Whispers Under Ground & Broken Homes

I actually got into this series after watching one of Tanya Burr’s videos over on YouTube, she talked about going into a book store and telling the bookseller the type of books she liked. The bookseller said she would enjoy Rivers of London (the first in the series) and described the series as Harry Potter for adults. Which is a perfect description to sum this series up in a nutshell! Sooo… not surprisingly Rivers of London found itself in my amazon basket shortly after that video and here I am giving you a review on Whispers Under Ground and Broken Homes – you can tell how late I got into this series as this is a review on books three and four whilst the sixth book The Hanging Tree hit bookstores late last year in hardback!! – but needless to say this is an addictive series as I started the fourth book as soon as I finished the third (hence the double review) andddd it’s taking a lot of determination not to pick the fifth book up now and continue to find out what’s going on!

This series follows PC Peter Grant as he learns to be a wizard under the watchful eye of Nightingale and the on-the-day job activities to save London from the magical world. The writing style is modern, witty and slightly sarcastic… it feels gritty and real… I LOVE IT!

Whispers Under Ground explores the murder case of James Gallagher who ends up dead on a Baker Street Underground platform, Grant turns up to help the police determine if there is anything unusual about the case i.e. magical… and it becomes clear that how the body ended up on the platform is suspiciously unclear! With the help of Lesley and Nightingale, Grant uncovers a secret underground community that hold the answers to the case.

Broken Homes sees the return of the Faceless Man who’s been linked to a murder body. Peter and Lesley end up undercover in Skygarden Tower London, which was built by a German architect who has a few too many magical books in his collection. Grant must work out what makes the Tower so special and why the Faceless Man is linked to it all.

I have to admit, I think I preferred the story plot of Whispers Under Ground more than Broken Homes, I think it’s because I have always loved the London Underground and it was fascinating to delve into ideas of what’s behind all those closed doors! However Broken Homes had the most incredible cliff hanger ending!

It’s been nice to read a series again! The amount of characters you get to meet and the maturity of each, is always a huge advantage of multiple books; for example, I love the River Goddesses – who appear in all of the books but were introduced in great detail in the first two.

For anyone out there, who grew up with Harry Potter as a kid, I think this would be a great series to add to the bookshelf! It’s a magical world that feels so real, you can’t help thinking it could be…

Until next time, Chloé x