While I’m caught up on the Rivers of London novels, I’ve fallen behind on a couple of the novellas – at the end of 2023, I decided to get caught up on those novellas. The first I decided to get caught up on was Winter’s Gifts. The novel focuses on Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds (first appearing in Whispers Underground), and introduces the demimonde of the United States to the series, the same way that The October Man introduced the demimonde of Germany.
Winter’s Gifts sends Agent Reynolds to Northern Wisconsin, where a town has been getting clobbered by what appears to be a supernatural blizzard. Agent Reynolds will have to get to the bottom of this threat.
Where I think this novel works best is the fact that Reynolds is not a practitioner. She has been trained in detecting vestigia, and she has some knowledge of how magic works, but she can’t use magic to try to get out of problems the way that Peter Grant can.
Aaronovitch tries to do a pretty good job of trying to fairly incorporate Native American cultures into the story and to provide some proper representation for the cultures of that region. That said, I’m also not talking from a position of expertise, so both Aaronovich and I could have gotten it wrong.
The novel weaves its cast into the story well, with a solid conservation of narrative to make sure everyone gets enough page time. We even get a nice little cameo appearance by Peter over the phone to provide some useful exposition, as the one needed thing that Peter has that Agent Reynolds can’t do without is the Folly Library, and I don’t believe that Librarians from False Value had been introduced yet.
It makes for a nice addition to the Rivers series, and definitely makes me eager to see the Rivers of London RPG sourcebook for the United States when it comes out.
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