Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch – Review

Published: November 20, 2018

Publisher: DAW

Series: Peter Grant #7

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 303 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Synopsis:
Join Peter Grant, detective and apprentice wizard, for a brand new case . . 

Martin Chorley, aka the Faceless Man, wanted for multiple counts of murder, fraud, and crimes against humanity, has been unmasked and is on the run. Peter Grant, Detective Constable and apprentice wizard, now plays a key role in an unprecedented joint operation to bring Chorley to justice.

But even as the unwieldy might of the Metropolitan Police bears down on its foe, Peter uncovers clues that Chorley, far from being finished, is executing the final stages of a long term plan. A plan that has its roots in London’s two thousand bloody years of history, and could literally bring the city to its knees.

To save his beloved city Peter’s going to need help from his former best friend and colleague–Lesley May–who brutally betrayed him and everything he thought she believed in. And, far worse, he might even have to come to terms with the malevolent supernatural killer and agent of chaos known as Mr Punch . . .

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I inadvertently took a months long break from this series, but was so happy to return to it in July! Nothing beats a magical crime novel, especially when there’s a witty sense of humor thrown in by the main character. 

Lies Sleeping is the installment that finally, at long last, concludes the conflict with the Faceless Man, or Martin Chorley as we now know him. This has been building up for six books and I honestly didn’t expect this arc to wrap up until the final book of the series. And this could have easily been the final book, albeit with a somewhat open ended, though mostly pleasant conclusion. 

These books are somewhat tough to pin down as far as a plot summary goes beyond the very basics. Peter gets into so many different small situations that end up tying things together at the end of the book and I enjoy seeing how these “side quests” make themselves relevant to the conclusion. In the interest of keeping things free of any real spoilers, let’s just say that the book starts off with some wild thefts and weird goat sacrifices, Peter meets up with Sir William Tyburn again, and Mr. Punch is still relevant. 

This was a really satisfying end to the Folly’s dealings with Martin Chorley and I was left ultimately satisfied with how things ended with Lesley May. I liked the ending, but boy was I glad that I could go ahead and pick up the next installment to see how things turned out for Peter!