I have one more Rivers of London Novella (and the new novel, Stone & Sky) before I’m caught back up. Time to talk about the novella, The Masquerades of Spring.
The Masquerades of Spring focuses on the US, but not in the present day, or on Agent Reynolds. No, this set in the 1920s, and introduces a new character – Casterbrook graduate and British Emigre, Augustus “Gussie” Berrycloth-Young, who is currently living it up in New York City as a closeted gay (possibly gender-fluid?) man and general Bernie Wooster-esque upper-class twit, who has Thomas Nightingale drop on his doorstep to investigate an enchanted saxophone. This leads Gussie and his boyfriend Lucien “Lucy” Gibbs (a Black man who also writes music criticism for various independent Black-run newspapers separate from his day job as a copy writer) end up guiding Nightingale through the Harlem jazz scene.
Gussie is a bit of a tough character to follow at first, because he’s kind of an ass. It isn’t until Nightingale and Lucien join the story that Gussie mellows out enough to become enjoyable. That said, Nightingale and Harlem are the real stars of the story. We see a side of Nightingale here that we never see in the earlier novels, and I feel like if Peter Grant found out about it, it’d make for some interesting conversations. Additionally, Aaronovitch gives Harlem the level of research and respect he gives to London. This includes bringing up a few historical figures and locations to add that sense of verisimilitude that reminds the reader that 1920s Harlem – and the Harlem Renaissance – were bigger than Langston Hughes and various other names you probably learned about in English class in college or High School.
Honestly, despite the rough start, I came out of the book wanting more about Gussie – which I think is a strong point in both the character and the book’s favor. We’ll see if he gets revisited in the future.
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