My name is Peter Grant, and I am a keeper of the secret flame -- whatever that is. Truth be told, there's a lot I still don't know. My superior Nightingale, previously the last of England's wizardly governmental force, is trying to teach me proper schooling for a magician's apprentice. But even he doesn't have all the answers. Mostly I'm just a constable sworn to enforce the Queen’s Peace, with the occasional help from some unusual friends and a well-placed fire blast. With the new year, I have three main objectives, a) pass the detective exam so I can officially become a DC, b) work out what the hell my relationship with Lesley Mai, an old friend from the force and now fellow apprentice, is supposed to be, and most importantly, c) get through the year without destroying a major landmark. Two out of three isn’t bad, right? A mutilated body in Crawley means another murderer is on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil, who may either be a common serial killer or an associate of the twisted magician known as the Faceless Man -- a man whose previous encounters I've barely survived. I've also got a case about a town planner going under a tube train and another about a stolen grimoire. But then I get word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on a housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans, and inhabited by the truly desperate. If there's a connection to the Crawley case, I'll be entering some tricky waters of juristiction with the local river spirits. We have a prickly history, to say the least. Just the typical day for a magician constable.
Download and start listening now!
“With irreverent humor and a fast-paced plot, Aaronovitch cheekily marries the ancient Arts with the Internet age in the fourth installment of an excellent series featuring modern-day Constable Peter Grant on the trail of a new magical mystery…Smart and gritty, twisted and whimsical, Aaronovitch has proved yet again that secrets are his specialty.”
— Publishers Weekly
“[This series] has everything: a plucky hero, London Metropolitan Police constable Peter Grant; clever mysteries; entertaining villains; and, just for fun, wizardry…A natural for grown-up Harry Potter devotees but also for urban-fantasy fans in general.”
— Booklist (starred review)Ben Aaronovitch was born in London in 1964 and had the kind of dull, routine childhood that drives a man either to drink or to science fiction. He is a screenwriter, with early notable success on BBC’s legendary Doctor Who, for which he wrote some episodes now widely regarded as classics, and which even he is quite fond of. After a decade of such work, he decided it was time to show the world what he could really do, and he embarked on his first serious original novel. The result was Midnight Riot, the debut adventure of Peter Grant, followed by Moon over Soho and Whispers under Ground.
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is a Ghanaian-born British actor who has appeared on stage, screen, and television. A graduate of the Guildford School of Acting, he won a Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.