The second of the Rivers of London novellas I’m reviewing at the moment is one from significantly earlier than Winter’s Gift, and set at basically the opposite time of the year. What Abigail Did That Summer goes back in the timeline to Foxglove Summer, and checks in with what was going on in London, with Peter’s cousin Abigail getting to know the Foxes, and going on some adventures of her own.
As with most of the Rivers novels so far, the story is told entirely from the first person perspective, in this case entirely from Abigail’s perspective, meaning we’re having the story told from the perspective of an adolescent Black girl. This is significant, as while the Rivers novels that focus on Peter can be somewhat justly criticized as being copaganda, as the only characters in media possibly more committed to the principles of Peelian Policing than Peter Grant are Captain Vimes from Discworld, and Nicholas Angel from Hot Fuzz. Abigail, as someone more likely to have been racially profiled by The Filth (which she brings up more than a few times), is definitely not going to view the Met through the same sort of comparatively rose-tinted glasses that Peter does.
The case for this novel involves the mysterious disappearance (and then re-appearance, and then disappearance again), of a bunch of teenage boys and girls, possibly in relation to a haunted house near Hampstead Heath. Also, having just written that sentence, I just realized that alliterates, by a lot. To the point that it had to have been deliberate.
The novel is also annotated by I believe Dr. Walid for the benefit of Agent Reynolds of the FBI. Or, rather, I think it’s Dr. Walid – I listened to the audiobook – and the annotations are read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, using the voice for Dr. Walid. If the annotations are by Professor Postmartin, then Holdbrook-Smith’s voice for the two characters is very similar, to the point where I can’t necessarily tell them apart, aggravated by the fact that they don’t normally share scenes.
In all, What Abigail Did That Summer is an excellent little expansion to the Rivers of London series, and I would love to see us get some form of YA spinoff to the series focusing on Abigail – beyond just focusing on Peter Grant.
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