Winter's Gifts by Ben Aaronovitch

First published in the UK in 2023; published in a deluxe edition by Subterranean Press on December 1, 2023

Winter’s Gifts is a good book for readers who miss the X Files. The supernatural/horror elements in this short novel (or long novella) are . . . wait for it . . . snow zombies. Don’t let that discourage you from reading the book. Being made largely of snow and trash, they bear little resemblance to ordinary zombies.

The novel is the most recent in Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London urban fantasy series. Winter’s Gifts features Kimberly Reynolds, who appeared in a couple of earlier novels in the series. Reynolds is an FBI agent who, like Mulder and Scully, handles cases for the FBI that have “unusual characteristics.”

A retired agent named Patrick Henderson contacted the Bureau and asked for a meeting in Eloise, Wisconsin to discuss such a case. Eloise is way up north, not far from the Apostle Islands. Reynolds must contend with a blizzard as she makes her way to the small town. She arrives just after a snow tornado destroys the town hall.

A neighbor tells Reynolds that she saw Henderson being dragged from his house by a shambling creature with antlers. The neighbor assumed she was dreaming and went back to bed. When Reynolds finds a mutilated deer, she wonders if Henderson was abducted by someone carrying a deer head. Her subsequent discovery of a human arm suggests that there is more to the case than animal mutilation.

Reynolds wonders whether the mystery that troubled Henderson ties into the Marsh expedition. Its explorers made camp in Eloise in 1843 before they disappeared. Reynolds finds the journal of a Canadian trapper in the local library that provides clues to the fate of the explorers. Reynolds suspects that wolf spirits may have been involved. Scott Walker, an ethnographer from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, helps Reynolds understand local legends and native history relating to supernatural creatures, leading Reynolds to suspect that a weaponized spirit may be preying on the community.

The other significant characters are the local librarian (Sadie Clarkson), a meteorologist (William Boyd), a little girl named Ashley, a grandmother named Ada Cole who owns the local hotel, and a missing hotel guest named Bunker. Some of the characters are magicians/wizards/witches. Some characters who aren’t practitioners of magic are knowledgeable about the supernatural. Bunker seems to have been compiling information about Henderson, Walker, and Clarkson for a mysterious purpose. Reynolds needs to decide whether she can trust characters who dabble in magic.

A couple of Native Americans join the cast in the novel’s second half. One of them is probably a supernatural being, although he’s not a snow zombie.

The explanation of the snow zombies involves desecration of the environment. The spirits are bothered by people who litter. Well, who isn’t? By definition, supernatural story elements don’t need to be rational, so the novel’s sketchy explanation of snow monsters is probably as good as any.

Aaronovitch keeps the story moving, adding elements of mild horror to an investigation of unusual circumstances before hastening the pace with chases through the snow and across the ice. While the story isn’t particularly frightening, the characters are entertaining. Reynolds develops a romantic attachment that might be more accurately described as a lustful attachment, although the G-rated narrative suggests that Reynolds hasn’t cast aside her religious upbringing to embrace the joys of hedonism.

While I’m not generally a fan of urban fantasy, I’ve found Aaronovitch to be one of its better practitioners. Readers who are fond of urban fantasy should be pleased with this latest entry in the Rivers of London series.

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Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

Published by Del Rey on July 31, 2012

Quantum entanglement is just pixie dust with the word quantum thrown in.  That, at least, is Constable Peter Grant’s explanation of magic.  Whether magic is caused by quantum entanglement or pixie dust, Grant is slowly learning to master it, a hobby that serves him well in his career with London’s Metropolitan Police.  He is assigned to the Folly, the hush-hush department (known more formally as the Specialist Assessment Unit) charged with investigating cases when “things get weird.”  Things get weird when an American named James Gallagher is stabbed to death with a sharp bit of pottery in London’s Underground -- weird in part because it isn’t clear how Gallagher got into the tunnel (his staggering exit at one of the platforms is captured on CCTV).

Something odd is taking place beneath the surface of London and it’s up to Grant to connect the underground madness to Gallagher’s death.  The mystery takes Grant (together with boss Nightingale and apprentice Lesley) on a tour of the Underground’s tunnels and London’s sewers.  A variety of magical types turn up to provide assistance or trouble (or both), including river goddesses, an Earthbender, and a half-fairy (on his father’s side).  And then there are the mysterious dwellers below London’s surface….

Grant is sort of a neophyte magician so the novel is relatively light on magic -- a good thing, from my perspective.  I’m more partial to detective work and/or humor than spell-casting and ghost-busting.  The familiar elements of a police procedural give the novel its shape and keep it moving forward at a steady pace.  Still, I recommend Whispers Under Ground not so much for its convoluted whodunit plot but for Ben Aaronovitch’s humor.   Aaronovitch’s take on law enforcement officers is consistently amusing and his good-hearted American-bashing (like his French-bashing) is priceless.

Whispers Under Ground is written with enough attitude to keep the story interesting even when it lags, as it does from time to time.  Unlike the London Underground, the plot doesn’t consistently stay on track.  Grant’s burial by the Earthbender, for instance, leads to an extended scene of no clear relevance.  It is one of a few passages that add nothing to the narrative.  Still, Aaronovitch’s snappy prose held my attention even when the story didn’t.

Aaronovitch makes occasional references to events that occurred in earlier novels in the series.  Having not read the earlier installments, those references baffled me.  I don’t think it’s necessary to read the earlier novels to understand this one, but doing so would provide helpful context.  Fortunately, although I sometimes felt like an outsider who didn’t understand the novel’s in-jokes, Aaronovitch coaxed a smile or a snicker on nearly every page, and that sufficed to earn my recommendation of this offbeat novel.

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