“There is a world hidden underneath this great city. The
London Silver Vaults—for well over a century, the largest collection of silver
for sale in the world. It has more locks than the Bank of England and more
cameras than a paparazzi convention. Not somewhere you can murder someone and
vanish without a trace—only that’s what happened. The disappearing act, the
reports of a blinding flash of light, and memory loss amongst the witnesses all
take this a case for Detective Constable Peter Grant and the Special Assessment
Unit. Alongside their boss DCI Thomas Nightingale, the SAU find themselves
embroiled in a mystery that encompasses London’s tangled history, foreign lands
and, most terrifying of all, the North! And Peter must solve this case soon, because
back home his partner Beverley is expecting twins any day now. But what he
doesn’t know is that he’s about to encounter something—and somebody—that nobody
ever expects.”
After nine
books dealing with wizards and magic, Amongst Our Weapons settles down into
legends of religion, specifically the Inquisition (which nobody suspects,
obviously). What works well for this series remains the familiarity of it, with
old characters popping up, introducing new ones (which hopefully will stay a
bit), Aaronovitch’s love of architecture, both ancient and obscure and Peter
Grant’s one-liners and continued DOCTOR WHO references are good things to rely on. The other thing about
reading this series –well the last eight spread over several months- is that the
consistencies and continuity aspects are really great. But, alas, since I’m now
caught up, I may end forgetting some stuff as we await a tenth book (though
another novella, called Winter’s Gift, is due out in the UK in June. Gawd knows
when the US edition will be released, but I’m guessing not until 2024).
Anyways, this
was a good book, filled with a lot of historical aspects of religion and the
puns and jokes hit remarkably well. Still, the pacing issues remain and
unending battle between Lesley and Peter is starting to take on a Doctor/Master
aspect –were the Master (AKA, Lesley) gets involved in some sort of supernatural
high jinks only to get away when no one is looking.
Which brings
me to the thought that while this book was well written, it also seems that
Aaronovtich has no idea where to go next. This was obvious with the last book,
and this makes it a bit more. Like any long running, successful series, there
comes a time when ending it on a high note is more important that just pumping
out titles because the books are successful.
Maybe it’s
time to close out Peter’s adventures and move onto something else?
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