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    Whispers Under Ground
    Whispers Under Ground
    Whispers Under Ground
    Audiobook10 hours

    Whispers Under Ground

    Written by Ben Aaronovitch

    Narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    It begins with a dead body at the far end of Baker Street tube station, all that remains of American exchange student James Gallagher-and the victim's wealthy, politically powerful family is understandably eager to get to the bottom of the gruesome murder. The trouble is, the bottom-if it exists at all-is deeper and more unnatural than anyone suspects . . . except, that is, for London constable and sorcerer's apprentice Peter Grant. With Inspector Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, tied up in the hunt for the rogue magician known as "the Faceless Man," it's up to Peter to plumb the haunted depths of the oldest, largest, and-as of now-deadliest subway system in the world.At least he won't be alone. No, the FBI has sent over a crack agent to help. She's young, ambitious, beautiful . . . and a born-again Christian apt to view any magic as the work of the devil. Oh yeah-that's going to go well.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 28, 2012
    ISBN9781452680095
    Whispers Under Ground
    Author

    Ben Aaronovitch

    Born and raised in London, Ben Aaronovitch worked as a scriptwriter for Doctor Who and Casualty before the inspiration for his own series of books struck him whilst working as a bookseller in Waterstones Covent Garden. Ben Aaronovitch’s unique novels are the culmination of his experience of writing about the emergency services and the supernatural.

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    Reviews for Whispers Under Ground

    4/5

    1,076 ratings79 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The Peter Grant series remains one of my best recent discoveries. The magical system is well thought out, the details of policing are believable (though I have no idea how accurate they are). And Peter himself is just a great narrator, alternately learned, funny and entirely geeky. I love it and hope it keeps going on for years to come.
    • 4/5
      Peter Grant is a London Policeman whose Mum from West Africa chooses to call "witchfinder," according to Chapter 1. We are introduced to characters with the variable manifestations of spirits, goblins, fairies and animating principes, and hard-boiled Constable Inspectors.In the novel Whispers Underground, the mystery's bohemian and captivating characters are noted and explained by Peter Grant, Detective Constable. Finally, he must return back to the depths underground to solve a murder of a young man discovered dead on a subway platform near Ladbroke Grove. A witty mystery with a vivid set of characters from many walks of life, with dazzling turns as Peter Grant gets pulled into seeking out a murder weapon that is an artifact of a hidden culture with a unique magical signature. Highly Entertaining.
    • 2/5
       Decent sequel. It's very similar to the first two, so I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't like this as much. It lacked pacing, for one thing - things felt partly rushed, and partly dragged out, for one thing. It also lacked the focus of the first two: for a long time I was really uncertain of what the main plot really was. Overall, it didn't grab me. Maybe the novelty is wearing of a bit.It was okay, but I'm not sure if I am going to pick up the next part in the series.
    • 3/5
      Peter Grant once looked forward to a police career made of boring paperwork, but then he discovered magic. Now he's apprenticed to Inspector Nightingale, the last known British mage, and has more excitement than he can handle. The latest case: an American art student is found dead on the railroad tracks, and the murder weapon has a whiff of magic to it. Before he knows it, Peter is tracking pottery smugglers and slogging through sewers, all while trying to keep his supernatural ability hidden from his co-investigator, an enigmatic FBI agent.

      Lots of subtle build-up of the magical community here. In the first book, the only magic seemed to be in Nightingale's Folly, but by now we've gotten a hint of magicians from all over the world, plus beings and magic systems hidden in London that even Nightingale did not know about. I think there might be something cool going on with Lesley's face--the half-goblin seemed fascinated by it. Perhaps magical people see it not as a barely healed mask, but as something beautiful or powerful? And I'm looking forward to seeing more of the Little Crocodiles plot.
    • 3/5
      My previous hangups haven't really been dispersed yet, but I am starting to think that Peter Grant is several cuts above Harry Dresden on the misogyny-sorry-I-mean-chivalry front. It's starting to feel like he's a genuinely nice guy who is sometimes a bit of an ass in the way he expresses himself, as people do. I think my initial reading was probably highly tainted by the guy who gave me the book to read, who tends to both act like he thinks I'm a "cute little girl" and to tell me he imagines me undressed. More or less in the same breath. Despite us both having partners.Anyway, these books are definitely easy reads, and I like a lot of the background -- the Folly, Molly, Nightingale's long career -- and the accumulated emotional stuff from previous books (i.e. Lesley and her mask -- which I seem to have been under the impression was spelt "Leslie" in previous books, I'm not sure why). I really liked that Lesley's still considered sexually attractive by various characters, and that she's definitely a strong character in her own right, not a love interest or tragic past mistake.I'm not sure how coherent I found this, though. I found so many places where the spelling was off, or the grammar just didn't make sense (i.e. wasn't something anyone would say, let alone write), but now when I sit back I'm not so sure about the plot, either. It felt like there was a fair amount of packaging.I can understand why people like this series so much -- and it is growing on me, too.
    • 4/5
      Whispers Under Ground is less poignant than its predecessor and longer on humor. I particularly enjoy Peter Grant’s constant sly references to the rest of the fantasy universe, from Pratchett to Tolkien, as well as Aaronovitch’s clear delight in the confusing world of police acronyms…half of which I’m convinced he has invented.
    • 5/5
      Another book of smiles and intrigue. Love the depth of vocabulary.
    • 5/5
      Whispers Underground is among the most entertaining books I have read lately. And it has been a very good time for original, laugh-out-loud book series (plural). All English (British): Inspector Hobbes, Slough House, and this one.
      I recommend the audiobook format for any reader not intimately familiar with East London accents and speech patterns. (My mother was an East-Ender who married a Canadian soldier in 1945; they raised their family in an eastern exurb of Toronto in a town with many other families just like ours.) The narrator of this series is as close to perfect as I can imagine.
      I recommend a new reader to start at the beginning of the series.
    • 4/5
      k, much better than the first two books so this one truly deserves a 4 star rating. I went back and downgraded the first two to 3 stars to be fair. The story was evenly paced throughout the book this time and the ending didn't feel extemporaneous. Peter's character was balanced with more of the supporting characters this time out and I was pleased to see DCI Nightingale taking a more active role again. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
    • 4/5
      Three books in, and Peter Grant is still my favorite magical investigator since Harry Dresden. The best thing about this series is the chance to spend some time with him and in his head. I love his eclectic interests, his nerdy jokes, and his desire to know how things work that led him to learn magic once he knew it was real. Unfortunately, the plot seems a little weaker in this installment, but catching up with Peter and the rest of the characters still makes it better than average.And as others have noted: I'm not sure what draft the cover blurb was based on, but if the FBI agent was a born again Christian who thinks magic is the work of the devil, I certainly wouldn't have known from reading the book. That's only a criticism of the cover blurb, mind you, which I'm sure was the publisher's fault and not the author's, but I thought it was worth mentioning in case anybody was particularly intrigued by that plot point.
    • 4/5
      This is the second book that I've read in this series and I intend to read them all, something that I do not usually do. While the plots are inventive, it is really the sly and amusing tone of the books that I love the most. This time I listened to the audiobook and I thought that the narrator was absolutely perfect. I also enjoyed the little snippets of jazz between chapters.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. I love how the characters develop. I love how things are just so "normal" for the author; that it's no big deal if a character is white, black, male, female, straight, gay....I wish more authors were able to write like this.

      I love how Lesley is part of the team again. I love how the things that have happened to her in the first book required for her to take some time to get over them but then come right back in. I love that she isn't being victimized but is trying to get back on her feet as best as she can. I love the dry sense of humour. I could ramble on and on but I think I can't make it any clearer: i loved this book. And I can't wait for the next one to come out. It's already pre-ordered.
    • 4/5
      I borrowed this from a colleague after realising that I finished book two in 2012 and haven't been keeping up with the series. I like Peter Grant, particularly his running commentary on London and architecture, but I'm not exactly bowled over by the magical aspect, as evidenced by the fact that I took four years to chase up the next instalment. Ghosts, fine, magical pottery people living underground, not so much. Also, there is a distinct Raymond Chandler quality to the plotting of these novels, in that subplot upon subplot is introduced until all I'm left hanging onto is the witty narration and returning cast of characters. So if the same colleague lends me book four, I'm all for reading on, but otherwise - meh.
    • 4/5
      Book 3 in the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series. A US Senator's son is murdered and there are strange goings on in the Underground so it's down to the Folly to investigate, without the FBI liaison officer getting wind of the weird stuff. A very good mystery which kept me guessing until the end. Not as gruesome as the previous book; I can't wait to read the next one.
    • 5/5
      The narrator is spot on and the flow and pace of the novel is great. Peter is a quirky and nerdy hero and you root for his schemes to work even when you know they won’t.
    • 5/5
      Peter Grant, Apprentice and Policeman, once again gets stuck in to a caper that's both right up his alley and totally above his pay grade.

      And, yet again, another book I finished in record time. I can't wait to start the next one!
    • 5/5
      When Peter Grant's young cousin, Abigail Kamara, drags him and his colleague and fellow magical apprentice, Leslie May, to a railroad track running under a school playground, they do find the ghost. But the ghost is no threat, and doesn't seem to be pointing to anything of concern now. So when the first case that lands on his desk on Monday is a man stabbed to death on the track at Baker Street Station, he puts the ghost aside, and sets about finding out why the British Transport Police officer, Sgt. Kumar, thinks there's something odd about the case in a way that makes it the Folly's business.The young man on the tracks, James Gallagher, was indeed killed by a magic-imbued weapon, and he is, inconveniently, the son of a US Senator. The weapon was a broken portion of plate, of an unfamiliar make called Empire Pottery. When they go to the young man's home in London, they meet his housemate, a rather flighty and odd young man named Zachary Palmer, and see a figurine that matches the broken shard James was killed with, and which is also imbued with magic. Zach can show them where James got the figurine--but not immediately. The market is closed.In the meantime, there's the question of how James got to where he was found, since none of the monitor cameras caught him going into either Baker Street Station, or any plausible nearby stations. Sgt. Kumar concedes there are secret entrances to the system, but not, he says, secret from the BTP, he says. That would be a terrible idea.Peter finds himself assigned to the murder team investigating James Gallagher's murder, to roughly equal distress on his side, and the murder cops who have never worked with the Folly before. He's also soon working with FBI Special Agent Kimberly Reynolds, a conservative Evangelical who does not regard magic positively. (Fortunately, Aaronovitch is far too good a writer to make her stupid or comical.)Soon Peter's problems include the pottery company which is a small part of a construction company, a dealer in goods of sometimes questionable origin, who are Zach's unloving family because he's the product of an affair with, apparently, one of the Fae, some of Mother Thames's daughters, a visiting Taiwanese magic practitioner, and a whole town, possibly a city, living in the secondary and unused tunnels of the London underground.The diplomacy needed to interact successfully with the river goddesses; the underground fae city; an Evangelical FBI Special Agent who is following US law enforcement rules on carrying, pulling, and using her gun--none of this is what Peter thought he was signing up for when he let himself be recruited into magic and the policing thereof on the strength of his ability to see ghosts. Working with a murder investigation team that has never worked with the Folly before and is understandably both skeptical, and averse to the Folly's negative effect on case clear-up rates is also a challenge, if a more mundane one.It's a challenging case, in which Peter learns more about the magical population of London, magic itself, and his own mind. We also see Leslie May, the other apprentice wizard, who is still adjusting to living with her damaged face, and starting to learning that the people of the magical world look at her maskless face, and don't care. This might have repercussions in later stories.All in all, a very good story, with characters who continue to grow.Recommended.I bought this audiobook.
    • 4/5
      Book three in the Rivers of London series, starring Peter Grant: London cop, apprentice wizard, and not-so-secret nerd. I read the first two of these a number of years ago, and then stalled out on it for no particularly good reason. At least I'm finally getting back to it now!This installment features Peter investigating someone who was stabbed to death on a railroad track with a shard of magical pottery, a case that ends up taking him through lots of tunnels, secret passages, and (unfortunately) sewers. The mystery plot was okay, but not exactly compelling, and it did feel like it was maybe wrapped up a bit too suddenly at the end. But Peter is an appealing character, and there's a lot of humor, some interesting fantasy elements, and an entertainingly earthy depiction of police work, so it's mostly a fun read, anyway.
    • 5/5
      Read it again, this time as a splendidly narrated audio book. Love the police procedural aspects, love the sarcastic humor, and it's a good review of Peter Grant's adventures -- how could I forget Abigail, precocious paranormal girl guide? And The quiet people? And how Zach came to be introduced to our heroes? Also, very interesting trying to get a handle on Leslie from the ground up, and how unique to have a book where the murderous jealousy is over artistic ability? Great stuff.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoy this series. The worldbuilding is outstanding.
    • 4/5
      I'm so in love with this series. I can't wait for the next book to come out.
    • 4/5
      Full-on fabulous. Adored the two subtle Doctor Who references. Might be the best last line I've ever read.
      Might've written more, but must plunge into No. 4!
    • 4/5
      This book is quite good, but I really have a problem with the blurb. The entire part about the beautiful, ambitious, religious FBI agent - it just doesn't happen that way. Religion is barely mentioned in the book. It simply isn't a factor. This is one of the most misleading blurbs I have read.
    • 4/5
      Devoured it in three days, probably my favourite of the three so far
    • 5/5
      I adore this series. That is all. :)
    • 4/5
      Less gruesome and terrifying than the other two books, which is a plus for me. (Caveat: may not apply if you're claustrophobic.) The ending feels strangely unresolved, though.
    • 5/5
      Each book is better than the last in this series, and should be read in order. I'm doing the audible versions, and they are FABULOUS. Magical Mystery books with great descriptions, interesting plots, and sudden twists that leave you happy and wanting to hear more.
    • 4/5
      Back again with Peter Grant, the apprentice wizard who lives at the folly with his mentor, Nightingale. There has been a murder, and something is not quite right, The investigating offices have their suspicions so they call on on the Met's supernatural investigators.

      The victim is a young male and he has been killed by a sherd of pottery. But this is the son of a US senator and he wants the FBI involved to find the murderer as soon as possible.

      And so Peter begins to delve beneath the surface of the London streets. What he finds is not particularly pleasant, and is a whole lot more dangerous than he anticipated. As the investigation gathers pace so the rivers of London, characters from the previous books, surface again.

      Aaronovitch has made this new story a bit darker, with greater tension, but with the same bone dry wit and humour. The luge scene is very amusing, and with the FBI character, Kimberly Reynolds, adds a frisson of competitiveness as Peter seeks the perpetrator of the murder.

      On to the next now.
    • 4/5
      I'd call this the best of the series so far. LIghtweight but quality entertainment. Worth the read.
    • 4/5
      third entry in the Rivers of London series. mostly, this is as entertaining and hilarious as usual, but the big discovery was somehow the least compelling. i'm still hooked, though, and i love the personalities Peter Grant is still drawing into his Folly. onward...