THIS is one for those Harry Potter fans who are missing a read about wizardry.

It is former screenwriter Ben Aaronovitch fourth novel about his character DC Peter Grant.

Peter is portrayed as a fairly typical London cop except for being the Metropolitan Police’s first apprentice wizard in decades.

Along with his mentor, DCI Nightingale, and colleague Lesley May, he’s responsible for keeping an eye on London’s supernatural side.

Much of the books’ success comes from Aaronovitch’s meticulous handling of tone.

The magic itself works to very precise rules, which one ignores at grave peril. Such a set-up could easily become constricting, particularly when the nature of the genre means mayhem and murder are mainstays.

But the Peter Grant stories are fun reading, simply through his wry narrative style.

Wonderful as the world-building and characterisation have always been, the first two books had one weakness: the plotting.

An alert reader will have worked out what’s going on hundreds of pages before the characters.

But this is an improvement.

Rather than jumping ahead we’re along for the ride here, as the team try to join the dots between an unidentifiable corpse, a stolen grimoire – magic book – and a profoundly peculiar south London housing estate whose architect may have practised magic.

The climax does leave some threads of the plot hanging presumably to be picked up in the next book – but it also provides enough of a resolution to satisfy.

Ben Aaronovitch is...

  • The son of Sam Aaronovitch, the late economist and communist.
  • He is also the younger brother of actor Owen Aaronovitch and British journalist David Aaronovitch.
  • He is a former screenwriter who wrote for the television shows Doctor Who and Casualty.
  • He worked as a bookseller at Waterstones.
  • He lives in London and has a son, Karifa.