Foxglove Summer

Having read everything else in the Rivers of London series, I decided to try this as a random sample of the series in comic format. These are sometimes described as ‘graphic novels', although they're much shorter than novels, and might be more accurately described as illustrated short stories.

I'm not a big reader of comics, but I have read some in the past, and I find that I can cope with Rivers of London in comic format. The illustrations of the characters are mostly tolerable, although some are better than others. Molly is a difficult one to draw; I'm not sure exactly what she should look like, but I don't think the attempt here is a success.

My main criticism is of the story itself, which strikes me as different in kind and below the usual standard of stories in this series. It reminds me vaguely of the old Avengers TV series from the 1960s (which I'm old enough to remember), but without the light-heartedness that was the main attraction of that series.

Of course it would be difficult to cram a good story into this abbreviated format; but stories of any length can be made to work if you have the knack of it. This story seems to me too formulaic, it's story-writing by numbers, it lacks inspiration. The villain and his dastardly plot are corny.

I wouldn't say this was a particularly bad experience, but I don't feel encouraged to read more of these comics.

For this story, Peter Grant is sent reluctantly out of London into rural Herefordshire, next door to Wales, to try to help with the mystery of two 11-year-old girls who have disappeared.

The initial chapters are relatively quiet as the scenario is unhurriedly set up for us. Things start to happen after Beverley Brook also arrives from London, and it becomes clear that some kind of weird shit (excuse the technical jargon) is involved in the disappearance of the girls. The situation gradually becomes quite complicated and exciting.

Positive aspects of this story are the presence of Beverley and the absence of the Faceless Man.

Negative aspects are the temporary replacement of the Faceless Man by a different kind of over-the-top villain, and the absence of most of the other characters we’ve got to know (including Nightingale), who remain in London. The new characters that we meet in Herefordshire are OK, but I don’t particularly mind leaving them in Herefordshire at the end of the story.

I mostly like this episode of the series, but towards the end it introduces us to a whole new level of weirdness that we haven’t encountered before, and it doesn’t quite seem real to me: I have some trouble believing in it. In a fantasy story, it’s the job of the author to convince readers that the impossible happens and that supernatural beings are as real as the chair you’re sitting on. Aaronovitch usually has the power to do this, but in this particular case the power he deploys isn’t quite enough for me (it may be enough for you). The problem doesn’t ruin the book, but it makes the climax of the story somewhat less satisfying than it might have been.