I’ve been reading and loving Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series ever since I picked up the first book in a London Waterstones back in 2011, but his 2021 novella What Abigail Did That Summer might just be the most fun I’ve ever had with this series! It’s set at the same time as Foxglove Summer, and explores what young Abigail Kamara – not yet a trainee wizard herself, but getting there – is doing while Peter Grant is up in Herefordshire searching for missing girls. What Abigail is doing, it turns out, is engaging in an unofficial investigation of her own to work out why teenagers are going briefly missing on Hampstead Heath only to reappear, somewhat confused, back with their families. Along the way she meets and befriends a slightly strange boy called Simon, does her very best to avoid as much adult involvement as possible, and makes good use of a small army of talking foxes.
It’s a relatively straightforward plot – as you might expect from a novella – and I don’t want to spoil any details here, but suffice to say it’s classic Aaronovitch. Various magical creatures and members of the demi-monde? Check. Vestigia and the residual impact of magic on people and objects? Check. Intriguing explorations of London’s geography and history along the way? Also check. It’s not a story that’s going to drive the main series’ meta-narrative forward (again: novella), but rather a side story that’s clearly part of the same world (Abigail isn’t the only familiar face you’ll see, even if Peter isn’t present) but which looks at things from a different angle. It’s full of nice little nods to the wider series, not least in Professor Postmartin’s footnotes which are addressed to Agent Reynolds and provide commentary and attempted translations of Abigail’s youthful vernacular, but it has a tone and feel all of its own too.
Abigail sees magic and the demi-monde in a very different light to Peter, taking all of its weirdness in her stride with barely a blink – not least the brilliant talking foxes who talk like spies, love human food and repeatedly ask Abigail for pets (or, more specifically, to “do the scratchy thing”). If you’ve been following the series (especially the graphic novels) then you’ll have come across the foxes before (if not, you’re in for a treat) – they’ve always been fun, despite their brief appearances, but here they almost steal the show! Luckily, Abigail provides to be a fantastic protagonist and holds her own in the entertainment stakes – in her own way she’s as witty as Peter is, youthful and naive in some respects but delightfully sharp as well. Aaronovitch delves into her character here in more detail than we’ve seen before, revealing a little of her family situation and generally illustrating a little of why she is the way she is, and it’s brilliantly done as always.
I always think that a great novella offers its author an opportunity to go off on tangents from their main series, to explore characters and ideas that maybe wouldn’t work as well in the context of a regular novel, and that’s exactly what this does. It’s not trying to provide an entry point into the series or kickstart a YA spin-off, like I saw one reviewer falsely assume – instead, it allows fans of the series to spend more time in this brilliant world and get to know a secondary (for now, at least) character a little better. There are a few things that I didn’t think worked perfectly – the plot didn’t feel quite as polished as Aaronovitch’s novels usually do, the pacing lagged (for me) a little towards the end, and it doesn’t feel like Aaronovitch has quite got a handle on Abigail’s voice in the way he does with Peter’s – but I’m really nit-picking here. These are minor details, and didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the story.
If this is the only book that Abigail gets to herself then I’ll be happy, because it’s a total joy to read – there are moments of darkness, especially in Abigail’s backstory, but it had me laughing out loud throughout, and I can see myself happily revisiting it in short order. It does feel as though Aaronovitch might be setting her up for a greater involvement in the series, however, and if that’s the case (whether in further novellas or playing a bigger role in the main novel series) then I’ll be over the moon! As for the foxes…I’ve a feeling they might work best in small doses as part of the regular novel series, but fingers crossed they’ll find their way in here and there, and I certainly wouldn’t say no to them making their presence known in another novella!
Many thanks to Gollancz and Ben Aaronovitch for providing an advance copy of What Abigail Did That Summer in exchange for an honest review.
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