False Value: Book 8 in the #1 bestselling Rivers of London series (A Rivers of London novel)

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You may well dislike this and wish that Ben Aaronovitch just invented a better story that could be told straight. Drawn into the orbit of Old Street’s famous ‘silicon roundabout’, Peter must learn how to blend in with people who are both civilians and geekier than he is. I just mentally checked out at the 50 percent mark to just finish this book to have it count towards a book bingo I am doing. I’ve a couple of books to read for book group and don’t want to have anything to tempting to read on my kindle lest I distract myself, so I’ll treat myself once I finish the duty-reads. And I guess another thing I love about this series – along with the stunning number of culture references Aaronovitch can pack into his books, there’s also the inside jokes and digs that you’ll only get if you’ve been with these characters from the start.

I started the book, not knowing what had happened to Peter Grant and let out a massive sigh of relief when the story and background are explained. One of the British survivors, Hugh Oswald, had been with Patton and the Third Army when they liberated nearby Buchenwald. Then I would again state that I like them all, and very much enjoy listening to the first album also.Now that he and Beverly are a permanent couple, it’s inevitable that they make friends with other couples.

There are lots of new players – Peter’s new boss, Tyrel Johnson (and his family), the company’s owner, Terrence Skinner, and a bunch of tech guys that work at Serious Cybernetics with Peter. I’m a Hitchhikers fan from way back but even I was totally over the jokes by the end of the first chapter — and they just kept coming. My favourite quote from False Value is, I think: ' He'd obviously wanted to tell someone about it for a long time and I was a convenient ear. Leaving his old police life behind, he takes a job with Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner’s new London start up: the Serious Cybernetics Corporation. The founder of Goodreads’ Folly Irregulars and long-time fan of the Peter Grant novels, has found one of the books to be over-rated and boring.Johnson tasks Peter with figuring out who is behind the break-in attempts and why, a job made more difficult by Skinner’s refusal to disclose what work is done on Bambleweeny. In a feeble effort to regain suspense, Aaronovitch frequently had Peter saying things like, “I was looking forward to enjoying my night at home with Bev. This book focuses on how globalizing is realized over time, in companies that start from a narrow geographic base.