Book Review: Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

Foxglove Summer
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Series: PC Peter Grant, Book 5
Publication: DAW; Reprint edition (January 6, 2015)

Description: When two young girls go missing in rural Herefordshire, police constable and wizard-in-training Peter Grant is sent out of London to check that nothing supernatural is involved.

It’s purely routine—Nightingale, Peter’s superior, thinks he’ll be done in less than a day. But Peter’s never been one to walk away from someone in trouble, so when nothing overtly magical turns up he volunteers his services to the local police, who need all the help they can get.

But because the universe likes a joke as much as the next sadistic megalomaniac, Peter soon comes to realize that dark secrets underlie the picturesque fields and villages of the countryside and there might just be work for Britain’s most junior wizard after all.

Soon Peter’s in a vicious race against time, in a world where the boundaries between reality and fairy have never been less clear....

My Thoughts: Two young girls go missing in rural Herefordshire and PC Peter Grant is sent from London to check that there is nothing supernatural going on. Also, his superior Thomas Nightingale wants to take Peter's mind off the Lesley's going over to the dark side. At first, it looks like a horrifying but not magical crime until the girls' cellphones are discovered trashed in a way that indicates magic was used around them.

Between meeting one of Nightingale's old colleagues and having the chance to find out more about his mysterious boss's past and one of the missing girls' invisible friend, Peter has a lot to investigate. While Nightingale remains in London to make sure that Lesley isn't planning to plunder the Folly, he does send Beverly Brook to assist. She is a river goddess and Peter's new girlfriend and has an in with a group Peter doesn't.

Throw in changelings and encounters with the Fair Folk and you have an action-packed supernatural adventure filled with Peter's usual snark. Fans of the series will enjoy this latest episode in an engaging urban fantasy/police procedural series.

Favorite Quote:

We were pretty certain we knew roughly where he'd been, but members of the public have an unnerving tendency to switch straight from lying to your face to telling you what they think you want to hear - with no intervening period of veracity at all. That's fine when you're looking for them to put their hand up to some crimes and boost your clear-up statistics. But when the lives of two kids depends on the accuracy of the statement, you tend to be a bit more thorough.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.