Things I still love about this series?

The whole concept of an ‘Everyman’ cop, thrown into a magical world and doing his best to apply a scientific mindset to the whole thing. He’s discovering magic and we’re discovering it along with him. And even after 9 books now, it still hasn’t gotten old!

That some magical phenomena that seem visible to the naked eye don’t register either on chemical film or a photosensor array is something we’ve known for some time. Our current theory – that is, mine and my cousin Abigail’s – is that no photons are being emitted or bouncing off the ghost, or the unicorn or the burning spear of a vengeful angel. What we think we see is, in fact, our brain’s interpretation of input from different senses – the one with which we ‘sense’ vestigia and ghosts, et cetera. We’ve even run up a tentative experimental protocol and one day, when we have time, we might even get to carry it out.

Plus, we have all sorts of other world building in addition to the magic:

The trouble with foxes is, if you let one into your house they don’t half take the piss. Although Abigail is quick to point out that with the talking variety, at least they don’t literally mark their territory.

And the humor that drives the whole series.

And definitely some Latin,’ said Alastair. ‘Which I’d done at school, of course.’

‘Of course,’ I said.

‘And had never really got the hang of it – all those declensions,’ said Alastair. ‘But that evening we sat in the pub afterwards and chatted away – in Latin! Like we’d been speaking it all our lives.’

‘Hard c or soft c?’ I asked.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Did you pronounce it wenee, widee, weeshee,’ I said, ignoring Guleed’s puzzled look, ‘or weekee?’

‘It’s funny you should ask that,’ said Alastair. ‘Somebody else asked me the same question once. Why is it important?’

‘It’s not really that important, but it would be useful to narrow down what flavour of Latin you were speaking,’ I said.

I understod that reference / question!

One thing that we keep seeing more is Nightingale taking more of a step back and allowing Peter to come into his own. It’s a natural progression of things, but it’s still great to see. I do enjoy their mentorship:

Could you compel someone to kill another human being?’ I asked.

Nightingale was silent for a long moment, and then he looked away from me.

‘During the war,’ he said. ‘I’ve ordered men to shoot strangers and I was the moving force behind an air raid in Norway. I didn’t give the order directly, but it was at my instigation.’

‘I meant with magic,’ I said.

‘Oh,’ said Nightingale. ‘That. Possibly – I’ve never tried it. Certainly not in a way that would last for weeks and months, let alone span the centuries.’

He just answered the question.

And didn’t even consider magic.

Oh. Right.

‘What do you see when you look at me like that?’ she asked.

I didn’t have a good answer, so I went for honesty instead.

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Everything. That’s what I see – everything.’

‘You think I’m that huge, then?’ she said. ‘I am woman, I contain multitudes. All shall look upon me and despair.’

‘Shall I compare thee to a giant squid,’ I said. ‘Thou art more lovely and less tentacled.’

Bev is super pregnant.

They’re going to have to deal with that one as well!

Quite a book.

All that and we haven’t even really gotten to the main plot! It’s not as big a broader world building step as we’ve had, but it’s still an interesting expansion to the world> I really do feel like we’re in this for the long hall, and I’m okay with that!

Looks like there is still one more out in this series so far, thus… onward!