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    London Falling
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    London Falling
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    London Falling
    Ebook483 pages7 hours

    London Falling

    By Paul Cornell

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    London Falling by Paul Cornell is an urban fantasy twist on the classic police procedural: London cops versus magical creatures of night

    Police officers Quill, Costain, Sefton, and Ross know the worst of London—or they think they do. While investigating a mobster's mysterious death, they come into contact with a strange artifact and accidentally develop the Sight. Suddenly they can see the true evil haunting London's streets.

    Armed with police instincts and procedures, the four officers take on the otherworldly creatures secretly prowling London. Football lore and the tragic history of a Tudor queen become entwined in their pursuit of an age-old witch with a penchant for child sacrifice. But when London's monsters become aware of their meddling, the officers must decide what they are willing to sacrifice to clean up their city.

    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 16, 2013
    ISBN9781429946728
    Unavailable
    London Falling
    Author

    Paul Cornell

    Paul Cornell has written some of Doctor Who's best-loved episodes for the BBC, as well as an episode of the hit Sherlock Holmes drama, Elementary. He has also written on a number of comic book series for Marvel and DC, including X-Men and Batman and Robin. He has been Hugo Award-nominated for his work in TV, comics and prose, and won the BSFA award for his short fiction. His urban gothic mystery series, Shadow Police, includes London Falling, The Severed Streets and Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?.

    Read more from Paul Cornell

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    Reviews for London Falling

    4/5

    268 ratings37 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Very good police procedural that turns into an amazing and horrifying urban fantasy with a lot more edge than usual. Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      The police have managed to infiltrate the biggest gang in London but are not getting the results they need to crack the case and time is running out for their operation. Rob Toshack has managed to bring a lot of the other gangs under his control and no-one seems to be aware how he accomplishes this as he seemingly uses outside enforcers and nobody has ever seen them. When the police finally raid Toshack's place and take him into custody all they find are his regular cohorts. Something happens during his interrogation that will change the game for everyone especially four of the investigation team. These four become invested (or should that be infected) with the Sight. This allows them to see things that are generally thought of as going bump in the night. The witch Mora Losley is one such creature and it's our intrepid team's responsibility to bring her down. Can they learn enough about their new abilities in time?This is a police procedural set very much in an urban fantasy frame although the start of the story is very much all the former before transitioning into the latter. It's a lot darker in tone than Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London books and doesn't shy away from the unpleasantness or gory details. It's very well written and the real elements of the tale feel very authentic. The reader also gets to experience a sense of discovery that's not often included in this type of novel and it will be interesting to see how sequels handle things after this initial element has played out. I'm looking forward to finding out though.
    • 5/5
      An ensemble cast from a gritty police procedural encounter the supernatural. Well-observed, fascinating, well-written, with the world and character depth I crave.
    • 4/5
      3 and a half stars. first of a series about the Shadow Police, this one details the inception of the force. kind of in the same category of things as Charlie Stross' Laundry Files series, only not so cynical perhaps. this time the institution is affiliated with the Metropolitan Police rather than the Secret Service, and these elder horrors are deeply primitive, rooted in the history of London England. but the concerns with protocols and methodology are very much the same, which is funnier than the narrator can fathom, and the horror works too, though it's constructed along the lines of a police procedural rather than as a conventional horror story.
    • 4/5
      A little slow at the beginning, but really excellent start to a series. Looking forward to reading the next one.
    • 5/5
      I adored this. Could not put it down for the life of me. DEFINITELY recommended.
    • 1/5
      If I remember correctly, I came across this book from a 'Books Similar to What You Have Picked' category, and after reading the story description, went ahead and picked it up. Being a bit of the urban fantasy reader, I thought it would be a bit interesting, and maybe even be a bit about London's darker, 'hidden' side, similar to Gaiman's "Neverwhere". I was a bit let down. After about one-fourth of the book, I was just disinterested in the story. I could not get into the characters, and having just gained some kind of paranormal sight from one person touching and object - it kind of lost me. I mean, one person touches, and three others (in the same room) gain this sight, too. Also, I felt the story dragged in getting started. Maybe this was early background story for character/story development, but it just wasn't grabbing my attention. Unfortunately, I did not finish the book, so the rating is low.
    • 4/5
      This was a great book! Very suspenseful and exciting. It reads a lot like a TV show, but in all the best ways. The story follows a group of detectives who realize that the murder they are investigating is not a normal murder- it is supernatural. The story is very dark and there was a scene that actually had me tightly clinching the book in terror. I am very looking forward to reading the sequel.
    • 4/5
      What starts as a normal police procedural soon turns into something else when DI Quill's prime suspect dies a very violent death while in police custody. With suggestions that there might be a mole at Gipsy Hill police station, DSI Lofthouse sets up a new four-person team, headed by Quill, to investigate what happened. Nothing in their wildest dreams could have prepared them for what they were going to find ...If one didn't know that this was an urban fantasy novel, reading the first two and three-quarter chapters would make one think that this was an ordinary, seemingly authentic crime novel -- and then the action turns on a sixpence into something else. The author enjoys making use of madly inventive plot twists, always keeping the reader guessing by throwing surprises at them when they think they've finally worked out where the novel is heading; in that it's totally bonkers in a very British way. It's incredibly tense and shockingly brutal in places, with a few welcome moments of light relief. The major characters are flawed enough to be plausible, and I felt there was a real sense of team spirit emerging between them after a while. The ending neatly sets the scene for a sequel, and it will be interesting to see where this series is going.
    • 4/5
      Though my first attempt was off-putting, I gave it another go. While the first chapter gave little to hold onto, a second start made sense of the sketchy material and the characters quickly became more acceptable. Though characterization is not a strength here, they are lined out well enough to be laudable. The action is fast and compelling. It's the kind of book that one reads in one sitting.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This was a great book! Very suspenseful and exciting. It reads a lot like a TV show, but in all the best ways. The story follows a group of detectives who realize that the murder they are investigating is not a normal murder- it is supernatural. The story is very dark and there was a scene that actually had me tightly clinching the book in terror. I am very looking forward to reading the sequel.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Intricate, good mythos-weaving, an interesting story, but hella dark.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Finally - the Urban Fantasy Genre is finally getting into police procedural - yes, I know, lots of books have policemen in it - but as a secondary character, not as the main characters. Its also dark, gritty, and full of semi-crooked police officers, all with a grudge.I'm not sure if this is a first novel, or just a first novel in a series, but it does suffer from pacing issues and the character of Ross's backstory wasn't actually told until the middle of the book, which made me very confused as to who she was, and why she was part of this team. By making the team completely unaware of the supernatural and slowly come to terms with it, gave the reader the exact same knowledge the characters had.The big bad boogieman is scary. Very Very scary. It fits the dark police procedural quite nicely and ties back to the original sting operation very well. The witch, Mora Losley, her obsession with the West Ham Soccer Team was a highlight in this book. However, her backstory didn't fit the story, or it did, but seemed a bit tacked on - As if the author was trying to give her some dept, more than a scary witch, but it felt out of place. Happy Reading if you like dark, gritty super natural stories.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Bought it after meeting Cornell in San Antonio at Worldcon in 2013. Didn't read it until recently, and now want to read everything he's written.
    • 4/5
      [London Falling] sets up the Shadow Police - an unlikely squad assembled to investigate an inexplicable death that go on to be London's guard against supernatural crime. Unlike favourites [Rivers of London] and [The Rook], it's played straight and quite dark (to the extent the climax made me quite uncomfortable; as with Losley's magic, her death seems to revel in the grue), and with far more police procedural. This made for a dry start, in part because none of the 4 main characters are particularly accessible and in part due to uneven writing (this remains an issue throughout, although it's not terrible - the transition from screenwriter to novelist just isn't quite as smooth as he'd perhaps like). I always give a nod to inclusivity and the squad score well here, but I liked that this wasn't a particular plot point; it's just the London melting pot. Gender, skin colour and sexual preference just aren't as important as a crazy old witch killing children to avenge hat tricks against her football club. Oh yes, it's very London. Or perhaps English. Anyway. I found myself warming to the characters and the story as it gathered pace, but I can take or leave picking up the sequel.
    • 5/5
      Excellent story. Great concept. I picked it up from the library because of the cover image (yeah, the cover designer hopefully gets a percentage of sales). It was a mystery, a paranormal, a group of individuals becoming a team. It kind of defied categorization. It held my interest through out the entire book. When it was done, I immediately requested the sequel "The Severed Streets" from the library. I recommend London Falling. Treat yourself to an enjoyable book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Holy.Fucking.Shit.

      Like Hellblazer crossed with Peter Grant crossed with--I dunno, all sorts of strange fantasms and philosophies. It started badly--in fact, for the first 20% I didn't like any of the characters, nor did I care about the plot. But then it transitions from a normal undercover investigation of a London mob boss and becomes something weird and horrible and haunting. By the end I was flat out cheering at bits, and chortling out loud, and gasping. This story grabbed me by my brain and didn't let go till I was finished with it. Clever, scary, imaginative, and all around worth a read.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Superb, very clever new entrant into the urban fantasy market with a unique angle seamlessly blending a mundane police procedural through the darker side of horror/early SF into a evolving journey of discovery and urban fantasy. This is the author's first UF novel, and he's clearly left enough set-up for a long running series, although I'm not sure subsequent books will be able to capture that transition realisation that there's something else out there, as enjoyably. It is a very tricky thing to master, and generally skipped by most in the UF genre who start from an a priori assumption that their special world exists. It's the big let-down in the better known Rivers of London series that none of the characters are ever than surprised by what they encounter. Paul Cornwell does much better, even if this is a lot darker in tone than the former.James Quill is the lead Detective Inspector of a London Organised Crime squad - especially anti-gang work. He has finally managed to infiltrate two under-cover officers (Sefton and Costain) into the infamous West End Toshack gang. Despite all their reports nobody, even within the gang, seems to know how he's so successful. Rob Toshack seems to keep a force of freelancers to do most of his nasty work, separate from his main gang members. They know everything about him, from his favourite football team (West Ham) to his family history (partly through their data analyst Ross), but can't work out how things get done. A series of dramatic gestures by Rob touring his entourage around random London houses, finally results in his arrest and Quill has a real sense of achievement in managing to get Rob into an interview room. Rob gets as far as 'I confess' before his head explodes in gout of blood, and Quill is left looking for something he doesn't understand. And so the police go to work, travelling data, and looking for patterns, and eventually discover some very unexpected results. However no knowledge comes without sacrifice, and they each have their secrets to explore.Very well written. The looming sense of dread and horror is superbly crafted through the middle half, without resorting to excessive gore. The characters have a believable police banter and yet sense of grim responsibility that you don't often encounter. The details on the 'magic' are sufficient without being overwhelming and such as they are revealed are not contradictory. The motivations of everybody are particularly well thought through. The only slight niggle was the introduction of Jessica at a point much later than it seemed should have occurred. Very well done, I'm looking forward to the sequels.
    • 3/5
      This review and others like it available on my blog.

      I really enjoyed this once I got past the first 100 pages.

      Lets talk about those first 100 pages to start with, shall we? The reason they were such a struggle was that they started in the middle of the action. This isn't normally a problem, but it can be when all your characters have the same 'voice'. Now, what I mean by that is that the working-class young black copper 'sounded' exactly the same as the shy, nervous female tech, and the middel-aged married white man and so on and so forth. I know there's a certain amount of police speak and slang that carries on, but it would have been less confusing had they sounded notably different. This is especially important if you are writing a book from several different points of view.

      However, once I was past those first 100 pages, things improved. I still got confused between characters easily, but the rest of the book more than made up for it. It's brutal and edgy, its honest, and it deals with subjects that a lot of modern fantasy avoids.

      The feelings of one character, as an adult suffering bullying related to his race and sexuality seemed believable enough. I couldn't speak as to the race stuff - I'm a white woman, and the most I ever got in that regard was a few 'terrorist' comments now and again because of my Irish grandmother. But I have been bullied for my sexuality, both as a teen and as an adult, and there's a certain shame that goes along with it in adulthood that is different to the shame you feel as a young person. I related strongly with the character who expressed these feelings and thought that aspect of his character was especially well-drawn.

      The writing is OK, sometimes a little clunky and it overuses the adverbs something fierce. But sometimes it is very good. It's at its best when describing action or the awful despair and grime of the worst parts of the capital. Its at its worst when trying to describe the way people interact. That's OK - all writers have their strengths. Description of the moments after each character gets the sight is excellent, and very revealing as to character. I liked it a lot.

      I found the football stuff a bit unbelievable and kind of dull. I'm not really into football (soccer, to you americans) and it seemed gimmicky and forced, as well as being too thin a thread to pin a large, important section of the story on. It added a kind of arch, knowing, mocking blokeyness to a work that didn't really need it. Of course, that could just be my bias talking. But I still skim-read most of the football stuff until it became vital to the plot.

      Well plotted (apart from the football thing which I still say is too slight a thread to hang this sort of thing on) with some intriguing details, often using Londons real history and myths. Irritated by the return of the witch as evil child sacrificing blah blah blah. I quite like to see old tropes like that turned on their head not used with the attitude that it is fresh or new in any way. I was intrigued by the details of vicitimisation and how it changes or damages people, though.

      This is a book that gets better as it goes on, that starts coming into its own around the 100 page mark. For those of us who have the patience and stubbornness to keep going , that's fine. If you aren't built that way, however, if you get frustrated by slow burners and seemingly unimportant detail padding, I'd advise avoiding it.

      3 out of 5. Would have been higher if it had lived up to its potential. Still, I'll probably pick up the sequel.
    • 5/5
      Welcome to London where a gang had somehow consolidated the power and is ruling most of the town - without the usual battles and problems. And the police, despite managing to have two separate undercover policemen in the organization, has no idea how Rob Toshack is doing it - he seems to have enforcers that noone had seen or can track and everyone that opposes him seems to disappear. And DI James Quill is leading the operation that is trying to stop Toshack and his ways. Cornell is writing an urban fantasy and knows it but his characters do not know that they are in one for the first 100 pages. So where a reader can see the supernatural, Quill and everyone else do not. So they try to make logical decisions and find logical explanations - in a world they do not understand. Until Toshack dies in front of Quill and something changes - and the 4 people that will make a new task force, start seeing the other London, the one under the regular one, the one that needs the Sight to be seen. And that world is terrifying. And the novel finally takes off. Meet Mora Losley, a West Ham fan that has her power grounded in the city and that seems to be responsible for a lot of what is happening. If you know the history of West Ham's stadium and its original name, you will see her roots long before Cornell shows them or any of the 4 members of the team does. Not that it is important for the story itself - but it adds another layer of londonness to the story. But the more important thread is there - the football (soccer for Americans) connection. Urban legends start converging together and start turning to be true which would be scary enough even without the disappearing kids and forgetting parents. And in the middle of all of it is Mora - someone who time seems to have forgotten. And our 4 - Quill and Sefton, Costain and Ross - all have their own connections to the mess - some of them obvious, some not that much. And it becomes a race against time - to save a child, to save a footballer, to defeat the Witch of West Ham. A lot of the story relies on surprises - things that the team does not know or cannot see for what they are getting revealed all the time and adding to the story. That would make the novel almost impossible to be read again with the same sense of horror and surprise - once you know it is happening, it fits and snaps in place and enhanced the picture. It is a trick that is not so easy to pull off - it is a thin line between hiding evidence from the reader and having it revealed in time without making it look like a cheat. And Cornell pulls it off magnificently - I never felt manipulated with the pacing or the information that gets revealed in specific times. It is a dark story - with elements that turn your stomach but are part of the story. A lot of the deaths are grisly and even when no death is involved, details tend to stay on the dark side. But that is part of the charm of the story - even with the inevitable low points around the middle of the book, it is a well crafted story that introduces a darker version of our world (or London anyway). And the last pages, the epilogue, set the stage for a series that will need to aim very high if it wants to beat this story.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the drugs bust of his career when his prize suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody. But nothing about Toshack’s murder is normal. Now, the team must find a suspect who can bend space and time and alter memory itself, a suspect who will murder again. And they begin to realize that London is not the city they thought it was, but instead, that it is the home to sinister magic. They have two choices: panic, or use their new abilities they barely understand. Together, they begin hunting a terrifying supernatural force the only way they know how: using police methods, equipment and tactics, but while learning the rules of this new game, and quickly. London Falling seems to be a story about what happens when police fall into the weird and have no real guidance about what they’ve gotten themselves into. There’s a lot of flailing about with little payoff. I DO appreciate how… well, honestly, this book is really dark. Really dark. But the aimless flailing really bothered me, and I ended up trudging through the end of it.
    • 5/5
      Very noir, gritty and scary urban fantasy with a police procedural setup. Four London Police officers, involved in a rather mundane longterm operation against a drug dealer, suddenly find themselves with the Sight, and no longer chasing a drug dealer, but rather someone not merely ugly, but evil, and supernatural as well. What a great read!
    • 4/5
      A dark, gritty story about three police officers and a police profiler (of a sorts), who absorb the ability to see the scary supernatural bits of London while pursuing a murder suspect.As there's serious language, lots of gore, and drug and alcohol use, I'd recommend this to fans of Richard Kadry's Sandman Slim books, and Stacia Kane's Downside series.
    • 5/5
      I'm not sure that I have much to add to what other reviewers have said but I greatly appreciate this effort to write an urban fantasy that captures the fear and seediness of deep evil; the question then becomes whether Cornell can keep up this atmosphere. Highly recommended.Actually, one thing that comes to mind is that another difference between Aaronovitch and Cornell is that the former has more of a "New Age" and "Cool Britannia" feel to the mythos that he is using, whereas Cornell is more Christian, and possibly a bit more politically conservative in tone; though that may simply be a commentary on the characters.
    • 4/5
      The afterword mentioned that the kernel of this story was conceived for TV and I can see elements of that in the story, then again Paul Cornell writes for TV so it's kinda unsurprising that some TV tropes creep in, not in obvious ways but in subtle ways.Detective Inspector James Quill is about to arrest a drug lord who has been the scurge of London, Toshack. A man with a lot of power. While interrogating him he's killed, and no-one is quite sure how. Quill pursues the investigation coopting intelligence analyst Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton, all of whom were caught by something that happened during the arrest that seems to have added something to their sight. Now they have to use this to assist their investigation, holding on to normal with both hands while also realising that the supernatural is just another tool.Much darker than Ben Aaronovich's books this has echoes of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere as well and much of the darkness. This is a dark story, something with nasty undertones of dark forces and the concept that things that go bump in the night sometimes have nasty fangs and are very willing to bite.I liked the use of legend and story as powers in this, I was gripped by the story and wanted to know what happened next and I'd be curious to know what happens after this story to the group.
    • 4/5
      London FallingBy Paul CornellMy "in a nutshell" summary...Four policemen see a strange sort of artifact that enables them to see much more than they could ever see before. If this sounds mysterious...wait until you read the book!My thoughts after reading this book...Creepy...scary...but oh so good...but...this is, after all, the British author who writes television drama...Dr.Who...among others.So...the storyline is this...four detectives...Quill, Ross, Costain and Sefton see an artifact and are given the Sight to enable them to see really creepy bad guys wherever they happen to be. The plot is complex, the scenes are exciting, I loved the background stories and I wish I could tell you more but I can't and I won't. It's a crime ridden nail biting mystery!What I loved most about this book...I have to admit I loved the creepiness of this book. The detectives are after this creepy witch like character who takes and kills children plus makes people forget things. I also both loved and was totally creeped out by the way the first bad dude died in police custody...ick! And I loved the way one of the detectives...Sefton...kept drawing circles of protection with a black magic marker to try to keep everyone safe. Plus I loved the caged talking cat...there were bits of humor in this scary tale.What I did not love about this book...Hmmm...books like this are always sometimes difficult for me to really get into. It was not relaxing reading. There was lots going on and lots to remember. I didn't have a fondness for any particular character and I was often rereading parts to be certain I didn't miss anything.Final thoughts...Readers who love dark mysteries will certainly enjoy reading this book which I believe is the start of a series. I could truly see it as a tv drama, too.
    • 4/5
      London-based urban fantasy police procedural, but within those parameters it couldn't be more different from the obvious comparison - Ben Aaronovich's Rivers of London series. It's not just the much darker feel, although Cornell gets a good horror-movie chill going, but the voice, style and the prioritisation of action over character. It was a slow start for me - it took me several chapters to get the characters straight in my mind, and to get used to the frequent shifts of point of view - but picked up pace as things went on. The draw was always "what happened" not so much "what happens to this character", though. I assume there's a series coming - I'll be interested to see if the core group at the heart of the tales grow into the heart of the stories to come.
    • 5/5
      Just finished London Falling by Paul Cornell. Wow, was this intense! Urban fantasy police procedural. Very dark, very good. At the beginning I wasn't sure, but once the team got going it never let up and the stakes were high (higher than anyone knew until the last bit). First time I think an Incident Board has been used in the search for a supernatural evil. Will appeal to fans of Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant fantasy/mysteries, but darker than those. First of a new series (Shadow Police).
    • 3/5
      Author Paul Cornell has an impressive creative pedigree. He's a successful British novelist who writes for comics and television. His writing includes a significant body of work in "Doctor Who" fiction. Clearly science fiction and fantasy are his forte genres. His new paranormal police procedural novel, "London Falling," fits squarely into that genus.There's a grim London that breathes just out of view behind the usual city its residents trudge through on their daily grinds. The unseen London teems with all manner of supernatural ghosts, ghouls, and other nastiness. For reasons that aren't entirely spelled out, a foursome of London police officers working what seems an ordinary gangster bust find themselves suddenly imbued with the "Sight," a gift of dubious honor that positions them to become a special operations unit tasked with battling the supernatural horrors tormenting their city. In "London Falling" the unit's primary concern is stopping the fatal evil foisted upon the city's children by Mora, a bloodthirsty soccer-loving witch whose baneful provenance dates back to the time of Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII's second short-term wife)."London Falling" is an entertaining book, but it's not compelling. Cornell's primary characters aren't very fleshy at all, and his secondary ones are even less so. Thin characters make it difficult to follow them rapaciously through a book 400 pages long. That said, what Cornell fails to do in creating fascinating characters, he makes up for in consistently crafting creepy atmospheres stained well with traditional horror fiction ingredients.The novel's climax is engaging enough to make the read worthwhile. It's also designed to set the stage for a series of supernatural police procedurals featuring the "Sighted" quartet of officers Quill, Costain, Sefton, and Ross. With hard work on those characters, and the attention of an editor to reign in some of Cornell's tendencies toward excess verbosity, it could be a series worth following.[A warning for squeamish: though Cornell doesn't render it gratuitous, the witch Mora's passion for torturing young children plays a prominent role in the story.]
    • 5/5
      What if some standard London police officers (and one intelligence officer, but let’s call her police too) discovered the hidden world of magic living alongside ordinary humans? What if they started treating that world like any other criminal organization? That’s the excellent premise of this book, which starts with the planned takedown of an untouchable gangster that goes way off track. It took me a while to warm up to the story; the characters are at best reticent and at worst not very likeable, but I got caught up and many of the things I was uncertain about had satisfying narrative reasons. This book also made me think that, at least according to artistic output about it, British policing has an incredibly well-functioning bureaucracy behind it, where procedures generally do have reasons and where working with the team instead of lone wolfing has the best outcomes. I don’t doubt British police have their own problems—the two undercover officers on the team in this book are black, and it’s very clear there are racial issues—but it’s so nice to see a procedural with actual procedure and teamwork.