This is an urban fantasy series I’m in a rush to read. Everything in it is pitch-perfect, from the police to the magic system to the characterization to the plot twists to the sheer terrifying wtf-ery of the world-building. Cornell never quite does the expected either, and is a master of maintaining tension. If you’ve read the other two in the series, this expands even more on the world and really kicks the series arc into gear. If you haven’t, go read ‘em, partly because they’re excellent and partly because you’ll get a lot more from this one if you know the context.

8/10 ( )

'The Shadow Police' series is a sort of grittier, more working-class, darker version of 'Rivers of London'. Here, magic comes from the weight of London's history, not from river goddesses. The posh folks of The Folly are replaced by a team of London coppers used to bringing down drug dealers and human traffickers and the magic keeps trying to kill them

I found the second book "The Severed Streets" to be well-written but very depressing and soaked in sadness. The Shadow Police themselves are a major source of grief and depression. They deceive each other, distrust each other, despise themselves for the deceit and bemoan the distrust. They are reckless and desperate and well out of their depth.

I thought the third book might be more whimsical. After all, how serious can a book called 'Who Killed Sherlock Holmes' be?'.

There is a move from total despair towards hope in this book. The main characters are trying to find a way back from the damage that was done to them or that they did to themselves in the last book. I liked that Paul Cornell didn't just have everyone bounce back but recognised that actions have consequences and that dealing with evil always has a price. I also liked that he delivered on the story behind the senior police officer that the Shadow Police report in to. Her story humanised the big reveal and built her into a key character.

In 'The Severed Streets' we learned that something big had changed the way magic worked in Londo, letting loose bad things and tainting the magical community by allowing power to be paid for by money rather than personal sacrifice.

In 'Who Killed Sherlock Holmes' we learn that the change coincided with the destruction of the magical Establishment - the Continuous Projects Committee that imposes civilised control on magical forces. It's clear that, although The Establishment continued to use traditions that have kept London safe for centuries, they had forgotten why and how the protocols they use to do this operate. They'd become complacent and vulnerable to attack.

As a consequence of this::
'The real London was coming back, alongside poverty and tubercolosis and history. The civilised consensus was over.'
Suddenly, I was thinking of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, ripping apart all the shared assumptions and values that defined the England that the men and women who survived World War II had wanted to create.

I checked the original publication date for this book. May 2016, one month before the Brexit Referendum.

It makes you wonder, If something evil broke into our world in 2016, wiping away civilised constraint, what would the world look like in 2020?

Actually, I think I know the answer to that question.

I enjoyed the book for the puzzle it solved, for the development of the story arc and for the evolution of the characters. The ending wasn't a cliff-hanger but it contained a solid hook that made me want to read book four.

Then I was told there is no book four. How can this happen? Ask the publishers.
Here's what Paul Cornell had to say about it in 2017: 'The Future Of The Shadow Police'

I hope the series comes back. I think we need a darker view of London and the people running it. ( )

3 and a half stars. maybe i read the three existing Shadow Police mysteries (the ending rather suggests there will be more eventually) too close together and feel overfull. maybe my pretty expansive willingness to suspend belief got tested way too often to keep on stretching indefinitely. maybe this book just tried to cram too many elements into itself, as their overflowing case board itself acknowledged. even the Sherlock Holmes plot seemed overblown - too much and too little at the same time. whatever the problem, i think i've at this point read enough of this series. but hey, YMMD. ( )

This book delivers a whole heap of things the series--to my mind--desperately needed. It has a fun opening, desperately needed after how the last book left the team. It ticks back up into hopefulness (albeit pretty grim and desperate hope in many regards). And it gave me all the Lofthouse-the-lady-guvnor that I have been desperately wanting.

Also featuring some interesting messing around with the mythos of Sherlock Holmes, great deepening of the mythos of London, and all of them finding a little more balance within their world. What comes next promises to be really interesting. ( )

I find Paul Cornell to be an interesting writer with some really unique and fresh takes on urban fantasy, and this series in particular blew me away with London Falling, and I've been a fan since. This latest book, however, seems to stretch my suspension of disbelief just a bit too far. I enjoyed the first half of the book immensely, and some of the things that happen are brilliant in their creativity and vision, but as the book went on, I found myself less happy with some of the resolutions that just didn't feel right to me, and I felt really unhappy with a few that just seemed contrived or too far-fetched for me to feel satisfied. Cornell's books are never an easy read, although they are a fast read. By that, I mean, that it's easy to lose focus in some sections which can be complicated and bogged down in detail, but usually the plots and ideas are so unusual and different that I find it worth the effort, and it felt like it was for most of the early part of the book. Maybe I was expecting too much with some of the threads, the buildup left me wanting more, or something different, but I found myself disappointed. I would probably give the next book a try to see if more is explained or fleshed out, as I feel like my disappointment might be related to some of the character not seeming to make enough sense to me, which could be because we don't know enough about them yet, but we'll see. ( )