Books: What Abigail Did That Summer By Ben Aaronovitch (2021)

“It is the summer of 2013 and thirteen year-old Abigail Kamara has been left to her own devices. This might, by those who know her, be considered a mistake. While her cousin, police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant, is off in the sticks, chasing unicorns, Abigail is chasing her own mystery. Teenagers around Hampstead Heath have been going missing but before the police can get fully engaged, the teens return home - unharmed but vague about where they've been. Aided only by her new friend, Simon, her knowledge that magic is real and a posse of talking foxes that think they're spies, Abigail must venture into the wilds of Hampstead to discover who is luring the teenagers and more importantly - why?”

While released in 2021, this long novella (or just call it a short novel) is set during the events of 2014’s River of London novel, Foxglove Summer (itself set in 2013). There are no real connections between What Abigail Did That Summer and that book, only a semi-similar theme of kids vanishing. But in this sort-of spin-off, we get a more detailed look into Abigail’s life, her family and the issues of race and responsibility to people. She’s appeared in the main series, but we learn so much more about her, why she is so keen to learn magic, why she’s taking Latin. We learn more, as well, for her affinity for talking foxes who live on the Heath. Like the parent series, we learn a lot about another particular city in London, this time the Heath and its relationship to the Rivers.

This is a somewhat lighter toned tale, straddling the line between YA and adult fiction. For history buffs and just curious people about the cities that make up London, Aaronovitch once again goes into deep details about social issues, like how the house prices one side of a street are higher than the other, which usually entails the color of one’s skin. Like the parent series, this tale does have some minor pacing issues, but last quarter is excellent and strange. It’s not really a haunted house tale, but there is ghosts and a little Star Trek technobable.

Much like Peter, though, Abigail is an excellent protagonist (and the little footnotes from Nightingale are a hoot), and like her cousin, she is witty, intelligent and has a smart mouth. So a fun and even different read than mother series.