There have been ghosts on the London Underground, sad, harmless spectres whose presence does little more than give a frisson to travelling and boost tourism. But now there’s a rash of sightings on the Metropolitan Line and these ghosts are frightening, aggressive and seem to be looking for something.Enter PC Peter Grant, junior member of the Metropolitan Police’s Special Assessment unit a.k.a. … unit a.k.a. The Folly a.k.a. the only police officers whose official duties include ghost hunting. Together with Jaget Kumar, his counterpart at the British Transport Police, he must brave the terrifying crush of London’s rush hour to find the source of the ghosts.
Joined by Peter’s wannabe wizard cousin, a preschool river god and Toby the ghost hunting dog, their investigation takes a darker tone as they realise that a real person’s life might just be on the line.
And time is running out to save them.
With this new novella, bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch has crafted yet another wickedly funny and surprisingly affecting chapter in his beloved Rivers of London series.
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I’m a hardcore audiobook listener. On average, I listen to my audiobooks for at least 5 hours a day. I listen while I drive, cook, shower.
My audiobook habit can get pricey. I check out chirpbooks.com on a weekly basis, looking to fill my audiophile habits on budget.
As with all bargain shopping, sometimes you get some duds, but sometimes you find some real gems.
The Furthest Station is a rare gem. A novella, this audiobook is only 3 hours and 5 minutes long.
The introspective flow of the story tangled with the supernatural and an English point of view hooked me in seconds. I enjoyed every moment of The Furthest Station.
If you love detective stories with a hint of the supernatural this is a proper good book to read.
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This was a short story of solid policework, emphasis on solid. Hardly anything weird happened despite there being ghosts in it, the crime didn’t involve enraged deities, and nothing blew spectacularly up. I believe this was one case for which Peter got only praise from his supervisors. I was a bit slow to catch up though; the author’s style is to not offer any details he’s given in earlier books, which makes things a bit difficult for a reader who hasn’t read all books back to back. But once I got past that, I enjoyed the story very well.
This series is fabulous. Especially in the “Audible” version, because the reader is great!
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“What, like officially?”
“Officially secret,” I said because discretion is supposed to be, if not our middle name, at least a nickname we occasionally answer to when we remember.
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“When you’re four, forever and ever can mean yesterday. But amongst my other policing skills I’ve acquired a proficiency in straw-clutching that verges on the savant.”
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I just LOVE this series! There are so many excellent elements – clever dialogue and turns of phrase, unique characters, original plots… There are, admittedly, always a few points where I find myself suddenly, randomly, lost – not usually in the plot, although that does happen on occasion, but mostly in the language (thank god for the internet, because British slang is not the easiest thing to follow OR figure out) – but things always seem to come together relatively quickly, and even the meandering bits are always entertaining…
In this latest installment, Peter once again finds himself in over his head with ghosts, but through his own efforts (supplemented handily by Nightengale, Abigail, and a few key others) manages to pull himself over and through the problem and into a cleverly managed and utterly satisfying conclusion. This one is numbered 5.7 in the series; it felt rather like an in-between book. There was no mention of the ongoing issues with Punch or Leslety. And, more surprising given the series title (Rivers of London), there was hardly any River element. Beverly barely plays a role, Lady Tyburn is nary to be found, there is no Mama/Father Thames drama to be seen – and the introduction of it came very late (and rather tangentially) to the story. If it had been shorter, I would have assumed this to be a short story for an independent collection; it reads as part of, but not essential to, the series. I didn’t mind that, I was just surprised by it.
Still, any day with Peter Grant is a good day in my book – he is the draw for me in this series. He’s Everyman but not really – the Everyman that every man would like to be: clever, fun, a willing participant in a world that forced him into its walls. He flies by the seat of his pants more than he’d like to admit, and is often lost – but through the good graces of his friends and his own not inconsiderable strengths – always found again eventually. He’s a great character, and Aaronovitch puts him into unique and challenging situations that stretch the boundaries of his world over and over again, yet he always manages to finagle his way in and out of trouble with aplomb and a nice curry. May we all be so lucky…
This is a special short edition added to the book series; more of a novella in length. It can be read as a stand alone, but there isn’t a great deal of background on the regular characters, so it might make more sense to start with the first book in the series to fully comprehend and appreciate this one.
This isn’t a genre I customarily would enjoy, but I was hooked by the author’s interesting writing style, clever creativity, and superb witticisms. The protagonist is a contemporary member of London’s Metropolitan Police, assigned to investigate and handle inexplicable and fantastical disturbances and events, and is being urgently mentored and trained in the arts of doing so by the last, heroic master of those policing arts, in a special department which had nearly become defunct after WWII but now must be carried on due to a sudden increase in such crime.
The modern setting, wickedly clever creativity, and witty writing in most of the regular length volumes of this series, make for some unusually compelling fun and adventurous reads. I hadn’t expected to enjoy this series, and wouldn’t have elected to read the first volume of it, but for having been given such an enthusiastic recommendation that I’d taken a chance on reading the first book, and then also read every subsequent book since, including this short special edition of the series. It’s different, it’s funny, it’s fun and suspenseful–there is a lot to like and enjoy in this series, so I recommend it, also.
The Rivers of London series is so much fun to read. I can’t resist and have to have each one as soon as they come out.