Book Review - Ben Aaronovitch's The October Man
The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: Subterranean
Publication Date: May 28th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 216 Pages
Rating: ★★
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Tobias Winter works in Meckenheim, Germany, under the Director at the Abteilung KDA, the Department for Complex and Unspecific Matters. In other words, he is Germany's answer to Peter Grant, and Peter Grant has a lot to answer for. Tobias has been called to Trier because the death of an unidentified male ticked the right boxes to alert the KDA that they might have a possible supernatural infraction. Kriminalkommissarin Vanessa Sommer, AKA the local fuzz, is on hand to take him to the crime scene. The body was found in a ditch abutting the vineyard of Frau Stracker. It has since been sent off to the KDA's pathologist of choice, Professor Doktor Carmela Weissbachmann, which means that Tobias is to assess the crime scene for vestigia before meeting up with her. Very faintly there's something like wriggling roots but it's not enough to be sure that this case is his. That is until he sees the body. It's covered in fur. But the "fur" is actually fungus. Fungus that Carmela delightfully informs him is unique to grapes. Noble rot is a fungus used to make a sweet wine. And the Stracker winery used to be renowned for it, so says resident wine expert Vanessa Sommer. That can't be a coincidence. Nor can the fact that Tobias gets that same sense of wriggling roots from the corpse, this time with hints of turned soil and half-discordant musical notes. The only lead that Winter and Sommer have is a recent tattoo the man had gotten, which leads them to All Art is Transitory, a tattoo studio where they learn the identity of their victim, one Jörg Koch, and that he came in with a group of friends to have Dionysus tattooed on his arm because of a dare. These friends could be suspects, witnesses, or even potential victims. Soon another body turns up, this time the victim choked on his own vomit, but that was due to an astronomical blood alcohol content. Which means it's imperative they find Koch's friends. The murderer is changing their modus operandi, or are they? Here's hoping they can stop the killer before they escalate again. Because if there's one thing that Tobias Winter has learned in his short time in Trier it's that the town is about wine and Romans, and those two things are inextricably linked so therefore they have to be at the heart of these crimes.
I don't know what the purpose of this book is because so much of it is wading through shit we've heard a million times before but in a better voice until finally we are able to concentrate on the crime. We have to hear Tobias talk down to us like we've never heard what vestigia is. Peter Grant has a way of imparting knowledge in a way that makes you eager to learn, Tobias is no Peter. Tobias is pedantic and just an asshole. I never want to have to read anything in his voice ever again. What I found mildly interesting is the differences that have arisen in how Germany and England categorize and label their magical systems, but these are too few and far between and again, the way it's imparted to us through Tobias is just annoying. I had some hope for the crime, this bizarrely furry situation, but it fell apart because it ended up repeating so many of the tropes of the main series, from baby river goddesses to sequestration, it's just the same thing told in a slightly different way. And not for the better. Plus it went really dark with attempted rape and stalking and Nazis. Oh and don't get me started on the wine. I'm not a drinker. I never want to go to a vineyard or on a winery tour. I want nothing at all to do with the pretension of being a vintner. So to have that be the core of the crime with all this "previously on" swirling around it, it's like I didn't care to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT WINE. I NEVER WILL! Nothing will make me change my stance. Not even one of my favorite authors. Which brings me back to the why of it all. Why does Tobias Winter exist? The only way I can justify his existence in my mind is that he's going to be the next Big Bad. Now on the surface he looks like a normal police officer. He solves the crimes, he gets things done, but in the process we learn some startling things about Germany. Does Nightingale know that the forbidden knowledge that wasn't meant to be kept was kept anyway? That the Nazis research of the Ahnernerbe and the Black Library which was the reason for Ettersberg where almost all was lost still lives? There's a reason it's kept behind a door in the Folly and yet Winter has access to this knowledge. Maybe that's why I hate Tobias Winter so very very much, because I know Nightingale would and I will always side with Nightingale.
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