Broken Homes
| Author | Ben Aaronovitch |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Urban Fantasy |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
|
Publication date
|
25 July 2013 |
| Pages | 368 pp |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | Whispers Under Ground (2011) |
| Followed by | Foxglove Summer (2014) |
Broken Homes is the fourth novel in the Rivers of London series by English author Ben Aaronovitch, published 2013 by Gollancz.
PC Peter Grant continues to battle the faceless man. This time, a tower block in Elephant and Castle is central to the events of the novel. People associated with Skygarden Tower (The Heygate Estate in all but name) start turning up dead, so PC Grant has to venture south of the river to get to the bottom of it all.
The action opens with a road traffic accident involving Robert Weil, a former member of an Oxford University dining club called the Little Crocodiles established by the late Geoffrey Wheatcroft, who against custom and practice had been teaching magic without appropriate oversight to, among others, Albert Woodville-Gentle (AKA The Faceless Man Mk I).
Placed on a suspected Little Crocodiles watch list provided by Lady Ty, genius loci of the River Tyburn, when the attending officer discovers a lot of blood in Weil's vehicle, none of it appearing to be Weil's the Folly is informed. When it emerges Weil studied biology, PC Grant and DCI Nightingale are forcefully reminded of the magically-created (and adapted) quasi-human creatures found in The Strip Club of Doctor Moreau, a sleezy bar set up by the late Albert Woodville-Gentle who used magic to cow and suborn London criminals.
Grant and DCI Nightingale speak to the senior investigating officer and discover the blood was human and from a body in the early stages of rigor mortis. Subsequent enquiries lead to a shallow grave containing the body of a young woman killed with and disfigured by a shotgun whose fingers have been removed. In the absence of vestigia, (the lingering after-effects of magic) Grant concludes the killing is the work of 'just an ordinary serial killer' but is warned by Nightingale about jumping to conclusions.
Meanwhile, PC Lesley May, who is on indefinite sick leave after suffered a magical attack that resulted in catastrophic facial injuries (see Rivers of London) returns to The Folly after her latest round of reconstructive surgery still wearing a therapeutic mask but now able to speak without using a speech synthesiser. Peter and Lesley receive instruction from Nightingale in the art of magical staff-making: splitting open his walking stick (dubbed a 'cad walloper' by the revenant Mister Punch). Using a hammer and chisel to split the wooden casing Nightingale reveals a pattern-welded iron core that he explains can, correctly forged using magic, acts as a magical reservoir that enables a practitioner to wield magical power at otherwise dangerous levels while avoiding 'thaumaturgical degradation' (inevitable severe and irreversible brain damage resulting from over-use of magic, a condition Peter has irreverently dubbed cauliflower brain syndrome - after cauliflower ear).
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