then why not give this series a go? These are books well suited to the beach or a long commute. I am looking forward to seeing what Dark has in store for Raven Black.

The last book I am going to tell you about is the novella - The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch. This is a story from the Peter Grant / Rivers of London series. PC Grant is on the case when ghosts are spotted on London Underground (aka the Tube). When the ghosts start to get more aggressive Peter enlists the help of his colleague from the British Transport Police, Jaget Kumar, and his trusty non-police dog Toby to track down why the spirits are haunting the Metropolitan line. When Peter discovers an actual human's life is at stake he realises that time is running out to solve this mystery. Lucky he has help in the form of his young teenage wizard cousin and an adolescent river god.

This is a great novella. I thought it was witty and gripping in equal measure. I am not always fond of novellas and short stories but this isn't one to miss.

The Furthest Station is a quick novella that retains the spirit of the series but which remains unsatisfying.
Peter's distinctive voice is present; even though the novella is short, there's still space for his digressions and pop culture references. There's even a few footnotes addressed to his American counterpart, though I found these a bit disruptive. They call into question the nature of the story, particularly as there is no framework set up to indicate Peter is addressing someone particular.

The story does a reasonable job of introducing who Peter is and what he does for a living. However, I'm not sure I'd recommend it as an entry point to the series. For example, the oddness of Molly is never explained for a new reader and the references to Beverley and her family are cursory. There's a lot of background present which is likely to make it confusing.

I enjoyed seeing Peter spend more time with Abigail, though there's never any real change in their relationship. Preserving the status quo for the novels in such a way leaves it ultimately feeling like filler.

The main plot held up fairly well until the ending. While it was nice to see an acknowledgement that not all police work ends tidily or in a dramatic fashion, the number of loose ends made it unsatisfying to me.

All in all, The Furthest Station was a pleasant read, but not one of Aaronovitch's better works.

So after the main story arc fell off a cliff (or a tall building?) at the end of book four, we now have a novella set, apparently, somewhere between book five, where nothing happens, and book six, where a little something happens, but it's stupid. This novella? Nothing happening here, either.

Some people get paranormally assaulted on the metro, PC Grant investigates with the help of some random people and his niece, then he investigates some more, and finally, he does some more investigating. A resolution falls from the sky. The End.

Oh, and there are some Chekhovian magic foxes that get left out in the rain to get all soggy and gross smelling. Yuck. As Chekhov was wont to say: "If you have magic talking foxes in act one, they better be doing something interesting by the end, otherwise what's the point?"

Yes, as usual PC Grant's observations on melting pot London and the occasional nerdy reference make for a fairly entertaining read:

"The railway hit Harrow on the Hill in 1880 and it's been downhill ever since, culminating in one those formless red brick shopping centres which artfully combines a complete lack of aesthetic quality with a total disregard for the utilitarian function for which it is built. As a result, your average shopper has only to spend ten minutes inside to be reduced to a state of quiet desperation. Primark has the right idea, being right by the entrance so that fleeing punters would grab the closest approximation to whatever it was they wanted before running screaming into the night."

But when the plot is just one long, slow-motion stumble to the finish line, that's just not enough to carry the book.

I discovered Ben Arronovitch a couple months ago when one of his short stories was released on Audible as a gift. I was immediately hooked. I went out and bought the first three books. When Net Galley approved me for this short story I was ecstatic! This one is set between book 5 and 6. I loved it -

The London underground is being plagued by ghosts. So, these incidents are brought to the attention of the Folly, who handles all things "weird".
Peter is working the job with Jaget Kumar, his counterpart at the British Transport Police, since it must do with the underground. Abigail, his cousin, a young almost apprentice, is helping too.

What do the ghosts want? This is a small window into the life of Peter Grant, apprentice wizard.

A few of the characters were not in the book, but it is a short story. Very good and a highly recommend it.

I had a friend who obsessed over the difference between "farther" and "further" and now I obsess too. "Farther" is a distance (the farthest station on the line) and furthest is an immeasurable concept.. And while "Me and him went" might be colloquial English it still is bad grammar. I could not read this.

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch falls in one of my favorite genres: Magic Detective Fiction. I've really enjoyed the Peter Grant series up until this point and was hoping for another full length novel. Due to the nature of the ARC, I didn't realize until the abrupt end of this novella that it was actually a novella. I liked the development of Abigail as a character and it's great to see Peter and the rest of the Folly up to a more "regular-sized" case as opposed to every adventure being potentially world-ending or what not.

If you like Magic Detectives, this would be a great introductory story to the world of Peter Grant, but I would still recommend beginning the series at the beginning. Aaronovitch usually does a fantastic job of making a slightly magical, yet very modern London come to life. There's less of that in this book, but the mystery is a fun, quick read.

This seventh book in the Rivers of London series is shorter than the others, just over 100 pages. I was pleased to be dealing with ghosts again as they have a lot of scope for interesting situations and glimpses of history.

I also enjoyed the return to dealing a little with river spirits, bringing it full circle. This one has an old fashioned Mystery element in that someone has been kidnapped and cryptic hints from ghosts are all Peter Grant and company have to go on to try to find the missing girl.

The book makes an enjoyable, short read and I feel returns to the vibe of the first book in a way that is satisfying to someone who has been reading through the whole series.

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"What, like officially?"
"Officially secret," I said because discretion is supposed to be, if not our middle name, at least a nickname we occasionally answer to when we remember.
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When you're four, forever and ever can mean yesterday. But amongst my other policing skills I've acquired a proficiency in straw-clutching that verges on the savant.
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I just LOVE this series! There are so many excellent elements - clever dialogue and turns of phrase, unique characters, original plots... There are, admittedly, always a few points where I find myself suddenly, randomly, lost - not usually in the plot, although that does happen on occasion, but mostly in the language (thank god for the internet, because British slang is not the easiest thing to follow OR figure out) - but things always seem to come together relatively quickly, and even the meandering bits are always entertaining...

In this latest installment, Peter once again finds himself in over his head with ghosts, but through his own efforts (supplemented handily by Nightengale, Abigail, and a few key others) manages to pull himself over and through the problem and into a cleverly managed and utterly satisfying conclusion. This one is numbered 5.7 in the series; it felt rather like an in-between book. There was no mention of the ongoing issues with Punch or Leslety. And, more surprising given the series title (Rivers of London), there was hardly any River element. Beverly barely plays a role, Lady Tyburn is nary to be found, there is no Mama/Father Thames drama to be seen - and the introduction of it came very late (and rather tangentially) to the story. If it had been shorter, I would have assumed this to be a short story for an independent collection; it reads as part of, but not essential to, the series. I didn't mind that, I was just surprised by it.

Still, any day with Peter Grant is a good day in my book - he is the draw for me in this series. He's Everyman but not really - the Everyman that every man would like to be: clever, fun, a willing participant in a world that forced him into its walls. He flies by the seat of his pants more than he'd like to admit, and is often lost - but through the good graces of his friends and his own not inconsiderable strengths - always found again eventually. He's a great character, and Aaronovitch puts him into unique and challenging situations that stretch the boundaries of his world over and over again, yet he always manages to finagle his way in and out of trouble with aplomb and a nice curry. May we all be so lucky...

Review

Furthest Station, actually works, i wasn’t sure if a novella would be enough to tell a PC Grant tale, but actually it worked perfectly, More so in fact than the Hanging Tree did for me, which seemed to just stop.

As with many mid series novellas a large part of this book is dropping hints, tit bits and introducing people who we will see more of later, but this was a lot more than that, it had all the charismatic humour that you expect from this series, all the innate British humour, and i think even funnier, the netgalley copy i had was for the USA, it had notes to explain some English vernacular for the Americans, those made me chuckle and should always be in there.

So this book is mainly i think about us seeing more and more of Peters wannabe Wizard cousin, and why not, she is smart, very smart. Has that usual smart mouth approach and condescending view of all people older and stupider than her (and lets face it thats a lot of people, she is very smart) .. As usual the author pays all the characters very well, true laugh out loud moments, groans and a plot and pace that means the book is over in a blink. It leave you wanting more…. and that for me is the sign of a good book. Hanging Tree left me going…. wheres the rest… that’s not the same thing!

So lots more Mr Aaronovitch and soon please…

(Parm)

Satisfying novella.I especially liked the development of Abigail as one of the team.

I'm really not one for novellas or short stories, but I'll jump on any opportunity to spend more time with Peter Grant in his magical London.

Even though I am a ginormous fan of this series, I am a bit of purist and tend to stick with the full length novels. I am not one to normally read the side adventures of series that sometimes get published in novellas. And normally I would have waited to see if this got the audiobook treatment because Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's narration of these books is so peerless, that I buy them in audio exclusively.

But I just couldn't resist this one. Peter's world and his worldview are so infectious that I couldn’t wait to read this.

This one features a rather tight little case that centers on pervy ghosts who assault and commuters who are riding the London metro. Yeah, you heard that right. Percy ghosts. Assaulting people in public. Even more crazy is that something happens if to the victim's memory in the aftermath of the assault that after awhile they have no memory that any such assault takes place. But Peter is on the job and manages to get to a victim before her memory fades.

The rest of the book follows Peter, Nightingale and Peter's young cousin Abby map the London tube to track down their spectral terrorist. And along the way we get to meet all sorts of ghosts raging from morose to sassy.

This quick read highlights all the things that makes the entire series so darned good. The nice blend of magic and police procedure. Peter's often trenchant, always witty observations. Fantastic character diversity and character development. I was pleased to learn more abut Abby and hope that this means she'll be making another appearance in the main novels. Also we get to meet another River God!

Really enjoyed this!

A novella set in the period between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree which sees Peter Grant and Jaget Kumar of the British Transport Police (one of the regularly recurring characters in the series) trying to sort out a ghost on the underground. As a novella, there’s not as much time for the ongoing story ark, so this doesn’t delve into the defection of Lesley May, but it does bring in Peter’s teenage proto-wizard cousin and a nascent river god who has been adopted by a well-meaning childless couple. An excellent stopgap while we’re waiting for the next full length book. It’s got all the trademark elements of the series and Peter’s wry and funny ‘voice’.
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I liked how Peter methodically worked his way through this one. Each step brought him to a new place to look, which lead him to more and more. His instincts are finally kicking in and he is starting to trust himself, a good thing especially at the end. I do find myself intrigued by the boy that Peter met, I hope he manages to come back in later books. I loved how at so many times Peter's cousin, Abigail, seemed to get the better of him. How a throw away comment he made a long time ago is coming back to bite him in the ass. It will be fun to see how Peter and Nightingale deal with her.

This is a short novella in the series featuring our intrepid detective, Peter Grant, attached to the Folly, the police unit that deals with all things magical and fantastical in London. Unlike the full length novels with sprawling storylines, this is a more sparse and tightly written affair. It appears there are regular ghostly presences on London's Metropolitan tube line, they are given to invective that is racist, sexist and just generally abusive. However, whilst several rail customers make complaints, these are withdrawn rapidly as they lose their memory of the event. Sergeant Jaget Kumar of the British Transport Police and Peter work together to track down the ghosts as they interview Jessica Talacre whilst her memory remains intact.

So we learn of ghosts, loopers and entities, and the vestigia they leave behind. Peter and Jaget, with the help of DCI Nightingale, set up the conditions where they meet various train ghosts, a veritable psychic soup, like a postboy, Mr Ponderstep, the banker, and the young Alice Bowman, entranced by dogs, from whom Peter begins to surmise that a woman has been abducted. There are ghosts that have been trapped in rose jars, and an elderly couple, Allen and Lilian, who took in a young boy, Chess, without the required legal paperwork. Chess, it turns out is a preschool river god. Peter has his cousin, a prodigy it turns out, chasing down ghosts tirelessly whilst she develops her own knowledge of the magical world. Peter tries to track down a missing social worker before she ends up dead.

This has the wry wit and comic humour of the series and makes a welcome contribution to the Rivers of London novels. We see more of Jaget in his occupation and the way in which he interacts with Peter as they hunt down their ghosts. Peter is always good to spend time with, he is such a great character. A very enjoyable read of a wonderful series. Cannot wait for the next full length novel, which I have to admit would be more to my taste, this felt too short. Many thanks to Subterranean Press for an ARC.

Another great addition to the series. Loved the idea of the Godling