Winter’s Gifts

• Author: Ben Aaronovitch
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: December 31, 2023
• Publisher: Subterranean Press
• Series: Rivers of London #9.5

Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: gore, blood, racism, religious intolerance

WE DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY OVER HERE 

When retired FBI Agent Patrick Henderson calls in an ‘X-Ray Sierra India’ incident, the operator doesn’t understand. He tells them to pass it up the chain till someone does. That person is FBI Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds. Leaving Quantico for snowbound Northern Wisconsin, she finds that a tornado has flattened half the town—and there’s no sign of Henderson. Things soon go from weird to worse, as neighbors report unsettling sightings, key evidence goes missing, and the snow keeps rising—cutting off the town, with no way in or out… Something terrible is awakening. As the clues lead to the coldest of cold cases—a cursed expedition into the frozen wilderness—Reynolds follows a trail from the start of the American nightmare, to the horror that still lives on today…

I often finding myself checking every few months if Ben Aaronovitch has another book coming out, because it’s often the only way that I find out if there’s an upcoming book in the Rivers of London series. And since I seriously love that series, I was thrilled to discover that YES! There was another book coming out, and it was going to be soon. 

While I do find myself partial to Peter’s voice, I was exceptionally curious to see what it would be like to have a story told through Kimberley’s eyes. She’s a character that we met earlier in the series, when she’s dispatched to London and winds up collaborating with Peter to solve a crime. That’s when she’s exposed to magic for the first time, and despite her fundamentalist Christian upbringing, she manages to accept this and just keep her cool no matter what.

In this book, Kimberley is assigned to investigate an incident called in by a retired agent. She arrives in Northern Wisconsin expecting some weird bollocks (as they’re called in London), but the weirdness levels are high and rising. The town was hit by a surprise tornado, and the retired agent is missing. Even worse, a vicious blizzard prevents anyone from entering or leaving the town, as strange events occur more frequently.

Kimberley continues to be an interesting character. Although her behavior doesn’t exactly match up with people raised as fundamentalist Christians that I’ve come across, I was willing to let it slide because maybe it’s different for people in England? I loved her tendency to just take everything in stride, and that also comes across as very British to me. No matter how weird the situation gets, she never loses it. 

Just like Peter can’t get his job done without the right assistance, Kimberley relies on a local source for assistance. William Boyd, a local meteorologist and Indigenous man, is the perfect foil to Kimberley’s laid-back and practical personality. He’s another one who just takes everything as it comes and doesn’t sweat anything, yet always makes time to fanboy over unusual weather phenomenon. In addition, there’s some romantic tension sizzling between these two throughout the story, and it was a nice side plot that didn’t overwhelm the main plot.

As for the main plot, I was here for it. Aaronovitch has this way of hooking me within the first chapter and not letting go until the very end. Although I’ve been struggling to read as quickly as I’m used to, I read this book at my usual rate (aka ridiculously fast) because I had to find out what happened next. With this kind of story, I didn’t know what was going to happen next. Scratch that, I kind of had an idea of what might happen, but I had no idea why, and was constantly surprised by the plot twists in this short book. 

Overall, this scratched my itch for a Rivers of London novel, and while Kimberley won’t ever fill Peter’s place in my heart, I would love to see her starring in a spin-off series exploring how magic evolved in America, and how practitioners are different in various areas of the country. That could be really fun, but at the same time, I’m jonesing for a fix of Peter Grant, since it’s been a while since we had a book starring him. Also, if you’re planning to start the Rivers of London series, I highly recommend the audiobooks. The narrator is incredible. 

People who have sat around with me while I’m reading, especially when there’s a surprising reveal, a shocking plot twist, or an unexpected event often look up in alarm when I gasp audibly. The gasp factor is directly related to the number of times I audibly gasp during a reading, and there isn’t an upper limit.

Gasp Factor: 11

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