Moon over Soho

When Rivers of London, the first book in the Peter Grant series, made its was past my desk last year, I had to read it. If nothing else I knew the author by reputation (having written one of my favorite Doctor Who stories from the last eighties). I wasn't disappointed. This, the second book, in the series was just as good. Written with a dry sense of humour, it's sort of what could have happened if Harry Potter joined the Old Bill, with a dose of Terry Pratchett thrown in. More please (and when's the TV series coming Ben? I can just imagine Mark Gatiss as the Faceless Man).

The Betrayal

Some months ago I reviewed Y.A. Erskine's first novel The Brotherhood. Now I've had the opportunity to read the follow-up.

I said at the time I was looking forward to reading more from this author and I wasn't disapointed. It was just as impressive. Useing the same characters as her first book, The Betrayal again uses the perspective of mulitple characters to tell the story; a device that works very well. The main plot involves a rape, but with a twist. The victim is a police officer and the perpertator is a fellow officer, which leads to more than one betrayal. It raises a lot of issues and, like real life, there's no easy answers (and the bad-guy doesn't always get caught either).We also see the aftermath of the events in The Brotherhood too.

If this is to become a series, I really hope the next book covers the downfall of TasPol's police commisioner. It's set-up in this book and looks to be spectacular.