Moon Over Soho by: Ben Aaronovitch

Reading the title Moon Over Soho the initial impression for Ben Aaronovitch’s follow-up to Rivers of London would feature werewolves due to the moon in the title and the fantastical world the first installment opened up.  Or that could just be me remembering how The Dresden Files’ second installment also featured werewolves in a twist and became very excited when Aaronovitch didn’t do that.  Instead, we have jazz vampires.  This is certainly something that threw me for a loop initially, but Aaronovitch pulls it off with jazz perhaps being more important here than it was in the first book.  If Rivers of London was a book meant to introduce Peter Grant to the world of magic, than Moon Over Soho is a book meant to really introduce the audience to Peter Grant.  Already established is his father being a jazz musician and an addict, who in Moon Over Soho is a larger supporting character as Peter only has a clue of a version of “Body and Soul” as a piece of evidence in the brutal murders hinted at the end of Rivers of London.  Both his parents are honestly fascinating characters, they clearly care though don’t quite understand the whole magic thing, Aaronovitch justifying this though the idea that those in the government completely being aware of the magic being used but the common people just ignoring it.  It also helps that Peter’s parents, it is revealed near the climax, have had magical encounters that have been in their subconscious throughout their lives, though rationalized as normal occurrences.

 

The rationalization of magic and its use in government means that there are other government official characters, like those working for the Fire Brigade, who appear and have a part to play in Moon Over Soho.  Nightingale also gets some expansion, being revealed to have knowledge of tanks and how magic has been used in tanks, including their weaknesses, which is an aspect I really wish Aaronovitch would have explored more than he really had time for.  That’s mainly the issue with Moon Over Soho, it’s a book that honestly feels restricted to a particular length so Aaronovitch has to decide what to include and what to cut.  There are references to other adventures for Peter, things that would eventually be adapted into the Rivers of London comic series by Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel for Titan books, but it would have been nice to see some of these instead of this jumping ahead.  Where Moon Over Soho succeeds most is in Peter Grant’s narration and actual plotline.  Aaronovitch has plotted a very tight mystery around some gruesome deaths, deaths indicating the vampires aren’t feeding on blood so much as the energy and emotions brought about by jazz and music in general.  Peter Grant also has to deal with his romantic interests to the partner of one of the victims, Simone, a young woman whom he immediately finds this intense connection.  It is clear their relationship is doomed to fail, though not necessarily in the way you might think.  Not entirely.  Aaronovitch ends the novel on a dark and melancholy note that makes a lot of the issues that were bringing it down feel almost necessary.

 

Overall, Moon Over Soho is quite an enjoyable little novel, though some of the recurring characters have been sidelined, including Leslie May, for focusing more deeply on Peter as a person and how he is feeling, something that your mileage may vary.  The ending is one that will be sticking with me for a very long time due to how dark yet very fitting it had to be.  Aaronovitch’s prose is still thrilling though I hope the potential for these books to be truly great can be fulfilled in subsequent installments.  7/10.