Re-read: Rivers of London/Midnight Riot, Chapters 9 and 10

In these chapters, Peter meets Tyburn Lady Ty, and it doesn't go well. Don't blow up priceless marble antiques, Peter! That's not how you win friends and influence people! Lady Ty is kind of an asshole, but she's not really wrong, is she? The Folly is outdated. I think Nightingale knows this, deep down, which is one of the reasons he takes on Peter as an apprentice.

We get quite a bit of detai about Peter's father and his heroin addiction, and get more hints about his disastrous A-levels. The more we learn about Peter's childhood as the series goes on, the more I want to hug him.

Anyhow, there's not a lot of time to worry about Lady Ty, because Mr. Punch is escalating his murder spree, but fortunately Peter has a cunning plan to arrest him, so they go and get a warrant from the ghost magistrate and OMGWTFNIGHTINGALE!!!!!!!

Seriously, I nearly had a quiet heart attack the first I read this chapter. I was sure Nightingale was going to die. Maybe I should've figured out that Aaronovitch wouldn't have created a character with so much potential only to kill him off in the first book, but in my defense, overpowered mentor figures don't tend to have long lifespans in fantasy literature, at least not after they meet the hero. I thought Nightingale was going to be the Qui-gon Jinn to Peter's Obi-wan. But then he survived, and I breathed a big sigh of relief, and then OMGWTFLESLEY!!!!!

I liked that despite all the magic, it was plain old-fashioned police work that let Peter figure out that Lesley was sequestered. Peter really is a good copper, even if he doesn't always believe it himeslf.

What did you guys think? Were you any better at predicting the plot twists than I was?