Ben Aaronovitch: The Hanging Tree (2017)
English language
Published May 25, 2017
The Hanging Tree is the sixth novel in the Rivers of London series by English author Ben Aaronovitch.
Another really solid addition to the Rivers of London series with a healthy pile of well written magical shootouts thrown into a tightly plotted police investigation thriller. I’m still loving the wry first person narration and all of his nerdy cultural references. All of the characters are great.
Spoiler Alert: The identity of The Faceless Man is revealed in this chapter, and it’s awesome!
It’s interesting to me that where these books begin and where they end are such different places. Peter starts this adventure with the investigation of a drug overdose; his investigation spurred by Lady Ty, whose daughter was witness to and possibly involved in the overdose.
We end with the reveal of The Faceless Man’s identity and a couple of epic battles, one mostly “off-camera” between Nightingale and said Faceless Man, the other involving Peter, Leslie, and the Faceless Man.
I love the introduction of the new magical factions, the witches and the Virginia Gentlemen, and I look forward to their involvement in future novels. And, I’m very interested to know why we have the return of the ghost?, Mr. Punch.
This is clearly a turning point in the story of The Faceless Man and …
Spoiler Alert: The identity of The Faceless Man is revealed in this chapter, and it’s awesome!
It’s interesting to me that where these books begin and where they end are such different places. Peter starts this adventure with the investigation of a drug overdose; his investigation spurred by Lady Ty, whose daughter was witness to and possibly involved in the overdose.
We end with the reveal of The Faceless Man’s identity and a couple of epic battles, one mostly “off-camera” between Nightingale and said Faceless Man, the other involving Peter, Leslie, and the Faceless Man.
I love the introduction of the new magical factions, the witches and the Virginia Gentlemen, and I look forward to their involvement in future novels. And, I’m very interested to know why we have the return of the ghost?, Mr. Punch.
This is clearly a turning point in the story of The Faceless Man and Leslie May. I’m glad I don’t have to wait to read the next book.
Is anyone else getting rather frustrated by the amount of superfluous detail in these books? If the author cut out all the architectural details of every single building Peter Grant goes into and the precise description including exact shade of every item everyone he meets is wearing the book would probably be about two thirds of the length, and this seems to be getting worse as the series progresses not better. It almost feels like he's trying to make up a word count, and particularly in this book I found it made it harder to follow the story, as well as occasionally disrupting the pacing - a dramatic scene where someone is shot is interrupted by a detailed discussion of the consequences of gunshot wounds for example. This is a shame because I've generally enjoyed the series and this book introduces some interesting new ideas and characters and ties up …
Is anyone else getting rather frustrated by the amount of superfluous detail in these books? If the author cut out all the architectural details of every single building Peter Grant goes into and the precise description including exact shade of every item everyone he meets is wearing the book would probably be about two thirds of the length, and this seems to be getting worse as the series progresses not better. It almost feels like he's trying to make up a word count, and particularly in this book I found it made it harder to follow the story, as well as occasionally disrupting the pacing - a dramatic scene where someone is shot is interrupted by a detailed discussion of the consequences of gunshot wounds for example. This is a shame because I've generally enjoyed the series and this book introduces some interesting new ideas and characters and ties up some loose threads, but I found it very difficult to stay focussed on the story.
