But when Peter identifies the would-be thief, Stephen Higgins, he realizes that and he and Stephen crossed paths months before. Beverly is five months pregnant (with twins, which I had completely forgotten about), and I must admit that Peter, as an expectant father, is pretty cute. Once cleared of the Chorley execution, Peter goes undercover… as himself because, as he said, it’s much easier to pull off the disguise this way. In terms of audio quality, in parts Kobna's normally smooth voice sounded a little rough and gravely. I've griped about his ineptitude in previous books, and so to see him thinking and acting swiftly while on the go is very satisfying, and I've been waiting for this day to come for what felt like forever.

My favourite quote from False Value is, I think: ' He'd obviously wanted to tell someone about it for a long time and I was a convenient ear. PLEASE NOTE: If you haven’t read Lies Sleeping, the previous novel in the Rivers of London series, and wish to avoid spoilers for that book, skip this review. Have enjoyed the series up until now and loved the strange and sometimes wonderful charaters, but oh dear!A big thank you to the author/ publisher for making this available on the day of the hardback release as well. If you asked me what my favorite top three Rush albums are, I would reply: Moving Pictures, 2112, and Signals. It’s just like old times again, but this time, Peter isn’t a bumbling rookie and Nightingale is beginning to treat him more like a colleague and less like a student, possibly easing him into the role as head of the Folly one of these days. After the initial bumpy 25% of the book I managed to get into the story and got a kick out of it - but it did take the seven books worth of acquired fandom to get through the rough beginning, and had I not been a fan, I probably would have put it down. Main investigation is interesting, unfortunately there is too much sidetracking and rather mundane stuff: dinners, family picnics, looking after pregnant girlfriend, mildly amusing conversations with random new people Peter meets.

I’ve enjoyed all the previous novels, but I’m sorry to say that I think that Ben Aaronovitch has now lost the plot.I started the book, not knowing what had happened to Peter Grant and let out a massive sigh of relief when the story and background are explained. Still not clear on the central mystery of this installment though, but I wasn’t too bothered as almost everything else about the story was enjoyable. Aaronovitch refreshes the well here by sending London police detective Peter Grant undercover at a high tech corp with questionable dealings of a possibly supernatural nature.

Which leads us to Ada Lovelace, the Enchantress of Numbers, and the Mary Engine mentioned briefly in a previous book but I've forgotten which one, could be a novella, which is why I'm writing everything down this time. It’s a transitional tale where almost everyone who has ever appeared seemed to pop up or be referenced, in addition to a vast number of new people, new organisations and new places. A bit of wrangling needed to happen and the full interesting import of later spoiler territory plot items comes to fruition nicely. Still, while we may be at the dawn of a new chapter in Peter Grant’s life here in False Value, there are still a few mysteries left over from the previous books.I won’t say any more for risk of spoilers, but I found myself annoyed and impressed in equal measures.