Book Review – Broken Homes

Time to take another trip along the Thames for book four in the Rivers of London series, Broken Homes. I listened to this book as an audiobook again as I’ve really fallen in love with narrator Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s voice when it comes to books, and to these books especially. I may well have said it before, but it’s almost as if these books were written for him to read.

As always, I’ll try to keep my review spoiler free, but if you haven’t read books one to three yet, you can find my reviews here to help sum up:
Rivers of London (book one)
Moon Over Soho (book two)
Whispers Under Ground (book three)

Synopsis
A mutilated body in Crawley. Another killer on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil; an associate of the twisted magician known as the Faceless Man? Or just a common or garden serial killer?

Before PC Peter Grant can get his head round the case a town planner going under a tube train and a stolen grimoire are adding to his case-load.

So far so London.

But then Peter gets word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on a housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans and inhabited by the truly desperate.

Is there a connection?

And if there is, why oh why did it have to be South of the River?

Review
As always, it was a wild ride through this book, this time ranging from Brighton (which made me smile and wave down the headphones to Peter) to Elephant & Castle. I finished book three and started book four within the space of an hour because I needed to get more of the books into my brain. I’m honestly so in love with this series, and they just keep getting better.

This time around, the mystery really was one to unravel. There were so many bits and pieces to add together that it had my attention grabbed the whole time. It was a curious case of many curious cases, all floating around. They seemed so unconnected, and yet there just had to be a link. It’s brilliantly written, as always, but with the complication of figuring out this puzzle it was as intriguing as always plus ten.

It was lovely to see some of our favourite – or my favourite – side characters again, especially Beverly Brooke and Mama Thames, and meet some new ones, including Skye and Oberon. I think it’s easily my favourite in the series so far, and has the most brilliant cast of characters to match the mysteries Peter and Lesley set out to solve.

Once again we learn more about magic and how it works in this universe, which I love, both as a fantasy fan and as someone who has a logical brain – with magic being so logical, based on science and it’s been so interesting to watch the universe grow.

And the way this book was left? Wow.

Holding off reading the next book was a genuine effort, and I can’t wait to see what is coming next.