The Hanging Tree

****

4 Stars/5

Thanks to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for giving me this book to review.

Suspicious deaths are happening, places are being blown up, and it seems that Lady Tyburn’s daughter is involved.  Peter owes Lady Ty a favour, which she is calling in to hide her daughter’s involvement, and it seems that Lesley and The Faceless Man are part of the whole mess too.  How will Peter, and his boss Nightingale, survive this magical mayhem?

I really enjoyed this book, as I also did the previous books, because Ben Aaronovitch brings a lot of humour and local knowledge to what should be everyday policing situation.  However, when River Goddesses, and others of the magical community are involved, and the investigating officers are a wizard and his apprentice, what starts off as everyday, rapidly turns into anything but!

Peter Grant is a brilliant main character.  He is a very down to earth person who tries to quantify magic scientifically.  He is a very multidimensional character, who has other interests outside of policing and magic – he is interested in science, history and architecture, and is dating Beverley Brook, one of the River Goddesses, a tributary of Mother Thames.

I enjoyed The Hanging Tree, it feels as if it was written for the Harry Potter generation, where magic has grown up a bit, and it also has Terry Pratchett style humour which makes you laugh out loud.  I would recommend this book to fans of the previous Ben Aaronovitch books, also to fans of Terry Pratchett, Jasper Fforde, and grown-up Harry Potter fans.