Whispers Underground

Executive Summary: Another solid entry in this series, and I hope to get to the next book much sooner than I got to this one.

Audiobook: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith once again does an excellent job, making this series a must listen for me.

Full Review
You may not know it from looking at my Goodreads shelf, but I was never much of a fantasy reader growing up. That changed in college. For several years after college, I didn't read much, but what I read tended to be Urban Fantasy. I just couldn't seem to get enough. My favorite is The Dresden Files.

Well at some point apparently I had enough. Every Urban Fantasy series I tried just didn't hold up to the later Dresden Files books, and I was no longer willing to give a series several books to hold my interest. I had pretty much given up on Urban Fantasy when I picked this series up.

I meant to read this book much sooner than I did, but other books kept coming up. Finally last month I had some extra time due to a road trip and I was looking for something fun/light to pass the time. This was the perfect book for that.

Urban Fantasy is littered with detectives/mysteries and this one is no different, but somehow Mr. Aaronvovitch does enough that I just don't care. I really like the characters, and I like the approach to magic. I want to know more about the world and the deeper mysteries of the Faceless Man that have been set up.

The main story of this book was fine, but not fantastic. It took a little while for things to get going, but the last 25% or so was all downhill. I would have liked it if we got more of the overarching plot. Dresden Files took a long time to set up it's larger story arcs, and I think that is much to its detriment. This feels much more like the TV episode format (continuing plot at beginning and end with the meat of it being mostly unrelated/stand alone). I hope we get more developments in the next book.

Peter and his partner are fun to follow around. The supporting cast was fine, but not super memorable. I liked the addition of the FBI agent (whose name I've already forgotten because I can't remember names ever). I don't know how they'd work her into a recurring role considering this is set in London, but I do hope this isn't the last we see of her.

This was a great road trip book, and I may pick up the next book when I hit the road again in December.