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Rivers of London
- Rivers of London, Book 1
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
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Rivers of London
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Editor reviews
An enthralling and at times hilarious crime thriller audiobook, book 1 of the unabridged Rivers of London: PC Peter Grant written by Ben Aaronovitch is brilliantly narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. Listeners are taken into the depths of London’s hidden world of vampires, spirits, gods and goddesses of the mighty Thames. Join the impossibly funny PC Peter Grant as he leaves his policing life behind to become an apprentice to the last wizard of England, and listen intently as they embark on a battle against London’s sinister vampire underworld. Available from Audible now.
Summary
My name is Peter Grant, and until January, I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluble, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.
Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in 50 years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden...and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious, vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.
The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.
Read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
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What listeners say about Rivers of London
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Penelope A. Wythes
- 27-04-11
Rivers of London
Fantastic listen - the best new author I have come across in a long time. I just wish you would hurry up and put his next book on audio - I couldn't wait so bought and read the hardback version - and that he will keep writing more of them. Fascinating for his detailed account of modern and historical London, blended with lighthearted spookiness and magic, and a convincing idea of how the Met would deal with magic, not only from the villains, but with the wizard in their ranks.
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80 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- GRANIA
- 15-12-11
An aspect of London we don't often think about...
An original and engaging author who knows how to skirt the edge of possibility, with great characters and a horrid dog!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- SeaEagle1453
- 05-04-14
A cracking story
Would you listen to Rivers of London again? Why?
Yes, Aaronovitch constructs an interesting version of London and the narration is excellent.
What did you like best about this story?
The interweaving of the the magical element with a decent story line. In fiction magical/fantasy/science fiction is used like special effects in a film, if you have a cracking story they enhance but far too often it is just lots of effects and not much in the case of characterisation. This is a case of the former.
What about Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s performance did you like?
Personality I thought he was brilliant really bringing the whole book to life with central character Peter Grant being well fleshed out.
Any additional comments?
A great book, I will listen to it again and get the next one in the series.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Benjamin Foote
- 21-09-22
Unimportant Characters
Half the characters are unrelated to the main storyline, with their own storyline being rather underwhelming.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- tracey
- 18-08-21
Ok, I am hooked!
Loved this story and am hooked! Clever, so well researched and very entertaining. The narration is excellent, accents and voices are brilliant, I have recommended to my friends and family.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 24-12-12
Basically fine
There are some nice ideas in this book and it's reasonably well written but... it lacks a certain spark and suffers from the problems most fiction that tries to represent modern wizardry suffers from - why the secrecy? Why are wizards in hiding? They have completely exploded all known laws of physics and could do much more good contributing to scientific research rather than stopping the occasional murder.
But yes, it was basically fine. It didn't thrill me but it didn't bore me either...
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 20-04-19
police procedural and wizards
fantastic book the great mix of history and mythology. with a gritty police procedural and wizards and gods. the main character you route for and fantastic supporting characters from all walks of life the author is stolen the location managers job living in Woking I recognised all the all the places described what I want to know is when the movie coming
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- D. Stevenson
- 29-04-18
Fantastic!
I’m new to the audio books and have to say I’m thoroughly enjoy them, the narrator really does make all the difference - I have already read all the peter grant books and have to say that Kobna’s voice is absolutely perfect!
The rivers of london series is fab, so much fun! If haven’t already go on and have a listen you won’t be disappointed.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Miss A Matthews
- 31-12-18
Utterly enthralling
Really loved the story. It was an interesting medley of murder mystery with a hint of the supernatural. Very compelling, would have listened straight through if not for the need to sleep!
The narrator was excellent and the story is told in the 1st person, he did a excellent job portraying the character and his delivery had me chuckling out loud at some of the observations of London life.
Nice to know the author did appropriate research on the locations they used. But on a geeky side note doesn't know how stage left and right work. Can forgive them that as it was a truly brilliant book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- K. Marwick
- 06-07-19
entertaining read
light hearted, intriguing, rules of magic not all internally consistent but a good story
very well narrated, great accents
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