Foxglove Summer

Synopsis Foxglove Summer is the fifth instalment in Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series, about a junior London copper who finds himself apprentice to the only wizard still active on the force.

Peter is sent on a routine check on an old mage to make sure he has no involvement in the disappearance of two 11 year old girls in rural Herefordshire. The mage seems clear, so Peter offers to help the local police in the search for the missing girls. It soon is obviious that weird magical things are afoot and as usual Peter cant resist getting involved.

Following Peter with his odd mix of traditional police procedure and his arcane magic is always fun. One minute Peter may be taking mundane witness statements, the next moment he is avoiding a vicious unicorn or dating the goddess of a river. All engaging fun, and since he is a mixed race London lad, he is a bit of an oddity in the small oldfashioned town. Its always interesting seeing people's reactions to a minority policeman who is involved with magic!

The book is engaging enough, but we had been left at the end of the previous book with serious and shocking developments about a fellow trainee magic user who after appalling injuries seems to have deserted to the darkside. This riveting story arc is sidelined here, which is a severe disappointment. Hope we get back to London in the next book. Light fun, but lets get back to the darkside!