Peter owes Lady Ty. When he was trapped under the platform at Oxford Circus she saved his life for a favor. And she has come to cash it in. Her daughter, Olivia McAllister-Thames, was out with her classmates from St. Paul's. The teens had snuck into the posh One Hyde Park where they were partying in a vacant flat when Olivia's classmate, Christina Chorley, overdosed. Christina died on the way to the hospital. Lady Ty wants Olivia kept out of it. She doesn't just want her daughter exonerated, she wants her daughter's name never to be even mentioned in connection to the overdose at One Hyde Park. But that isn't how Peter works, even if he does owe her his life. He was willing to go easy on Olivia, but that became complicated when she admitted to supplying the drugs that killed Christina. And that's when Olivia was arrested and low-lying areas around the Tyburn were in danger of flash flooding. Just because Olivia confessed doesn't mean she actually did it, and Peter is nothing if not thorough, you kind of have to be when you're a magician, so he starts digging. And what he finds is interesting and disturbing. Interesting in that Olivia is obviously covering up for someone, who turns out to be her girlfriend, she just hadn't come out to her mother yet. Disturbing in that Reynard Fossman seems to be involved. Peter and Nightingale have never figured out quite what he is. Is he the spirit of Reynard the Fox? Is he someone who wants people to think that? Or is he just a creepy pedophile who just happens to get in their way? Whatever he is other than a pedophile, because that is confirmed, he seems to have been up to something with Christina Chorley. They were selling stolen magical artifacts. But Reynard didn't realize that his partner had been stupid enough to put them up on eBay. Magical artifacts need to be sold secretly, by word of mouth, because otherwise everything goes tits up. Which is what happens here. The main item of interest is Isaac Newton's Third Principia, rumored to have the secret of eternal life and turning lead into gold. Everyone wants it. The Americans, the Linden-Limmer's, the Folly, and any other practitioner who ever had a classical education. Which means Christina put a big ol' target on her back. Moreso because, if Peter and Nighttingale are correct, the Faceless Man is involved as well. Anyone could have killed her, but one thing is certain, it probably wasn't the pills but magic.

Peter and the crew are back in top form in The Hanging Tree with architectural collateral damage and big developments on the Faceless Man front. Though what I really connected to with this volume was the interwoven narrative of women within the magical community. In the present day we see that the Folly is quite open to female practitioners, with Lesley being taught by Nightingale, before her betrayal, and with plans for Abigail to be taught once she comes of age. But other than the Night Witch, Varvara Sidorovna, most magical women are creatures from the demimonde or Genius Loci. Here we get not just witches, but the history of witches. Lady Helena Linden-Limmer and her daughter Caroline Linden-Limmer might both have had connections to the Faceless Man of their generation. Helena was revolutionary in her medical experimentation and healing, which she only recently started to have qualms about. Whereas her daughter encountered Peter before in his pursuit of the Faceless Man and has one goal in life, to learn how to fly. And she doesn't mean aviation. The two of them come to the Folly for tea and sympathy and in short order they are setting history straight. Because back in the days when Isaac Newton was codifying magic men and women were equals. They were hanging out at disreputable coffee houses and taking on the mysteries of the universe. Together. This Society of the Wise then was able to get a premise on Russell Square and the doors of the Folly were closed to women. Women didn't take this lying down. They continued teaching each other in secret. Magic was passed down through the female line for generations. Magic that men couldn't even contemplate. At one point Peter tries to figure out the forma of a spell Caroline is doing and it's unlike anything he's ever seen. Because women invented, created, worked around all that was standing in their way, and they made their own branch of magic. What I love about this isn't the sad history that is all too common of women being shunned, what I love is that they persisted. They developed their own skillsets because they were pushed aside. I mean, there's a part of me that wants to liken this to "home arts" and wise women and their healing, which I think Aaronovitch is implying, but it's so much more, because domesticity doesn't mean what some people think it means. Just because women have been pigeonholed for so long it doesn't mean they've let these restrictions hold them back. It's like Lesley was always saying to Peter with regard to rebuilding her face, it's not like the Folly knows everything. Just because they are the academic repository of magical knowledge doesn't mean they're the only way. There's more in heaven and earth and all that, especially if you're trying to deny the abilities of half the people on the planet. Let the world of magic expand!

The Hanging Tree does a hell of a lot, gathering together some plot points, revealing some secrets, teasing some future potential, humanising (well, sort of) characters like Lady Ty we might be tempted to just despise... It's one of the plot-heavy entries to the series, featuring the Faceless Man and Lesley prominently, so predictably it gets a bit frenetic near the end. Characters flit in and out of sight; Peter stumbles into bad situation after bad situation; lots of property damage is incurred.

For the most part, it really worked. The tension ratcheted up as I realised exactly what was at stake, and new characters revealed things I'd wondered about (like a tradition of British women doing magic). Little ironies came up -- if the Folly hadn't been such an old boys' club, and the new characters had been involved, would Lesley be with the Faceless Man at all? Could he have really tempted her?

And no doubt if this had ended the ongoing plot, I'd have been disappointed that it was so 'easy'. Yet the ending seemed a little toothless: we know more about the Faceless Man and what he can do, but do we really have information to stop him? It feels like this series could easily go on another six books in this way: a book off and then a book that ends with Peter grappling with the Faceless Man, only for him to get away... I think I wanted a little more forward progress by the end.

There has to be space, though, for appreciating how much I love the new pathologist and Guleed's involvement. I'm surprised she's not being trained up at the Folly yet (but then, it's also cool that she isn't just following the same path as Lesley, like some "better" Lesley -- she's definitely her own character, with her own approach to problems)...

Despite my slight quibbles, it's a fun read and a more than worthy entry to the series. Bring on the next! Sooner rather than later, please.

The Hanging Tree was the Tyburn gallows, and Lady Tyburn, the goddess of that particular river has never been kindly disposed towards Peter, but she calls in a favour that’s been hanging over his head since Whispers Underground. Her teenage daughter has been at a party in an exclusive Mayfair apartment where someone dies of a drug overdose and Lady Ty wants Peter to get her off when she’s implicated. It’s not all that simple, of course. The Faceless Man is back, and Leslie is back – with a face.

I love all these books and read them quickly, one after the other. Especially good is Peter’s cheeky voice, often with added pop-culture references, but quickly snapping to attention when things get serious,. Nightingale as the mentor is very old school British but the rest of the cast of characters run the gamut of inclusivity. As you would expect in multi-cultural London the characters are multi-ethnic, too, from Peter himself who is mixed race to Guleed and Kumar. And it doesn’t stop there. There are half fae and a housekeeper who has more teeth than seems strictly necessary and a strange culinary relationship with offal. The orverarching story ark is a puzzle to be solved and I’m looking forward to the next one in the series.

This has quickly become one of my favorite series. I had almost given up on Urban Fantasy, as the market is glutted with such books, but Aaronovitch's series is refreshingly different. The protagonist, a British cop named Peter Grant, is a Black man, which is different enough to deserve notice. In the previous books, he stumbled across a magical London, and is now heavily involved in Magic, as an apprentice to his commanding officer, Thomas Nightingale. He's also become romantically entangled with one of the personifications of one of the rivers of London.

It's a fun light series, that moves quickly. I really enjoy the characters., especially the female avatars of London's rivers, who are funny and terrifying. Although I think some of the books could use a bit more flash and bang, the action is satisfactory, and always in service to the story. It's the worldbuilding and characters I find most compelling, rather than the plot. The Hanging Tree has plenty of flash, and the return of a major character from the first book. Even some Americans get involved, which widens Peter's world to include magical organizations from other countries. Imagining Peter getting himself out of precarious situations, using his rather paltry magical skills,, is one of the joys of the series, and this was an especially good book for showcasing Peter's ingenuity.

I highly recommend the entire series.

Like its predecessors, The Hanging Tree (DAW, digital galley) is another wild and witty paranormal police procedural. Police officer and junior wizard Peter Grant and his mentor Nightingale investigate the overdose of a teenage girl, who may have been practicing illegal magic. The case swiftly involves them in the lives of the river goddess Lady Tyburn and her extended family, as the villainous Faceless Man has returned. This is the sixth book in the series, and it's rife with references to current pop culture and past books. Aaronovitch, a screenwriter for Doctor Who, neatly straddles the real and unreal worlds. More, please.
from On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever

The usual great fun, though one can start to see the writer having to stretch for new challenges for PC Grant. The writing sparkles with gentle snark and ring-true dialogue. Not the best introduction to the series, but does work as a standalone (just).

It’s hard for me to rate this latest entry into the Peter Grant series, because it feels incomplete in itself, like it’s meant to be the first part of a longer story.

The book opens with the drug-related death of a teenager in a fancy apartment building in London, but that investigation is just an entry point into the story. There’s a mysterious book about magic that Peter would like to acquire for The Folly’s collection, some American agents are bumbling around also trying to acquire the book, the Faceless Man and Lesley May turn up again, and Mr. Punch seems to be lurking in the background, too.

While the investigation into that initial death is resolved, the other storylines just seem to kind of fizzle out. For example, the Faceless Man’s identity is revealed—finally—but he still gets away from Peter and the authorities. That magic book? Peter doesn’t get that, either, but nobody seems too fussed about it.

“Plod” is a slang term for British police, and it seems an apt descriptor for this book, too. The plot mostly plodded along, and not much was accomplished in the end.

Now, that might all be forgivable, if this book is setting the pieces in place for payoffs in the next novel. In other words, now that Peter knows who the Faceless Man really is, they need to finally corner him in the next book. Failing that, maybe Mr. Punch will get popped somehow. But unless something dramatic happens in the next installment in the series, there’s no excuse for how much of a placeholder this book seems to be.

I still love Peter as a character and enjoy the humor that livens up the storytelling, but Aaronovitch needs to bring the action in the next book, or I might lose my patience.

Obviously, if you’re a fan of the series, you need to read this. Just be aware it’s not the strongest entry into the series.

An eARC of this novel was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unlike the previous Rivers of London novels Aaronovitch really lets the dam of information loose with this one. Not only do readers discover important information about the Faceless Man, but other practitioners are introduced, new forma practiced, and there’s even an explanation as to why Leslie was taken in the first place!

Now if none of that means anything to you then the first thing I would recommend for you to do is read the previous Rivers of London books. If you haven’t read them, you may be wondering what they are like? Well, I think the best explanation is they are a bit like a combination of NCSI/CSI/(pick your choice of systematic police procedurals) and Harry Dresden/Patricia Briggs (insert magic society book). So, what does that mean for you as a reader? Well, it means that there are magical battles, people slinging spells, magical creatures and entities, and lots of paper work. Yes, you heard me right, paperwork. This is one of the most unique things about the Rivers of London series, how real and detailed the police work elements of the story are. Peter, the protagonist, uses the scientific method to discover magical limitations, stories often involve police hierarchy problems (who has jurisdiction and what not, resource allocation, and who’s problem a case is when it goes south), massive amounts of field work (going door to door, research, ect…), more paper work than you can shake a stick at.

As for The Hanging Tree, specifically, it’s full of action, suspense, awesome magic with a gripping mystery tying the story all together. Each book expands the world and characters in this fantastic series, making them increasingly harder to put down. I personally love this series and feel that Aaronovitch has become one of those authors that I’m always anxiously awaiting their next book (which is a great sign for a great series).

I lost track of how many police interviews Peter and his team conducted, and I loved it. THE HANGING TREE is a solid police workhorse of a novel, where a small team of people who can do magic, and their only slightly bigger team of backup personnel, try to keep the property and collateral damage to a minimum while doing their job. It would be easier if magical mad men weren’t out for revenge and rich people weren’t dying. And if houses didn’t keep exploding with Peter inside them.

The magic is terrifically scientific, and Peter, as a novice practitioner, explains in terms of experiments and the different smells and feelings he gets when different people use their magic. Some people smell of saffron, while others feel like a blade on wet leather. It was all incredibly charming and helped make the magic more interesting.

I’d only ever read a graphic novel short story based in the Rivers of London world, and there were quite a few times where I felt like the book was quizzing me on things I didn’t know. There are so many different organisations, secret cabals and miscellaneous government bodies mentioned that I kept losing track. My only true criticism of the book is that I wish there had been less occult name-dropping.

The world of Rivers of London river goddesses, wizards, fairies and tons of paperwork. There is enough variety in the weirdness that I can see this series staying fresh and I’m interested in reading the earlier novels. It’s pure urban fantasy goodness with a multicultural London flair.

This was cool, I enjoyed this story. I found myself unable to put it down at times. Great writing and I look forward to reading more by this author!

This series gets better and better with each novel, as the roots of London's magical underworld twist ever tighter. Aaronovitch does an excellent job melding fantasy with action and humor, and creating a vivid, detailed world that has a deep history and an eye to the diverse cultures that make London the city it is today.

After two years of watching the release date hover in flux and getting pushed back time and time again, I must confess waiting for this book was its own special kind of agony. That was also when I realized I was irrevocably addicted to Peter Grant.

The Hanging Tree is book six of the series which returns to London and places the main story arc back on track, following the short respite we took to the countryside with our protagonist in Foxglove Summer. The story begins with a drug-related death at a house party in one of the most exclusive residential areas in the city. Normally, the case wouldn’t have been within the purview of the Folly, which the Met’s investigative unit for all things magical and paranormal, except for the fact that one of the party goers turned out to be the daughter of Lady Ty, goddess of the river Tyburn. Suddenly, Peter is in a bind since he owes Lady Ty a favor, and as such he has reluctantly agreed to do all he can to keep her teenage daughter Olivia out of investigation. But as it turns out, his promise might be a moot point. After all, what do you do when the young lady in question is actually brazenly admitting to be the one who gave the victim the drugs which might have led to the fatal overdose?

Meanwhile, Peter and his boss Nightingale are also back on the trail of the Faceless Man, the main baddie of the series. Word on the street is that a rare book on magical properties has gotten everyone in the practitioner community in a tizzy trying to get their hands on it, including covert groups from abroad. Peter has reason to suspect that the Faceless Man has his fingers all over this one, but then there’s a lot going on here, including the fatal house party, Lady Tyburn’s daughter and the person she’s protecting, the mysterious book, a foxy thief, and the American agents who have suddenly shown up in town. Now Peter’s job is to find out how all of this is connected.

The Hanging Tree might not be my favorite in the series, but it was still very much worth the wait. For one thing, we come closer than ever before to finding out all the answers and discovering the whole truth behind the Folly’s greatest nemesis. In addition, a complicated figure from Peter’s past also makes a return bearing surprises for our protagonist. If you’ve been following along all this time, then this book is definitely not to be missed, especially in light of the significant revelations dropped on us in the latter half of the story.

That said, I also thought it fell short of being one of the best Peter Grant books because it had a lot less of the dry, sardonic humor which has always been one of the key hallmarks of this series. While still very enjoyable, this might be the first one that didn’t make me literally laugh out loud. There also wasn’t enough of Nightingale. What I wouldn’t give to see him kick some ass again in another epic wizarding duel, instead of just hearing everyone around him talk about it. He is like the Met’s secret weapon that gets waved in front of our faces a lot, but we hardly ever get to see him in action.

In terms of criticisms though, that was probably the extent of it, which made me very happy since I had such high expectations for this book. It wasn’t always fast-paced, but as far as police procedurals go, it had just the right amount of mystery, suspense, and action. The story had so many moving parts that Aaronovitch was constantly juggling and keeping aloft, I can’t say there was really much time for anything else. Still, we got to see a little more of Peter’s relationship with Beverly, and I’m also enjoying the larger role of Sahra Guleed, another police officer who is shaping up to be the perfect partner for Peter while the two of them are on the beat. They have a great working dynamic, almost like they are of one mind when they tackle everything from suspect interviews to Falcon raids, and I’m really hoping this is the first step to Guleed becoming a series regular.

The more urban fantasy I read, the easier it gets to spot if a sequel is “filler” or an actual book where “very important things” happen. The Hanging Tree, I’m happy to report, definitely belongs in the latter category. Don’t get me wrong because I loved the previous book which was a nice break from the hunt for the Faceless Man, but I’m also pleased that this one brings us right back into thick of things and resolves some of the questions left by the shocking events at the end of Broken Homes. This book is what I would call a real game-changer. While it did end rather abruptly, it’s clear that Peter and the gang will have to tread even more carefully going forward, and the next book should be very interesting indeed. Now if I can only survive the wait…

Peter Grant is back in another adventure. He and Nightingale are still on the hunt for The Faceless Man and Lesley May when a call came in from Lady Tyburn regarding a favor owed. In trying to help, matters just kept turning pear-shaped with random Americans butting in, previously unknown magic users interfering and police interviewees disappearing and turning up dead. Plus there is plenty of destruction while Peter learns and demonstrates a few new tricks of his own. A very satisfying addition to the series that whets the appetite for the next volume.

This fervently-awaited installment of the Rivers of London series finds Peter Grant back on familiar urban ground after the last book's excellent excursion to the countryside ("You can take the boy out of London, but..."). The latest case mainly involves the lifestyles and neighborhoods of the very wealthy, as well as the demimonde of the Rivers, and sometimes becomes a little more convoluted than is usual for this series but ultimately ties in with the multi-book story arc, in ways both good (i.e., makes total sense) and bad (i.e., seems too convenient).

This is a particularly case-heavy book, featuring much less of Peter's family and social life as well as less of Nightingale and the Folly. All of that stuff is present but in rather small amounts, making it feel not so much unintegrated as... as if Peter is becoming more of a workaholic. Most of the book consists of Peter going around doing person-of-interest interviews with Guleed (who is super awesome). The action in this book rarely stops long enough for short scenes like lunch with Bev, which are often covered in only a couple of sentences.

The voice of this series is so fresh and addictive. As long as Aaronovitch keeps writing it, I will keep reading and recommending it. Though an end may be in sight, as this book does start to tie up a few things.