Rivers of London (book series)

Rivers of London (book series)

The Rivers of London series (alternatively, the Peter Grant or the PC Grant series) is a series of urban fantasy novels by English author Ben Aaronovitch, and comics/graphic novels by Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, illustrated by Lee Sullivan.

Main characters

Rivers of London (book series)

• Police Constable, later Detective Sergeant; Peter Grant; an officer in the Metropolitan Police and the first official apprentice wizard in sixty years. • Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale; head of the Folly and the last officially sanctioned English Wizard. • Lesley May; Police Constable colleague of Peter's in the Metropolitan Police. • Detective Chief Inspector Alexander Seawoll; Senior Investigation Officer at the Westminster Murder Investigation Team. • Detective Sergeant Miriam Stephanopoulos; case officer of the Belgravia Murder Investigation Team and 'right-hand man' to DCI Seawoll. • Detective Constable, later Detective Sergeant Sahra Guleed; attached to Belgravia Murder Investigation Team, often works with Peter when his cases are in London. • Dr Abdul Haqq Walid; world-renowned gastroenterologist and cryptopathologist. • Frank Caffrey; LFB (London Fire Brigade) Fire Investigator, ex-para and a key "associate" of the Folly. • Professor Harold Postmartin D.Phil. FRS BMon, "Postmartin the Pirate", Archivist and expert for the Folly. • Molly; The Folly's domestic helper, whose species is not entirely clarified, but she has been referred to as fae-like in the novel Foxglove Summer. • Abigail Kamara; Peter's annoyingly persistent teen-aged cousin, the de facto founding member of the Folly's Youth Wing. Lives at the same estate as Peter's parents. • Beverley Brook; "daughter" of Mama Thames and goddess of Beverley Brook, a small river in South London; in later books, Peter Grant's girlfriend and mother of his twin daughters. • Cecilia Tyburn Thames; aka Lady Ty, "daughter" of Mama Thames and goddess of the River Tyburn. • Oxley; god of the River Oxley, one of the "sons" of Father Thames and his chief negotiator. • Toby; Peter's dog, who can detect magic, indicated by yapping. • Varvara Sidorovna Tamonina (aka. Varenka Dobroslova); Russian/Soviet witch (Night Witch), magical WWII veteran (365th Special Regiment of the Red Army), later living on her own in Britain with a magically extended lifetime. • Indigo; a talking fox and master spy. Assigned to protect Abigail.

Stories listed by internal chronology

Rivers of London (book series)

In a blog entry, the author has provided a list of the stories, by internal chronology.

<table><thead><tr><th>Timeframe (if known)</th><th>Story title</th><th>Published</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1920s</td><td>The Masquerades of Spring (novella)</td><td>27 August 2024</td></tr><tr><td>1957 (framing story takes place after the events of The Hanging Tree and Water Weed)</td><td>Action at a Distance (graphic novel)</td><td>Parts 1–4, October 2018 through January 2019, collected 12 November 2019</td></tr><tr><td>1966</td><td>Moment #1</td><td>included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td>1960s</td><td>A Dedicated Follower of Fashion (short story)</td><td>Waterstones edition of False Value, included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td>January to June 2012</td><td>Rivers of London (novel)</td><td>10 January 2011 (2011-01-10)</td></tr><tr><td>During the 2012 Summer Olympics</td><td>The Home Crowd Advantage (short story)</td><td>'London Edition' of Rivers of London and on his official website, included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td>2012</td><td>Moment #3</td><td>included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td>September to October 2012</td><td>Moon Over Soho (novel)</td><td>21 April 2011 (2011-04-21)</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>The Domestic (short story)</td><td>Waterstones edition of Whispers Under Ground, included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td>December 2012</td><td>Whispers Under Ground (novel)</td><td>21 June 2012 (2012-06-21)</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>The Cockpit (short story)</td><td>Waterstones edition of Broken Homes, included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td>March–April 2013</td><td>Broken Homes (novel)</td><td>25 July 2013 (2013-07-25)</td></tr><tr><td>Not given</td><td>Body Work (graphic novel)</td><td>Parts 1–5 – 16 July 2015 through 20 November 2015, collected 29 March 2016</td></tr><tr><td>August 2013</td><td>Foxglove Summer (novel)</td><td>13 November 2014 (2014-11-13)</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>What Abigail Did That Summer (novella)</td><td>18 March 2021</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny (short story)</td><td>Waterstones edition of Foxglove Summer, included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Night Witch (graphic novel)</td><td>Parts 1–3 – 16 March 2016 through 18 May 2016, collected 1 November 2016</td></tr><tr><td>2014</td><td>King of the Rats (short story)</td><td>Waterstones edition of The Hanging Tree, included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td>Undisclosed month in 2014</td><td>The Hanging Tree (novel)</td><td>3 November 2016 in the UK, 31 January 2017 in the US</td></tr><tr><td>Late July 2014</td><td>The Furthest Station (novella)</td><td>28 September 2017</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Black Mould (graphic novel)</td><td>Parts 1–5 – 12 October 2016 through 8 March 2017, collected 25 July 2017</td></tr><tr><td>Undisclosed month in 2014</td><td>A Rare Book of Cunning Device (audio book)</td><td>Audible special edition in 2017, included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Detective Stories (graphic novel)</td><td>Parts 1–4, 7 June 2017 through 3 September 2017, collected 29 December 2017</td></tr><tr><td>2014</td><td>Moment #2</td><td>included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td>December 2014</td><td>Favourite Uncle (short story)</td><td>Waterstones edition of Lies Sleeping, included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Cry Fox (graphic novel)</td><td>8 November 2017, collected 26 June 2018</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Water Weed (graphic novel)</td><td>Parts 1–4, June 2018 through September 2018, collected 18 December 2018</td></tr><tr><td>Prologue dated 14 November 2014. Main events summer 2015, based on reference to Michelle Obama's visit to a London school (in reality, Tuesday 16 June 2015)</td><td>Lies Sleeping (novel)</td><td>18 November 2018 in the UK</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>The Fey and the Furious (graphic novel)</td><td>25 November 2020</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>The October Man (novella)</td><td>31 May 2019</td></tr><tr><td>January 2016</td><td>False Value (novel)</td><td>20 February 2020</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Vanessa Sommer’s Other Christmas List (short story)</td><td>Waterstones edition of The October Man, included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Amongst Our Weapons (novel)</td><td>April 2022</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby (short story)</td><td>included in Tales from the Folly</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Cock of the Wall (short story)</td><td>unpublished as yet</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Monday, Monday (graphic novel)</td><td>1 December 2021</td></tr></tbody></table>

On the page where the official order is given, the author writes: "One caveat – the short story The Home Crowd Advantage is obviously set in 2012 during the London Olympics, but because it was written before the chronology of the series had firmed up it contains a number of anachronisms. I've learnt to be philosophical about this sort of thing." Many of the stories give vague dates, and some of those dates conflict with the official series order (compare Foxglove Summer and The Furthest Station). The short story collection Tales from the Folly includes a note above each story indicating which of the novels it is set between.

Reception

Rivers of London (book series)

The books have consistently featured on bestseller lists, with the most recent two novels – 2022's Amongst Our Weapons and 2020's False Value – going straight to No 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list...Aaronovitch’s work has been translated into 14 languages and sold in excess of five million copies worldwide, and has its own wiki, Follypedia.

Reviewing the ninth book in the series, Amongst Our Weapons, in The Guardian, Lisa Tuttle wrote:

Aaronovitch has no peers when it comes to successfully combining the appeal of a down-to-earth police procedural with all-out fantasy: here are real places, real history and real problems complicated by the existence of magic, ancient spirits, fairies, ghosts and talking foxes, all dwelling alongside ordinary, clueless humans. His plotting is still satisfyingly inventive and the continuing characters maintain their charm in the ninth novel of a series that began in 2011.

Adaptations

Rivers of London (book series)

On 1 May 2019 it was announced that a television adaptation of Rivers of London would be produced by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's production company, Stolen Picture. However, according to Aaronovitch, the series is "still in the same state of permanent pre-pre-production". On 7 July 2022, a new TV adaptation of the book series was announced, to be produced by Pure Fiction Television, See-Saw Films, and Unnecessary Logo—Aaronovitch's production company. On 2 November 2023, it was announced that John Jackson would be lead writer on the television adaptation. On 11 November 2024 it was announced that Sky Studios has acquired the adaptation, which will premiere on Sky in the UK.

At Dragonmeet convention in London, on 30 November 2019, it was announced that a role-playing game based on the book series would be published by Chaosium. The game was released in PDF first on 30 November 2022, with the print version released 17 April 2023