by Ben Aaronovitch

This 4th book in the series started out differently in that there was no immediate connection to magic. As with most murder stories, a body is involved, but why Peter Grant would be involved isn't immediately apparent.

I don't know if it's the story itself or too many people yapping at me when I'm trying to read, but I never quite worked out the motivation of the Faceless Man, as he's called in this. It's also the first of this series that I felt ended without fully resolving. It wasn't quite a cliffhanger, but a significant and unexpected twist near the end left me feeling the story was unfinished.

The journey was enjoyable. As always, the characters were distinctive and some funny moments make it all good fun, but I'm marking this one down for leaving me feeling that it wasn't finished.

This installment of the series meanders even more than book three did, to the point where I kept forgetting about plot threads until they were picked back up and then dropped again. It weirdly reminded me of watching Star Trek: Enterprise when the show switched from an episodic format to following a season-long story arc. Suddenly, hardly anything is getting resolved, and each “episode” is ending with more questions than answers. I haven’t decided if this is a good thing yet, but I’m still entertained, so on to the next book I go!

Short, spoilery rant below:

(Read for Halloween Bingo Free Square)

Ooh, I did not see that coming!

This is such a fun series, especially now my quibble from the earlier books has been addressed, and Beverley's eyes are now shaped like a cat's rather than cat-shaped.

This installment in the Peter Grant series was so much fun and the plot twist at the end was so unexpected and exciting that I rushed right into the next book in the series, which wasn’t at all on my planned TBR list. And in my excitement, I originally put a 5 star rating on the book, but after further reflection am bringing it down to 4 stars, because there were a few problems with the story. It was a little discombobulated at first, with episodes so seemingly unconnected that I did have some trouble tying them all together at the end. I’m also, on reflection, a little unsure about The Faceless Man’s objective with the Skygarden Tower and its relation to the 

 that Peter has discovered. To be fair, it’s entirely possible that I missed some of this, because I was glued to the audio while also trying to run errands and finish shopping in anticipation of the Thanksgiving holiday demands this week – not the optimal kind of multitasking that lends itself well to catching clues and parsing complicated plot points. I suspect that, once I get caught up on the series on audio – because I have every intention of continuing to experience them through Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s fabulous narration – I’ll probably pick up the text version and re-read them, to better immerse in the world-building and location details that can be missed on audio and a first read.

But I loved this book for all the same reasons that I’ve loved the others in the series – the interesting cast of characters, including some strong women of both good, evil, and in-between varieties, the strong sense of location, the fun magical world, and the humorous observations of both society and policing.

Audio, via Audible. As noted, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s performance is masterful.

I read this for The 16 Tasks of the Festive Season, Square 5: Book themes for Advent: Read a book with a wreath or with pines or fir trees on the cover –OR– Read the 4th book from a favorite series, or a book featuring 4 siblings. Broken Homes is the 4^th book in the Peter Grant series. 

Previous Updates:

11/17/17 26%

The powers that be made a concerted effort to rid London of its working class. The city was rapidly losing its industry, and the large numbers of servants who were needed for the Edwardian households were being superseded by the technological wonders of the Age of White Goods. London just didn't need that many poor people anymore.

11/18/17 100%

On the audio side, I had to DNF My Brilliant Friend on Thursday because it was booooorrrrrinnnngggg and then I decided on Broken Homes for the Advent square and OH MY GOD that plot twist at the end made me spend another Audible credit so I could jump right into Foxglove Summer.

I don't even know what to say! I am so gobsmacked right now.

Look, everyone that I talked to said the same thing. This is slow as anything. I was bored while reading and maybe fell asleep around the 60 percent mark. Things didn't make a lot of sense to me and I was tired of Peter feeling torn between Lesley (til he wasn't) and Beverly (eh I don't blame him for not getting involved with the river goddesses). But the ending that comes I did not see coming. And it's heartbreaking. And now I wonder what is going to happen next.

"Broken Homes" has Peter and company on the tail of the Faceless Man and also looking into a housing estate that maybe has ties to some magic.

This really wasn't that interesting to me. I don't know, fourth book syndrome. Things just meandered along. We get some peeks at Beverly and the rest of the river goddesses, but once again they are not in this one as much as they were in book #1. 

Peter and Lesley are still practicing with Nightingale and yes we get some more details about Nightingale's family and school days. Still not enough for me, but enough to wet your appetite. 

I don't know, I found Peter not as centered in this book. He was all over the place. A romantic pairing that I called in the last book rears it's head here and that seemed to give Peter some peace. 

The writing was typical Aaronovitch, humor mixed in all over. However, I will complain a bit. We would have Peter as narrator tell you something and a line later, but little did I know what was going to happen next, and something would get explained in a line or two. Either show us it, or don't keep talking to us about things that you don't set up in the book.

As I said, the ending is definitely a game-changer. I wonder what happens next to Peter.