3.75 stars. Midnight Riot is great start to a series and also is simply a fabulous new series for the urban fantasy world. This book is funny, not silly funny like Three's Company, but dry funny with an amazing delivery. Ben Aaronvitch makes very witty observations about human nature and delivers in such a way that it is funny. At the same time, he sets up an intriguing urban fantasy world, playing on existing mythology and bringing new stuff in. He even makes a few Harry Potter jokes.The main character is the son of an African immigrant and a failed jazz musician, he is a newly made London constable and he is finding his way. This isn't a world where magic and the supernatural is known, instead Peter, the main character, is learning about magic along with the reader and Ben Aaronvitch is a great teacher. The characters are real, because of the way they are written, I felt like I knew the characters as people. The police investigation and technique stuff sort of dragged for me, that was the only part of the book I didn't care for and it brought down the rating -- but in all fairness, this book is about a police officer conducting an investigation. And the police technique is done well and seems convincing, but who am I to know about that? I recommend this book to people who enjoy urban fantasy, male points of view written by men, and additionally, those that like police investigation plots.The book had solid writing and astute commentary. Here is an example, Ben Aaronvitch interrupts the story line to tell a seemingly non-related story but at the end he delivers the observation -- it is done so brilliantly ever single time. This example interrupts a riot scene:"One of my mum's uncles once had tickets to Arsenal v spurs at Highbury and took me when his own son couldn't make it. We were down among season ticket holders, the hardest of the hard-core soccer fans who went there for the game, no the violence. Being in a crowd like that is like being caught in the tide -- you might try going in the other direction, but it drags you along all the same. It was a dull game, style wise, and looked to be heading for a nil-nil draw, when suddenly in injury time Arsenal made a late surge. As they got into the penalty area I swear the whole stadium, sixty thousand people, held their breath. When the Arsenal forward put it in the back of the net, I found myself screaming with joy along with the rest of the people around me. It was entirely involuntary."Another keen observation:If you ask any police officer what the worst part of the job is, they will always say breaking bad news to relatives, but this is not the truth. The worst part is staying in the room after you've broken the news, so that you're forced to be there when someone's life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn't bother them -- such people are not to be trusted. Another good observation: Despite what you think you know, most people don't want to fight, especially when evenly matched. A mob will tear an individual to pieces and a man with a gun and a noble cause is happy to kill ever so many women and children, but risking a fair fight -- not so easy. That's why you se those pissed young men doing the dance of 'don't hold me back' while desperately hoping someone likes them enough to hold them back. Everyone is always so pleased to see the police arrive, because we have to save them whether we like them or not.Some of my favorite lines are below:"Me and Nightingale did what all good coppers do when faced with a spare moment in the middle of the day -- we went looking for a pub." He looked up, barked once and shot off toward King Street. "Get after him," said Nightengale.Two years running down drunks in Leicester Square had given me some speed and stamina. I lost ground when I had to dodge around a crocodile of Dutch tourists leaving the Theater. "Police," I yelled."Get out of the way." I didn't yell stop that dog -- I do have some standards." "That's a load of wank," he said. " But at least it's convincing wank. In a couple of minutes we're going to take you down Hampstead nick, where a very nice lady from Scotland Yard is going to take your statements -- separately. And while I'm a beleiver in veracity in all things, I want to make it cleaer that there isn't to be an fucking mubo jumbo voodoo X-files shit in any fucking statement. Is that understood? ... As far as anyone else is concerned, normal fucking policing got us into this mess and normal fucking policing will get us out of it." .... "Did he just ask us to lie to a senior officer?" I asked. "Yep," said Leslie. "Just checking," I said. So we spent the rest of the afternoon bearing false witnesses in separate interview rooms. We were careful to make sure that while our accounts broadly agreed, there were lots of authentic-looking discrepancies. No one can fake a statement the way a policeman can.If you are looking for a break from the female point of view urban fantasy world, but you still want to stay in the genre -- then this book is a great refreshing read. Just as an aside, this book has a different name in the UK: Rivers of London and a different cover. I like the UK cover more than the US cover.[bc:Rivers of London|9317452|Rivers of London (Peter Grant, #1)|Ben Aaronovitch|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61U8IoHM7EL._SL75_.jpg|13552476]More of my reviews found at BaddAss Reviews.
