I Read Books: Lie Sleeping

Lies Sleeping

They unmasked the Faceless Man in the previous novel in this series. Peter Grant and the other magic police are chasing down the leads. But the Faceless Man has accelerated his plans.

This is a little more focussed than some of the earlier novels, being almost entirely about the investigation into the Faceless Man, which the prologue handily notes has rolled up most of the other outstanding magic operations. Having said that, the Faceless Man’s plans are wide-ranging and touch on a lot of the people and background from the other books.

There’s a magic bell and a magic sword and old gods and a sacrifice. Worse than that though there are divided loyalties and a critique of London that is devastatingly true, and inevitable and terrible. Peter Grant will have to make some hard decisions and the Independent Police Complaints Commission will be on his back.

Read This: For a slightly sprawling, idiosyncratic urban fantasy
Don’t Read This: It’s not a good starting point for the series