Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch   {Reviewed by STELLA} Policing in London has never been so quirky. DC Peter Grant isn’t doing too well climbing the ranks. His major problem is that he is easily distracted: he notices things others don’t and finds himself wandering off on tangents when he should be focusing on the job in hand. Rivers of London is the first in a successful series by Ben Aaronovitch, which brings together the decidedly real with the completely fantastical in an alarming, funny, quite believable caper. In Rivers of London several people are acting uncharacteristically aggressively, and some of their actions are leading to gruesome murders. PC Grant, after attending one such horror, meets the unusual Chief Inspector Nightingale and finds himself promoted into his team of one (if you don’t count the strange housekeeper, Molly, who seems to float and has rather pointy teeth) and initiated into the world of wizards, the first apprentice in 50 years. Reading this I felt I had fallen into a hybrid of Jasper Fforde madcap, Harry Potter for grown-ups, all mixed with gruesome crime and absurdist plotting. Not only does our DC have to deal with learning magic, the often mysterious behaviour of Nightingale and the obvious contempt of some fellow policing chiefs, he’s trying but failing to keep his mind off fellow police officer Lesley May (who just seems to keep dragging into his troublesome world) and resist the niece of a mighty river goddess. And hence the plot thickens, the river gods Sister and Brother Thames, underworld spirits living in flats near the banks of the Thames with their equally adoring and loyal entourages, are having a bit of a turf war. What are they up to, and who or what is making Londoners turn on each other? Can Nightingale and Grant with the assistance of fellow police officer May and the police computer, HOLMES, and possibly Sister Thames (if she has  a mind to) get to the bottom of this mystery?