Foxglove Summer (Rivers of London #5) by Ben Aaronovitch

Format: Audio (BorrowBox)
Read: July 2025

There were things I liked about this fifth book in the series, but it lacked the elements that I enjoy the most, and it felt like treading water following the excitement at the end of Broken Homes. If the last book had all my favourite ingredients, this one goes heavier on the ones I don’t like!

Peter isn’t even in London for this one! He is sent off to Herefordshire on a random missing children case, by himself, as Nightingale has to stay behind and guard The Folly after Leslie’s betrayal at the end of the previous book. There is convoluted fae stuff, including unicorns, but it just didn’t grab me.

I learned in earlier books that I prefer Peter when he has a partner, and thankfully, he does get a local copper Dominic Croft to fill this role. I really enjoyed Dominic, with his local knowledge and his relationship with his farmer boyfriend. I’d be happy to see him return later in the series, but I don’t know how likely that is!

We also get to meet one of Nightingale’s old colleagues from the war, and finally get to hear what really happened with the wizards at Ettersberg, and Peter gets a cool staff. Filling in that bit of lore was thrilling!

But…  Nightingale himself was basically absent from the whole story, save for a couple of brief conversations on the phone. He is by a country mile the most compelling character, and it’s getting very frustrating that he’s been held back from us.

And this book sees Peter and Beverley Brook get together. I don’t like Beverley… She’s too much cartoonish attitude (especially the way the narrator does her voice), endless descriptions of how hot she is and consequently doesn’t feel like a real person. Essentially, her character embodies all the things I don’t like about this series! Their relationship just annoys me and gets in the way of the plot. The river sex scene I found beyond cheesy, intensely cringeworthy and had to keep pressing the skip ahead button.

The ending to the main plot was also stupid, anticlimactic and unsatisfying… Beverley magically saves Peter. No real explanation. The end.

The presence of Beverly of course means that the Male Gaze dial gets turned up and I have to hear about Peter’s penis. I particularly noticed in this book that it’s exclusively female characters who get head-to-toe descriptions down to what specific clothing they are wearing.

I just have to hope that if Peter is settling down with Beverley, his Male Gaze might calm down too… And the next book isn’t instead a sex scene every other chapter like bloody Moon Over Soho was…

Otherwise, I might be tiring of Peter…