I really enjoyed the switching between the first-person perspectives of both Folly apprentices in this book—I think a first for a Rivers of London novel or novella, which are usually from a single character perspective. Both Peter and Abigail were great, distinct POV characters, with their own concerns and thus very different focuses on the mysterious happenings on both land and sea in Aberdeen. A good mystery with very good baddies, and great additional characters as well, both old and new (and human and otherwise). I especially enjoyed learning more about Dr. Walid.

I'm fairly new to the Rivers of London series, but have enjoyed every book so far, and honestly this was no exception. I wasn't sure what to expect with another novel set outside of London, but Aaranovitch knows exactly what he's doing.

This book sees Peter, Beverly, their (now 2 year old) twins and a host of other characters taking a trip to Scotland. Of course there are magical shenanigans going on which need to be investigated, but there is more than just procedural story telling going on here. The world building is as excellent as ever, the character arcs feel genuine and well thought out, and the pacing is spot on. I already can't wait for the next adventure!

Stone and Sky is the tenth Rivers of London novel, and that is on top of a graphic novel series and a bunch of novellas all in the same universe. So there are a lot of side characters, plenty of backstory for them and their world and heaps of lore. And yet, despite all of this in Stone and Sky Aaronovitch still manages, almost, to tell a contained story with some real emotional stakes that once again broadens his universe.
Stone and Sky moves the action from England into Scotland, with the team called in to investigate sightings of a black panther near Aberdeen. But once Peter and his boss Nightingale are going, it seems, everyone goes – Peter’s niece Abigail, who is now also an apprentice wizard, and her talking fox companion Indigo, Peter’s wife Beverley (one of London’s river goddesses) and their two year old twins, Peter’s parents (to look after the twins) and Peter’s father’s jazz band (because he might as well do some gigs while they are up there). But soon there is more to investigate than just strange creatures including the death of a man who may well actually be a selkie (mythical creatures that live in the ocean) and the disappearance of a researcher working for a company that runs oil platforms off the coast.
So there is plenty going on and Aaronovitch handles the need to be in multiple places at once by splitting the narrative between the series traditional narrator, Peter, and his niece Abigail. By book 10 in a series, readers are not necessarily coming back for a page turning crime drama, although Aaronovitch delivers an interesting mystery in Stone and Sky. Rather they are looking to catch up with favourite characters and to learn more about the detailed world that Aaronovitch continues to build out. In this case adding selkies and mermaids, as well as introducing some new river gods, Scottish foxes and bringing back some dangerous mythical creatures. In this volume, readers also get a teen holiday romance for Abigail.
As this series grows, Aaronovitch is increasingly having to walk a fine line between providing historical detail to his callbacks and keeping the books accessible to new readers. He manages to do this in Stone and Sky partly through Peter having to bring his Scottish police partner up to speed. But the sheer number of characters and concepts still may make this a little bewildering for those just coming into the series. Aaronovitch also seems to be setting up a new “big bad”, dropping hints about potential confrontations to come.
Stone and Sky is not the best of the Rivers of London series but is still an enjoyable fantasy mystery, centred on a group of well developed (and well loved) characters and full of Aaronovitch’s usual pop culture references and sly observations. By taking the action out of the UK, Aaronovitch broadens his world by drawing on some other mythologies. And under it all, this is also a book that grapples with a number of larger themes around Scottish independence and North Sea oil exploration.

Detective Constable Peter Grant and his governor Nightingale have been called up to Scotland to chase down reports of a supernatural panther haunting the woods around Aberdeen. And naturally his wife, River Goddess Beverly has decided this would be an excellent time for a vacation with his twins, his parents, and his cousin Abigail, an apprentice wizard. Throw in selkies, giant killer gulls, and mermaids and what could possibly go wrong.

This is a delightful dip back into the mystical world of the Folly, where British crime procedurals cross with magic, and wry humor. I'm never entirely sure where I am with these books, since some of the language and British nuance tend get past me, and taking things to Scotland ups the ante there. But once I sink in and just let it wash over me, it's such an enjoyable ride. I especially enjoy how Aaronivitch mixes the genres, there might be magic about everywhere, but Peter is still a copper at heart and he always proceeds accordingly. Huge fun.

Stone and Sky is the latest book in the Rivers of London series, the urban fantasy/police procedural mashup that will make you believe in magic AND that the police are a force for good. (I love this series but look, I suspend a lot of disbelief, OK?)

What's up with Peter now? Well, he's on vacation with his whole family (wife, kids, dad, mom, cousin, and two colleagues - Nightingale is totally family at this point, right?) in Scotland, partially to look into sightings of a gigantic black panther that seems magically summoned. But mostly, it's for vacation! But we all know that police detectives can't go on holiday without a case cropping up!

This book has two first person POV narrators: Peter, as usual, and his cousin Abigail. They're both investigating disparate occurrences that end up being related in a nicely complex plot that's still not too difficult to follow. There are implications for the future of the series, but at its heart, this is another solid entry. DO NOT jump in here; at this point there are dozens of characters that get referenced and previous plot points that pop up. But if you are a Rivers of London reader, you won't be disappointed by revisiting your faves.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

Two years have passed since the events of Amongst our Weapons and life has moved forward for all our key characters. The main voices are that of Peter and Abigail. Peter's twin girls are now two and at the 'into everything' stage, Abigail is an adult and mourning the loss of her elder brother Paul.
When a possible big cat mauling of a sheep just outside Aberdeen is brought to Dr. Walhid's attention it seems a Folly roadtrip is in order. Nightingale fancies a hunt and so taking his young apprentice Abigail is a given. Where Abigail goes so does her fox associate Indigo, Abigail has been busy over the intervening years with lessons from Russian witch Varvara Tamonina, mining the Folly library and tutelage from Nightingale. Peter is roped into the trip, so Beverley feels it is a good time for a family holiday, which of course leads to Peter's mother coming along to babysit and stage a fourth comeback for Lord Grant and his Irregulars.
Needless to say once everyone arrives things get complicated! The disappearing big cat is one supernatural element, however there seem to be aquamen with gills, local sea folk, seagulls with teeth and a missing person mystery to solve. It seems Peter and Nightingale are in the right place at the right time.
The writing as always is a joy, irreverent, charming and all you would expect from the author. The book moves on at pace and it is great to see Abigail given more agency and also learn more about the fox network with its bent for espionage. There are unexpected turns in the story, and in the background it seems that Nightingale and his apprentices are making waves internationally with potential hostile interest. It will be great to see if that thread is developed...
Another cracking read and I would highly recommend the series. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for access to this ARC. All views are my own.

The latest expansion of the Rivers of London series, once more returning to focus on Peter and Co albeit not in London and, instead, in Scotland on a holiday that somehow includes Peter's boss, cousin, parents, spouse, children, and assorted coworkers both vulpine and human. The new location allows the entry of new magical species (selkies, sirens/merfolk, and something that may or may not be a monstrously large squid) and alternative waves that the fey and ordinary communities interact. Narration switches between Abigail and Peter, with lots of interaction with both old and new characters. The book provides enough information about past adventures and the general world building that a reader could theoretically start the series on this book, but they would be much better off starting at the first and reading all of the stories (including the graphic novels, which are increasingly referenced in the prose novels) from start to finish.

DNF Rating is based on how far I read, I have read 5-6 books in this series. I probably should have read all of them up to book 9 before I started this book. I began to get tired of Det. Peter Grant and his adventures. I may come back to the series.

A fantastic new instalment of the Rivers of London series, that I couldn’t put down!

Great to return to the present day trials and tribulations of Peter Grant as he goes to Scotland to research the latest Falcon case.

We catch up with Abigail and the foxes, as along with Peter, Beverley and the twins, Dr Waleed and Nightingale, they investigate strange happenings in the lowlands of Scotland.

Expect unusual sightings, disturbances in the ether, and run ins with the local genii locorum as Abigail and the foxes get caught up in local family feuds and power struggles.

Stone and Sky is a bit of a change of pace from the main Rivers of London series, as the gang have gone on a road trip to Aberdeen a couple of years after events of the last novel. As such it is a bit of a palette cleanser after the recent multi-book arcs, being a largely self-contained story.

Peter is still a main character, but he now shares narration with a teenage Abigail. This works well for the sharing of information, although I found the change of tense between past and present to be grating. Interesting characters are also introduced, including one who is likely to be a returning figure.

The plot itself is a fairly standard Rivers of London one, involving a rogue practitioner, summoned creatures and supernatural people living on the wobbly edges of human society. It's fun enough, and the shifting to Aberdeen gives the novel a different tone from the ones that have gone before. Instead of the Rivers of London we have a story that revolves around the sea, and the folklore of Scotland.

I wouldn't recommend starting here if you haven't read anything else from the series, but I don't think you need to have read all the books. Having said that, I did find myself wishing I had read the novella 'What Abigail Did that Summer' as I felt that I was expected to know quite a bit about her. Still, it's easy enough to catch up with the important context and the foxes are an immediate joy. Overall I recommend this to people who have some familiarity with the series and are looking for a fairly standalone novel.

Thanks to the publishers for providing a free copy. This review is left voluntarily.

With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC, provided in exchange for an honest review.

Rivers of London is one of my favorite urban fantasy series, as it blends a mix of excellent characters, wry humor, and an obvious love for London and its environs. I have been looking forward to the latest installment of the series for a while now. But this is not my favorite book in the series, by far.

One of the things I love about Rivers of London is how there are thematic threads that carry through the books, like episodes of a TV series, that build toward a "big bad" or a convergence of factors. <spoiler>You certainly got that in the first few arcs of the series, with characters like Mr. Punch or The Faceless Man building towards master plans.</spoiler> But if this series is like a prestige TV series, this book was a bottle episode.

Peter, Bev, Abigail, Nightingale, Peter's parents, and the twins all head to Scotland for a vacation. Things happen, a vacation does not. And while it's a perfectly fine story, the novel doesn't really advance anything in the mythos or lore. We get our usual inclusion of new and weird quasi-magical creatures, <spoiler>in this case Scottish mermaids, selkies, and hordes of magically-summoned animals, </spoiler> but the change of setting feels more like a convenient excuse to get the fantastic Kobna Holbrook-Smith to have to speak in new accents on the audiobook version.

In this way, "Stone and Sky" feels more like "Foxglove Summer," probably one of my least favorite books in the series. Also coincidentally one that focuses a lot on Abigail.

Speaking of, I like Abigail as a character, but fully half the book is dedicated to her POV and adventures in Scotland, including falling in love with [REDACTED]. Abigail's fine, but I'm so invested in Peter at this point that I'd rather have Abigail spun off into her own books with her own POV. Switching between Peter and Abi made the pace of the novel feel like neither got a chance to let the reader really sink their teeth into what they were doing. It felt like two separate, but linked, novellas. Nightingale was also essentially sidelined for this book, reduced to a background character only around to mentor Abigail and save the day, <i>deus ex magicus</i>. We did get a lot of fox spycraft though, which was fun.

In short, what I wanted was: more Peter, more Nightingale, more LORE. I really didn't get any of those things, and I hope Ben Aaronovitch returns to what made this series so unique and wonderful.

I think this series has run its course for me. I don’t find them as fun and captivating, but also the language and cadence of the books doesn’t do much for me any more. I’m also not sure if there’s an end game to the series, if we covered that a few books ago and I don’t remember, or if the series is just being written until it fizzles out.

This novel takes our team of investigators into Scotland in search of a melanistic leopard that has been spotted. Well Thomas and Abigail are hunting the big cat, Peter, Beverly and the twins are hoping to just enjoy their holiday. That never lasts. a magical being has been found dead nearby and lacking their own folly, poor Peter gets recruited to help. The trail to the creatures origins begin to lead around the entire Scottish town and may even lead back to the very cat that they were there to research for enjoyment. A whole cast of characters is in this book and all interesting and enjoyable as this author makes everything. There is even a character who mentions Terry Pratchett's discworld ( my favorite series) and the MUD ( multi user dungeon game) based off it. I used to write code for the MUD back in college so that made me happy. All in all a real interesting novel with the usual twists and turns.

Another great entry in this long running series that has become one of my favorites! I love the mix of characters and how we get to know them better in each book. I also enjoy how the author blends fantasy with a police procedural.

In Stone and Sky, a family vacation turns into a search for clues and a mystery to be solved. A world where magic and mythical beings mingle with humans. The group of characters are fun, messy and witty. The story unfolds in such a way that there is always a surprise and it makes thirsty for more. I loved Indigo's surprise.

Another hell of a ride from Aaronovitch. It was great to see Scotland within the confines of the series, definitely some interesting breadcrumbs dropped in the novel, most intriguingly about the foxes. The only real negatives in my opinion were Peter's overall lack of screentime and the ham-handed insertion of real world politics. Not exactly what I'm looking for in my escape within a fantasy novel.Still those two quibbles aside I enjoyed the novel.

At this point, this series is comfort reading for me. I can trust that the core characters aren't going to be offed just for the sake of it, that it will have a broad and diverse cast of characters, and that it will be suitably weird and magical. I think my critiques of some of the most recent entries - including some of the novellas - have been that they haven't included all the fun stuff the series has to offer, and I felt like this entry was a return to form. It had plenty of Nightingale, of Bev, of Abigail and the foxes, of the weirder cryptids.

I have always liked that Aaronovitch includes verbatim the language that Peter's Sierra Leonean mother uses, but I must say that I was less convinced by Abigail's patterns of speech and the Scots; maybe this is just that I didn't get so clear a sense of the code switching.

Ultimately, the difficulty this series has to navigate is the balance between police work and magic. I definitely felt like Amongst Our Weapons leaned too hard on the police work; this is also the problem that I had with the newest entry in the Checquy series, Royal Gambit. I care more about the magic than the police work: the police aspect of it is interesting primarily because in a low fantasy environment, police are the people society expects to solve mysteries, and so if you want to have a mystery in your story, you need to consider them. Yes, it's fun to have the references to the operational aspect of modern British policing, but it's more fun to have magic.

Peter Grant is back and the gang’s all here! Even more fun, they are leaving the familiar surrounds of London and the Folly and trooping up to Scotland to investigate “a weird death even by sheep standards.” Peter has brought the whole family, including his parents, and his Dad has brought his jazz band. Nightingale has brought Abdul and Abigail, and Abigail has brought spy fox Indigo.
I was pretty excited to read this tenth novel in a series merges magic, folklore, danger and humour so successfully. As expected, what began as a simple problem grows more complex, more messy and of course even weirder. We meet new allies and antagonists and new magical creatures. The mixture as before, and a tasty mixture it is. Not one for first-time readers of the series, who will only be confused by the huge cast of characters. But for fans, it’s mostly what you want and expect from this series. Mostly.
However, this time the story is told from the viewpoints of both Peter and Abigail, in alternating chapters. And here is where I ran into a bit of a glitch. I love the foxes, and I like Abigail well enough, but a large part of her story arc is taken up by a romance that I did not care for at all. Firstly, it is less a romance than intense insta-lust, a trope I hate reading about and avoid when I can. But the other problem I had is less a matter of personal taste. The more I read about this relationship, the more it felt like it could be a magical compulsion, and therefore not consensual. After a particular revelation, this theory made even more sense. I kept waiting for Peter or Nightingale to at least flag the possibility, given their knowledge of magic and folklore, but this never happened. And the final chapter did nothing to allay my suspicions. In fact, it also hinted at a possible alternative explanation that is no less problematic. The discomfit of this marred my enjoyment of the novel quite a bit, despite all the good things on display here.
My rating is 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because part of my problem with the romance is merely personal preference.

Book 10 in this series that never gets old. After a few short stories and novellas, Peter Grant returns with some
Old characters and new.

Fun, mysterious and just simply wonderful there is very little to say about this series that’s not been said already.

Compelling storytelling that I could read all day.

I remember having SUCH a great time when I first discovered the Rivers Of London books, and this is probably one of the series I own most physical copies of. There is just something about this blend of urban fantasy, thriller and humor that makes for a fantastic bookish cocktail, and I've been following the series for years. That said, the most recent sequels and short stories haven't quite measured up to the first couple of books... But book nine seemed to be on the right track again, so I decided to still read Stone And Sky to see if the upward trend would hold. Unfortunately, this didn't quite end up being the case, and this series might just have run its course for me.

So, Stone And Sky. Before I continue, I have to repeat that this is definitely a series to read in order, because you won't have a clue what is going on otherwise. There is a big cast of characters and numerous references to previous books, and you will also be missing out on key character development and dynamics... Don't say I haven't warned you. This newest sequel will bring you a mix of old and new characters as well as a new magically touched case to investigate; it seems like Peter can't even go on vacation without trouble finding him, but that doesn't come as a real surprise of course.

Book number ten is different than the first nine sequels in the sense that the setting switches to Scotland instead of the usual London backdrop. Nothing wrong with that, and I quite liked the descriptions of the Scottish setting and how it actually played an active role in the plot. I had mixed thoughts about the incorporation of many Scottish phrases and the use of local dialect in the dialogues though... While authentic (something I love as a philologist), I also struggled considerably to understand what they were saying at times. This might just be a consequence of being a non-native English speaker, but I can imagine anyone not familiar with the Scottish dialect struggling.

The plot itself is interesting enough and it had plenty of twists and turns, although I do wish there would have been more focus on the concept of the parallel worlds and other magical aspects of the story. I also wasn't as big of a fan of Abigail's POV and just how present she was in the plot. Sure, I can't deny that I LOVE the talking foxes, but her POV mainly read like a YA romance/coming of age novel and that isn't exactly my cup of tea. I also wasn't a fan of the tone of the writing in her chapters; I guess that it is ment to portray how teenagers speak now, but it was both highly annoying and at times not all that easy to understand.

With Peter, Nightingale and Abigail mixing business with pleasure during their holiday in Scotland and the fact that they came with the whole family, this means that there are multiple angles and storylines to be discovered along the way. We mainly stay with Peter and Abigail though, and I kind of missed not seeing more of Nightingale. Peter's POV is just as great as always, and I enjoyed both seeing him with Beverley and the twins as well as following him as he starts investigating the new case. His humor is just as brilliant as always, and he is one of the main reasons I've kept reading this series as long as I did.

In short, there were elements I enjoyed in Stone And Sky, but as a whole I don't think this sequel lives up to the quality of the first books of this series. Part of this probably had to do with the fact that Abigail plays a big role in this book, and her chapters deviated from the usual formula... The talking foxes were brilliant, but the YA romance feel not so much. I'm starting to suspect that this series simply has run its course for me, and I'm not sure if I will continue reading it considering the fact that the most recent sequels just haven't quite hit the mark for me.