Peek in, sneak about, I’m gonna snoop and call you out. I caught you, your hands are red, now I’m your broken hearted detective. Let’s investigate Detective Stories, by Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel with art by Lee Sullivan.
Synopsis:
Four self-contained magical crimes, ripped from the streets of supernatural London.
From the million-selling Rivers of London novel and graphic novel series by writer Ben Aaronovitch comes this unmissable next chapter in the saga, as PC Peter Grant faces his gruelling Detective exam, forcing him to relive the strangest cases of his career!
From foling an aspiring god to confronting a Virtual Flasher, Peter’s police history has been anything but conventional; whether that’s chasing down ‘Falcon’ crimes with the aid of modern technology, or confronting timeless villainy with his magical skill-set. Does Peter have what it takes… or will DI Chopra judge him unsuitable for a badge?
Source: Goodreads
SPOILERS BELOW
Detective Stories is the fourth Rivers of London comic, set between The Hanging Tree and Lies Sleeping. Using the framing story of Peter taking his detective exam, it has him recount a number of short tales about previous cases he solved. In one, a hedge wizard sacrificed a goat by setting it on fire with magic; but it turned out he didn’t know how to use magic safely and died of a brain bleed shortly afterwards. Can’t arrest a corpse, so that was the end of that case. In another, someone broke into a museum to add a painting to their collection. Peter found the guy; but since reverse-theft is not an actual crime, there was nothing to prosecute him for, and that was the end of that. In the third, he and Lesley caught a flasher. That one didn’t even involve any magic.
So, this collection felt incredibly underwhelming. All of the cases had low stakes and anticlimactic resolutions. The synopsis tries to hype it up as “foiling an aspiring god”, but come on: that guy blew his own brain showboating with his fire magic on a goat. He was already dead by the time Peter learned about the case; there was nothing to foil.
Detective Stories is the first Rivers of London story that I consider to be a disappointment.
Final Rating: 2/5
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