The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
Publisher: Gollancz
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

With this long new novella, bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch has crafted yet another wickedly funny and surprisingly affecting chapter in his beloved Rivers of London series.

If you thought magic was confined to one country—think again.

Trier: famous for wine, Romans and being Germany’s oldest city.

When a man is found dead with his body impossibly covered in a fungal rot, the local authorities know they are out of their depth. But fortunately this is Germany, where there are procedures for everything.

Enter Tobias Winter, an investigator for the Abteilung KDA, the branch of the German Federal Criminal Police which handles the supernatural. His aim is to get in, deal with the problem, and get out with the minimum of fuss, personal danger and paperwork.

Together with frighteningly enthusiastic local cop, Vanessa Sommer, he quickly links the first victim to a group of ordinary middle aged men whose novel approach to their mid-life crisis may have reawakened a bloody conflict from a previous century.

As the rot spreads, literally, and the suspect list extends to people born before Frederick the Great, Tobias and Vanessa will need to find allies in some unexpected places.

And to solve the case they’ll have to unearth the secret magical history of a city that goes back two thousand years.

Presuming that history doesn’t kill them first.

Investigator Tobias Winter is called in to help the local police when a strange fungal rot appears to have possibly killed someone. The local police are at a loss, and in Germany there is thankfully a procedure to handle everything – even the unknown. Tobias soon uncovers some of the city’s history – and magic – and complications begin to arise.

I have been loving the Rivers Of London series and was rather thrilled to find this novella takes the same quirky, paranormal mystery world and expands it out of England and into Germany. I strongly feel that readers who aren’t sure whether they’re wanting to dip a toe into this series could easily start here. The writing style and general laugh aloud, tongue in cheek banter is very present in this story, along with the strong mystery and very well balanced magical and paranormal world. Basically I felt this story had all the strong points of the main books, just with some new characters, a new country and a shorter length.

While I do admit the shorter story length does mean the plot wasn’t as complicated and convoluted as I’m used to in this series I absolutely feel the author did the plot justice. I also enjoyed the layers to the characters and am rather hoping sometime down the track we shall revisit both Germany and Tobias and Vanessa.

With a fully magical and paranormal world on offer, the new setting of Germany and a bunch of new characters, I found this to be a highly enjoyable story and a quick and wonderful read. Recommended.