WINTER'S GIFTS

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

Although the first novella set in Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series followed protagonist Peter Grant, Arronovitch used the subsequent novellas to focus on the activities of supporting characters, with October Man exploring Tobias Winter's work in Germany, What Abigail Did That Summer bringing Abigail Kamara to the forefront, and now Winter's Gifts allows American FBI agent Kimberley Reynolds to take center stage.

The novel opens with a call to FBI headquarters from Patrick Henderson, a retired agent. He believes there is something strange happening in his adopted town of Eloise, Wisconsin and asks to have someone trained in the occult sent up to figure out what is happening, which leads to Kimberley Reynolds, who has helped Peter Grant on occasion, being sent up to northernmost Wisconsin just as a major winter storm hits and cuts the town off from the rest of the state. Upon her arrival, Reynolds finds that Henderson, along with a Mr. Bunker, a lodger at one of the local inns, have both mysteriously vanished.

Reynolds and an assortment of locals, including meteorologist William Boyd, innkeeper Mrs. Cole, and the unfortunately named Scott Walker* find themselves facing off against creatures which most closely resemble snow goons from Bill Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, although the creatures Reynolds faces tend to be strange hybrids intent on attacking and killing people. Although Reynolds does not perform any magic herself, she knows how to feel vestigia and can reach out to Peter Grant as a resource when necessary. She quickly determines that there is some sort of magic rife in Eloise, although it seems to be different than the magic Grant experiences in London.

Winter's Gifts is not as tightly written as many of Aaronovitch's novels. Some clues are introduced, but ignored. Red herrings crop up but are dropped, without either tying them to the case or showing that they are dead ends. While Reynolds is able to figure out what is going on in Eloise and the surrounding area, the novella has an unfinished feel to it as these clues and questions are left dangling without any real resolution. Similarly, the novella format focusing on supporting characters enables Aaronovitch to explore those characters at more depth and in apart from the overall story arch. He reveals more about Reynolds and her upbringing in Winter's Gifts than in all of her appearances in the main novels. However, the separation of her story from London makes the world of Winter's Gifts seem smaller in a way that didn't happen in October Man's Trier or in the London setting of What Abigail Did That Summer.

Perhaps the biggest issue with Winter's Gift is, that although it doesn't feel rushed, it also doesn't feel complete. Despite lacking the magical ability of Grant and the other characters, Reynolds is an interesting character in herself, made more intriguing by the background Aaronovitch has revealed in this novella. Much of the background and the relationships she begins to build with the residents of Eloise, however, are put on the backburner once she comes into contact with the supernatural elements of the area. While this story may not warrant a full novel, it would not have suffered by being longer, and leaves the reader the hope that future books will reveal more about Reynolds besides her role as Grant's occasional American sidekick.

*Scott Walker served as Governor of Wisconsin from 2011-19 and creating a character with the same name, whether intentionally or coincidentally, tends to drop the reader out of the story.

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