Review: Broken Homes

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a difference a book makes!

I was a bit meh over the third book Whispers Under Ground, had trouble keeping track of the characters and the plot. No such trouble this time.

A suspicious suicide and a stolen book lead our hero Peter Grant to a mysterious German architect and an imposing (code for ugly and impractical) social housing skyscraper in London, following the trail of the mysterious Faceless Man.

Now the characters that we have seen in the previous books start to reappear: various of the Rivers, Oberon, Zach the goblin etc.

Peter is full of his patented sarcasm and wit, all very British and probably unintelligible to any other nationality. I alway love his references to pop culture including Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings but this time he surpasses himself with mentions of Terry's Chocolate Oranges, Moomins and others.

This passage made me snort with laughter.

She thinks that however polite we’re being, the police should never concede anything to anyone short of a full public inquiry. And even then we should lie like fuck on general principles, Lesley being part of the ‘you can’t handle the truth’ school of policing.

It's typical of the humour in these books so if you find it funny too, give the series a try.

Unlike the other books this one roams outside London proper into Bromley (my own part of Greater London) and Essex.

Brilliant, just brilliant.

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