Rivers of London : Body Work

4 out of 5 stars

An all-new Rivers of London original comic series, written by Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel!
The members – all two of them – of London’s most secret police force are on the trail of a self-driving killer car. But it takes something weird to catch something weird and soon they are behind the wheel of… The Most Haunted Car in England!
Written by Doctor Who writer Ben Aaronovitch (Remembrance of the Daleks) and set in the world of his own bestselling novels, with Doctor Who showrunner Andrew Cartmel.
Rivers of London – Body Work is written in continuity with the novels – not an adaptation.

 I am the first to admit that I don’t always fully appreciate graphic novels and I will also confess that I prefer the full Aaronovitch novels to the graphic novels, but I still enjoyed my first graphic foray into the London of Peter Grant. I know for a fact that I’ll be buying future installments as they become available in print in Canada.

I think that’s my biggest frustration at this point—if I used an e-reader, I could have all the graphic novels, but here in Canada there are only two paper copy titles available and they are not being produced in order either! How to drive a library worker crazy!

I’m fond of the depiction of Peter—I wasn’t sure at first, but it grew on me. Also liked Beverly Brook. (Particularly the James Bond-ish artwork at the very beginning of this issue, with Peter looking suave and Beverly emerging from the water, reminiscent of Halle Berry in Die Another Day). The best of them all? Toby, the dog! He is exactly the yappy little dog that I had in my head as I read the novels. I’m hoping that Nightingale and Molly grow on me as well. Nightingale needs to look a trifle older in my opinion and Molly needs to look a bit creepier, perhaps somewhat reptilian?

I had time on Boxing Day (before anyone else in the house was awake) to read Body Work two or three times, so I eventually sorted out the story. Did anyone else find that the jumps from present to past were a bit confusing? I’m sure that my lack of experience with the graphic format has something to do with it, but with a bit of study I was able to follow the action.