It’s a police mantra that all members of the public are guilty of something, but some members of the public are more guilty than others.

The more things change…

This time around, we have both Peter and Leslie as apprentices at the Folly, learning how to do magic things–

“I’d love to stick some high vestigia material into a mass spectrometer, but first I’d have to get myself a mass spectrometer and then I’d have to learn enough physics to interpret the bloody results.”

–and use those abilities to investigate those stranger cases in London.

The key is unlikely juxtapositions. Lots of people read books about the occult, but if you find them alongside books by or about Isaac Newton, especially the long boring ones, then hackles are raised, flags hoisted and, more importantly, notes made in my notebook.

…the more they remain the same…

And then they find a body sans face.

Attend a peace summit between Rivers/Fae. (I actually really do enjoy how fuzzy and ill defined Fae apparently are in this world. It’s interesting and feels somehow more ‘Fae’ than you often see.)

Move into an estate (British for project housing).

“Peter,” she said. “When you threaten people it’s usually more effective if they don’t have to spend five minutes working out what you just said first.”

It’s a strange book.

…until quite suddenly things aren’t the same anymore.

Oof.

That’s a brutal ending.

I’ll just leave it at that.

And immediately go start the next book.