Stone and Sky - Ben Aaronovitch

Stone and Sky is the latest in the long running Rivers of London series from Ben Aaronovitch. And while it isn't the first to take place mostly outside London, its the first to take place in Scotland. And Aberdeen, no less, a place with a rich history of strange goings on, industrial skulduggery and difficult loyalties. Aaronovitch brings our erstwhile protagonist, Peter Grant, up to Aberdeen on holiday with his family, and...well, things go off the rails shortly thereafter. A seagull may have been involved. The less said, the better.

One of the strengths of this series has always been its sense of place. Aaronovitch has a love of London, plainly. And that affection for the city has worked its way into the stories he tells, from the mini-infodumps Peter does for the reader about architecture and history, to the lavishly detailed descriptions of museums and not-entirely-random tower blocks. Coming to another place, another space with its own history and culture...well. It works! I don't get quite the same amount energy and enthusiasm for the life and history of Aberdeen in this story as for London in others, but the energy is still there. Aberdeen is a city that pretends to be grey and dour, with the sea roaring over the long strands of beach, its heritage blended with a corporate vision of oil rigs from horizon to horizon. That vision and the city itself feel like they're being scaled back, here. This is a city which has had its boom, built like there was no tomorrow, and is now faltering as revenues drop off. The bright lights are no longer quite so bright. The big money jobs are fewer and further between. The guarantee of steady work is slowly slipping away. But for all that, the city still has a heart, still thrums with the kind of energy you get with access to ready money that can be made by, well, making something. This isn't London, no, but if its different, its roots go as deeply. There are families here that can find ancestors too far back to matter, and some of them are...well, more than a little strange. There's parvenus and nouveau riche and there's pubs where you probably won't set foot unless your dad and his dad drank there before you. There's a sense of a city which is changing, though whether that is for the better is anyone's guess. And Aaronovitch builds that sense, builds that fluidity into the text, at the same time as we see the solidity of the town itself, the grey stone that gets everywhere, the sheer density of the material, the ardent solidarity of people who know who they are, and where they're from - even as that understanding of where they're going slips away a little every day. 

Which is a long-winded way of saying, yes, this is Aberdeen. A place with a real heart, a real soul, that's been knocked down and got up again a few times, and still has a laugh in it for everyone that spends their time there. And to be fair, we get to see some of the countryside, too. And if it has less cultural weight, you can still feel the warmth and other-ness of those crofts and hollows, those liminal spaces which aren't entirely human (and may or may not be populated by talking foxes).

On the topic of talking foxes...this is, I think, the first Peter Grant book with multiple points of view. There's a sprawling cast, most of them familiar from other stories in the "mainline" series, and some who presumably turned up in the various multimedia spinoffs. It feels a bit overwhelming at first, but after a few chapters, things settle down. Peter gets the lion's share of the time on page, but his somewhat roguish apprentice-family-member Abigail features heavily, finding her life more than a little upended by the locals -both human and non. I rather like Abigail, but she's definitely bringing a youthful energy (and syntax) that takes a bit of getting used to. By contrast, Peter Grant is now a liottle slower, a little more methodical, a little more...dare I say it, thoughtful? And a father - which is a joy to see, incidentally. They're not exactly a dynamic duo, but both of them are smart, charming, streetwise sorts, and entertaining to read. 

And then there's the story. Which I promise I won't spoil. But it delves into local folklore, it pokes around the bones of local history, modern and...other, and it gives us both people and the supernatural at their best and worst. There's some fine investigative work, and if you run alongside Peter and Abigail, they give you enough information to figure out what's going on before all is revealed. Because this is a mystery, even if it has a big seagull. And it's a character piece, which isn't afraid to delve into its characters and try and show us who they want to be as well as who they are. And it's a social story, about class and wealth and power, and what anyone is willing to do to get or keep those things. And, also, there's the occasional fireball, just to keep things interesting. 

Stone and Sky may not be in London, but it's a fine Rivers of London book, and if you're a fan of the series, definitely worth picking up.

Back next week!

 We got stuck away from home due to an airline strike! We'll be back next week.

Infinite Archive - Mur Lafferty

I've been enjoying Mur Lafferty's work for a while, ever since the absolutely brilliant Six Wakes. And with her "Mid-Solar Murders" series, Lafferty has proven a dab hand at blending two genres that are rather tricky to turn into gumbo - detective stories, and science fiction. But here we are, with the third entry in the series, Infinite Archive. And you know what, it's as fun and as thoughtful and as clever as the previous two instalments. It manages  to write a compelling mystery inside of a world at once strange and familiar, surprising us without ever being, well, unfair. If you're an existing fan of the series, you know what you're walking into. Everyone else, well, it's a journey.

Speaking of journeys. Mallory Viridian remains our protagonist for this volume. A woman who, despite her best efforts, keeps turning up when people end up dead. And then keeps solving the murders that keep, for some reason, happening around her. Because the alternative is a trip to jail. But Mallory is living a quieter life now, on a space station far, far away from most people. And while she's a detective by necessity, she's an author by trade, writing fiction base don the murders that she solved. Which leads to the question - once the murders dry up, what can she write about? Fortunately, or unfortunately for Mallory, that question may well be answered. Her agent and a swarm of other people, regular human people who have a tendency to fall down dead around Mallory, are coming to visit her far, far away space station. As a murder mystery cruise. Her agent is ready to sell her on some other ideas - showing off science fiction and pitching cosy murders to a woman who lives, well, in space. It's a delightful shift in setting for Mallory - away from the  exotically known corners of her own weird space station and its esoteric inhabitants. Now she's on a cruise ship, which also happens to be a space ship, trying to solve a murder which may, or may not, be very real indeed. The murder-cruise is a historical staple of the mystery genre, and this one evokes the best parts of Christie, from its strange crew and passengers, to the even odder ship, to the baffling going son. Why is it bigger on the inside than the outside? Why are half the crew (at least) hiding something? Exactly how much blood are we going to have to clean out of the carpet this time? It's a knowing wink to the genre, a kind, even loving one, and that sense of comfort mixes well with the more off-kilter sci-fi ideas. 

Mallory remains an entertaining protagonist, as well. She's, well, complicated. Having people die around you all the time is probably enough to give anyone a complex. But Mallory is smart, kind and compassionate as well as having a razor's-edge intelligence, and, well, something of an undisclosed edge. But the Mallory of this book starts out trying to work out who she is, now that she's not immediately solving murders or writing books - looking toward a pathway of self-definition, even as the universe does its level best to both define her and throw enough problems into the mix that she doesn't have time to breathe, nevermind think. We've all had days like that, I think. Or weeks! Mallory Veridian lives it, and we live it with her. The fatigue, the irritation, the confusion, the moments of insight and clarity, the warmth of friendship returned. She's, yes, complicated, but if not always kind, always humane. And as ever, watching her delve into the depths of madness that is both an alien space station and...well, space-borne murder-mystery cruise, which I can't believe I typed with a straight face, well, its downright fun. Mallory isn't always sympathetic, but I sure can empathise with her and her struggles - and those of her friends and colleagues too. Mallory serves as the medium into their world, and she's thoroughly entertaining. 

I don't want to dig into the plot overmuch, because the mechanics of it tick over quite nicely, and it has enough stakes, large and small, to keep you turning the page. To see who did what. And why. And how. There's a lot going on here, moving parts kept carefully on track until, well, in this metaphor they crash into each other and make a big tangle that Mallory has to come and unpick. But the story works, it's smart and well paced and it doesn't cheat - you can figure out what's going on with the same information Mallory has, give or take. It's clever and tense and has some observations about humanity and how we act in environments strange and familiar that bear thinking about. Anyway, in the end, this is a good time, and if you've been looking for a sci-fi murder-mystery piece, this will satisfy that itch. And if you're an existing fan, all the better - it's a fun read!