Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch – An Audio Book Review

Blurb:

The London Silver Vaults – for well over a century, the largest collection of silver for sale in the world. It has more locks than the Bank of England and more cameras than a celebrity punch-up. 

Not somewhere you can murder someone and vanish without a trace – only that’s what happened.

The disappearing act, the reports of a blinding flash of light and memory loss amongst the witnesses all make this a case for Detective Constable Peter Grant and the Special Assessment Unit.

Alongside their boss, DCI Thomas Nightingale, the SAU find themselves embroiled in a mystery that encompasses London’s tangled history, foreign lands and, most terrifying of all, the North!

And Peter must solve this case soon because back home, his partner, Beverley, is expecting twins any day now. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s about to encounter something – and somebody – that nobody ever expects….

Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Narrator: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Publisher: Orion

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Series: Rivers of London #9

Audio Release Date: 07/04/2022

Running Time: 10hrs 39mins

My Rating of ‘Amongst Our Weapons’: 5 out of 5

Purchase: Audible, Amazon

Review:

This book is everything I wanted from a Rivers of London novel. 

The last couple of books in the series haven’t really hit the sweet spot for me, but Amongst Our Weapons hit it several times over. It has so much going on that I just felt the constant urge to keep speeding through. 

As I said before, the past few fell a bit short for me. They felt like placeholders or little stop gaps until the meat had been built on the bones to such a tasty degree. With this book we had action, intrigue, future plot developments and a good deal more. It really felt like a breath of fresh air to me, personally. 

It was pretty cool getting to see so much of the cast of characters used in this as well. I like the fact that some of those in less of a starring role are getting a bit more page time.

I enjoyed constantly wondering just what this new entity they were dealing with was and how/why it was wreaking its havoc. The story that wove around it and how it all went together felt seamless and utterly enjoyable. I know it’s not specific to this book, as it was introduced a while ago in a previous novel, but I love how magic is very much a worldwide affair in this series rather than something that’s just keeping to itself in London. The little trans-Atlantic connections just add a nice extra layer of reality to make the very unreal feel as though it could well be a bit more tangible.

It’s been a while since I wanted to get my hands on the next one right away, but that’s all I want now. It’s the one downside to reading a book upon its release.

I’m eager to see if the next one will keep the same pacing and interest that Amongst Our Weapons did, yet quietly cautious that it may slip back into the previous slower pace.

Kobna’s narration, as ever, is perfect. I know there’s the old adage of ‘nothing can be perfect’, but that’s only really said by people who haven’t heard Mr Holdrook Smith read Rivers of London.