This was...not good. Aaronovitch seems to have half-assed the research because his main character, a female American FBI agent, does not come across as a convincing FBI agent, American, or female. Oh, and he set the story in Wisconsin, named a character after a recent governor of that state, and then has not a single character comment on it.

I hope that if Aaronovitch writes more books set in the US he does some in-depth research, or at the very least gets some Americans to read the manuscript so he doesn't make so many ridiculous errors.

Received via NetGalley. ( )

Somebody should have really told Ben Aaronovitch not to name a Wisconsin character "Scott Walker"... That said, this was an enjoyable story, nice to get another new perspective in this world. I find the novellas to be not as tightly written and edited as the mainline novels, and this one is no exception. Would still recommend it to fans of the series! ( )

I listened to an audio-book of this. The American agent from previous books in the series returns in a stand-alone novella. She is with "the basement" branch of the FBI, investigating odd occurrences. She is sent to Wisconsin after a former agent calls in a tip and then disappears. She arrives just after an "ice tornado" has decimated the police station and a huge snow-storm has closed off the town. Kimberley persists on her mission anyway and soon uncovers supernatural events linked to an expedition that mysteriously disappeared 170 years before. ( )

I’m always happy to see what’s new in the Rivers of London-verse, even if Nightingale isn’t there to investigate. (I know even wizards like him can’t live forever, but I love him to pieces and don’t want him to ever leave.) Nice to acknowledge the Indigenous people who were in North America first; I just hope an Ojibwe person was able to provide advice on those bits of the book.

I do think calling this a novella is pushing it if it’s over 200 pages. Maybe these days 200 pages is a novella because people regularly crank out 800+-page doorstoppers. ( )

2020s, urban-fantasy, FBI, verbal-humor, situational-humor, Northern-Wisconsin, myths-legends, mysteries, novella, magic, missing-persons, supernatural, paranormal, meteorologist, series, snow-season, blizzards, tornado, Lake-Superior, Ojibwe, spoof*****

FBI Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds gets tagged to go to the frozen North of Wisconsin in response to a call from a retired FBI agent who signals that magic is involved. When she gets there things are even loonier and the man has disappeared. Good thing that she has spent time in England with Peter Grant and has a fair handle on EuroAmerican spooks and magic. While in Wisconsin she gets to learn a bit about Ojibwe magic and tales, including a nineteenth century expedition that seemed to vanish and also a snow monster. Great story with only a few glitches because of the thing about England/America being separated by a common language. Excellent fun!
Good thing I'm overdue on this review, because the first ever tornadoes ever recorded in Wisconsin in the usually frigid month of February caused more than $2.4 million in damage on February 8, 2024.
I requested and received a temporary EARC from Subterranean Press via NetGalley, misplaced it and paid for an audio copy. Don't waste your money on the audio because the narrator will make you nuts with her pronunciations of liberry (library) and parkerrr (parka as in jacket). But the story is 10/10. ( )