Fiction Reviews
Stone and Sky
(2025) Ben Aaronovitch, Orion, £20.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-4732-2671-5
‘This isn’t London. The rules are different up here, and so are the allegiances.’ Detective Sergeant Peter Grant takes a much-needed holiday up in Scotland. And he’ll need one when this is over… When a body is found in a bus stop, fresh from the sea, the case smells fishy from the off. Something may be stirring beyond the bay – but there’s something far stranger in the sky…
Like father, like son, by which I mean that the Hunters – senior and junior are big fans of Ben Aaronovitch’s 'Rivers of London' series, and have seen him several times, usually at the Edinburgh Book Festival, or perhaps on a Fantasycon panel about occult detectives. One thing that is apparent in these close encounters with the author is how much of a Londoner he is. He loves the place, often citing that it is the greatest city in the world, if not the universe, if not, the multiverse, so it was with some trepidation that I started Stone and Sky, wondering just how badly Scotland was going to be portrayed, but I breathed a sigh of relief when I came to the end. Scotland was still there and didn’t come off too badly. There was no country-sized smouldering crater where it used to be. I did have a couple of issues with a couple of things in the book, a few things that, perhaps, only a Scot would pick up, and maybe others wouldn’t, more of that later.
But what’s it about? Well, Peter and Nightingale and Dr. Walid are heading waaaaay North to investigate strange sightings of a panther-like creature near Aberdeen who has been killing sheep belonging to a friend of Dr. Walid, so why not take the whole family? Which means Peter bringing his wife, Beverley, a smart move as you never know where you are going to need the help of a river goddess, except where mum and Dad go, their twins must also follow, and since they might need babysitting, why not take Peter’s parents? And since they are sort of there on official business, bring along Peter’s niece Abigail and her talking fox, Indigo. Oh, and we’ll also have Peter’s dad’s jazz band who could do a couple of gigs at local clubs, so there is plenty of fun for everyone.
What isn’t fun for Peter is his involvement investigating the death of a man who came out of the sea, mugged another man for his clothes, and promptly died, but was it natural causes, or murder? And was the man actually human, or a sea-dwelling creature? Perhaps, even a kelpie, certainly the fact that he has gills seems to point in that direction, but what’s with the even more aggressive seagulls than normal, who seem to be able to appear and vanish at will? And there you have it, by moving the action to Scotland, Aaronovitch gets to widen his world, by adding more mythical creatures into the mix, just as he has when Peter has spread his wings to other parts of England or his novellas where we have been in Europe or the USA. So, we have the usual mix of crime, mystery, the supernatural, the magical and the mystical, and some colour in the form of Scottish characters, the city of Aberdeen, and wider themes like Scottish independence and the impact of North Sea Oil on the environment.
If you know the series, this is an effortless read. Peter is the main narrator, although sometimes the story is told from Abigail’s point of view as she encounters the panther everyone is looking for, and a strange teenage girl she quickly develops the hots for who is actually hunting the creature. If you don’t know the series, given the fact that this is novel number ten, and there have also been five novellas, and ten graphic novels (collecting the 'Rivers of London') comics, this is certainly not the place to start, but think of the fun you will have catching up, and who knows, one day we might see the series appearing on a streaming service near you.
As for my quibbles, well there is reference throughout to the Scottish Executive which was established in 1999, but the SNP started calling it the Scottish Government in 2007, and that name change was officially recognised in the Scotland Act 2012. Also, one character refers to the Gorbals and Paisley as being dodgy parts of Scotland. Really, the Gorbals? What decade are we living in? The 1960s? The Gorbals was gentrified long ago. And Paisley? No Aberdonian ned would make that comment, considering that Dundee – the drug capital of Scotland, and possibly the drug death capital of Europe – is less than 70 miles down the road. For him, there are worse places closer to home, but those quibbles aside, Scotland got off lightly, phew.
Ian Hunter
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