''Foxglove Summer'' is the fifth novel in the '' Peter Grant series'' by

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

author

Ben Aaronovitch Ben Dylan Aaronovitch (born 22 February 1964) is an English author and screenwriter. He is the author of the series of novels '' Rivers of London''. He also wrote two ''Doctor Who'' serials in the late 1980s and spin-off novels from ''Doctor Who ...

, published in 2014 by Gollancz.

Plot

Peter Grant is left shaken by the sudden betrayal and defection by a highly valued colleague to whom Grant also had a strong emotional tie (as related in the previous book). Grant welcomes the chance to leave the familiar grounds of London and travel to rural

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

, where the disappearance of two eleven-year old girls is a media sensation, the focus of an intensive police search - and might have grave magical implications as well. Grant finds that the tangle of marital and extra-marital relations in a small rural community is not only a matter for gossip, but bears some supernatural ones as well. He meets with a retired wizard, traumatized by the secret magical battles of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and with the wizard's granddaughter who has a very special affinity with bees. Grant gets into intensive contact with

Beverley Brook Beverley Brook is a -long river in the south-western suburbs of London, England. It rises in Worcester Park and joins the River Thames to the north of the Putney Embankment at Barn Elms, having flowed through the green spaces of Wimbledon Common ...

, the goddess or

Genius loci In classical Roman religion, a ''genius loci'' (: ''genii locorum'') was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding attributes such as a cornucopia, patera (libation bowl), or snake. Man ...

, a tributary of the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

- and learns by personal experience just how rivers gain such gods. He finds that

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

s are all too real and that their horns are deadly weapons; that

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

do exist and even in the 21st century they do sometimes kidnap human children and replace them with

changeling A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. According to folklore, a changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being when kidnapping a human being. ...

s; and he meets with a real-life faerie queen, very different from the one imagined by Spenser. As the result of all that, Grant faces the prospect of being stuck forever as a captive in the real-life fairyland - an

alternative reality Alternate reality (or Alternative reality, UK English) often refers to parallel universes in fiction, a self-contained separate world, universe or reality coexisting with the real world, which is used as a recurring plot point or setting used in fa ...

Otherworld In historical Indo-European religion, the concept of an otherworld, also known as an otherside, is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other world/side"), a term used by Lucan in his desc ...

where Britain is still covered with a massive unbroken

primeval forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

, with no sign of the familiar towns and villages. Grant's sole of escape lies in the anti-magical effect of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

's engineering projects and of the Romans' habit of imposing themselves on the landscape and building " roads straight as an arrow" wherever they ruled.

Characters

Returning characters

* Police Constable Peter Grant; an officer in the Metropolitan Police and the first official apprentice wizard in sixty years. * Lesley May; formerly Police Constable in the Metropolitan Police and de facto apprentice to Nightingale; now criminal associate of the faceless man and subject to an internal investigation * Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale; head of the Folly and the last officially sanctioned English Wizard. * Molly; The Folly's domestic helper, of unknown species. * Dr Abdul Haqq Walid; world-renowned

gastroenterologist Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- "belly", -énteron "intestine", and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract, sometime ...

and cryptopathologist. * Beverley Brook; goddess of a small suburban river and consulting ecologist.

Characters introduced in this novel

* Detective Constable Dominic Croft; a member of the West Mercia Major Crimes Unit assigned as Peter's liaison.

Reception

The book was well-received, with Sci-Fi Pulse praising its "warmth and sly humour", its rich worldbuilding and the plausibility of the police procedure.

References

Rivers of London (book series) 2014 British novels Novels by Ben Aaronovitch English fantasy novels Novels set in Herefordshire Victor Gollancz Ltd books Cultural depictions of Metropolitan Police officers Speculative crime and thriller fiction novels {{2010s-fantasy-novel-stub