Deadly Ever After

Ben Aaronovitch’s ever-fascinating mix of London policing, river goddesses and otherworldly antics seems to be switching its focus to the younger generation. Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale is taking a step back from the running of The Folly, London’s smallest policing unit, whose remit – colloquially known as weird shit – is anything that the rest of the force prefers to avoid thinking too closely about. His apprentice, DC Peter Grant, is now safely hooked up with Beverley Brook, and is the proud father of twin girls.

The spotlight in Deadly Ever After falls on Mama Thames’ younger daughters, Chelsea and Olympia, the goddesses of the river Westbourne and Counter’s Creek. Fortunately, the graphic novel starts with helpful character profiles of the main protagonists, including Abigail Kamara, the daughter of Peter’s parents’ neighbours. Are you following this? If not, do keep up! Abigail, intensely curious and gifted in magic, is the Folly’s latest trainee.

Chelsea and Olympia, bored and smoking weed on a stroll deep in the woods, get together with a bunch of trendy 30-somethings on a camping trip. An enchanted mulberry tree livens the evening up considerably and high jinks, spiced with the sharp edge of danger quickly follow, leaving the twins floundering as a series of odd, folk story-related incidents start happening around their acquaintances from the forest. A vegan turns savage and attacks a young girl’s grandmother, one of the others falls into an inexplicable coma after eating an apple given to her by her stepmother and one of the actors in the group develops an equally inexplicable attraction to frogs.

With Peter and Nightingale busy elsewhere, Chelsea and Olympia are determined to resolve the problem on their own – with a little help from Abigail, the usual posse of talking foxes and their elder sister, Bev.

The Rivers of London graphic novels pack in lots of action, and all take their place in the wider canon along with the full-length novels and occasional novellas. Deadly Ever After includes the usual cover gallery and some preliminary character studies by artist José Marie Beroy, with Chelsea and Olympia confusingly referred to as the daughters of Bev Brook, rather than her sisters. There are also three panels showing the interesting process of turning script to art.

Deadly Ever After credits Ben Aaronovitch as the series creator, but in this instance the writing credit goes to Los Angeles-based Celeste Bronfman, a newcomer to the extended world of The Folly but not a newcomer to graphic novels.

My initial reaction, without registering the change, was the feeling that a degree of writing to a checklist was involved, with guest appearances by Folly favourites such as the cheese puff-eating talking foxes, sassy Abigail and an even briefer walk-on – or rather run-on – part by Peter and Nightingale being pursued by a sinister train with even more sinister passengers. Chelsea and Olympia come over as indolent and not overly likeable, but perhaps that just shows my low tolerance for feckless, self-centred teenagers. The foxes and Abigail were as engaging as ever but needed to be used for more than just a couple of cameos.

The art is strong, with gorgeous colour choices bringing each potentially lethal folk tale vividly to life in verdant woodland and sinister night landscapes. The scary, vengeful artist was a great character and the story itself hung together well. I very much hope the magic that has always brought the series to life isn’t starting to fade, but if Chelsea and Olympia continue in the limelight, they’ll need to learn to be more likeable, taking some lessons in that regard from the cheerfully sarcastic Abigail. The foxes should always be tempted back with their favourite food as often as possible. For me, they steal the show every time they stroll into a scene. Every urban fantasy should have talking foxes!