I also felt like there was a lot of ret-conning about Bev’s Russian thug who is now her one (and only–parenthetical always added) acolyte. Whereas the last two books in the series had big casts, a frenetic pace and a lot going on, this one felt more back-to-basics, with a tighter focus on Peter and the people he’s close to. A technology that stretches back to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage and forward to the future of artificial intelligence. Peter spends much of the book cut off from the badge and uniform that usually prop up his investigations, and while surrounded by the kind of tech that his magic usually fries, he must rely on old-fashioned detective work to help him catch the 'rat' hiding amongst the mice.

In this latest instalment, Peter Grant has left the police force and gone to work as a security guard at a tech company where things are not as they seem. I also enjoyed hearing the trust that Aaronovitch puts in KHS to select the right voice, sometimes for characters that the author himself hasn't "thought through" far enough to have given a voice in his own imagination.Hopefully, a second listen-through can redeem it, but there is no way that should be a thing for an urban fantasy.

After the initial bumpy 25% of the book I managed to get into the story and got a kick out of it - but it did take the seven books worth of acquired fandom to get through the rough beginning, and had I not been a fan, I probably would have put it down. His inner monolgue still meanders into the obscure from time to time, but I find that I don't mind it much when these obscure trivia end up helping him solve the case.I’ve read all the books but not the novellas – because, too expensive – and not the graphic novels, because I don’t really read graphic novels. It makes since; Aaronovitch tends to be light on descriptives, so a good actor can bring the character to life. Which version of this is true is something that Peter is finding hard to manage as well as the reader. Sometimes when I put my ear against the Bulge [Bev's stomach] and closed my eyes I’d swear I could hear the twins singing.

Still, most of the humor that I associate with the series seems to come from the tech-mogul’s conceit of naming his corporation and referencing all the roles within from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Because pheromones, because beauty, because laughter and joy when she was near and loss and emptiness when she was gone. I did appreciate the explanation Peter gives at one point about how ‘magic’ might force he and Bev’s relationship into different places, but I think that one’s out of the barn, so to speak.Rather than sit around, he takes a job with émigré Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner’s brand new London start up—the Serious Cybernetics Company. The first seven books had a long narrative arc involving the Faceless Man, which was mostly resolved in Book Seven, although Lesley remained at large. Everything in this installment of the series is exactly what I'd been missing from the last two books, The Hanging Tree and Lies Sleeping, and it's such a breath of fresh air to see the arch moving away from Lesley May and the Faceless Man mystery and see it heading into something new and exciting. I think the foxes are originally from The Furthest Station and Maksim from one of the series comics but yes, they have both appeared in more recent books since then. This book also relies heavily on the reader being familiar with all of Aaronovitch’s novellas, short stories and graphic novels, particularly The Furthest Station, but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect novel readers to keep up with all these associated stories (personally, I gave up on the graphic novels after all the gratuitous female nudity in Black Mould).