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The Folly

Peter Grant

Constable Peter Grant

A young police constable saved from a career in paperwork after being found seeking a ghostly witness to a crime by the last government-sanctioned wizard in London, DCI Thomas Nightingale. Shortly after, he becomes Nightingale's apprentice in magic as well as his junior officer in investigating magical crime.

Almighty Janitor: Peter is typically one of the most junior ranking members of the police in any scene, and he's usually treated like it. However, Peter's also the only other member of the Folly still active besides Nightingale, which means he essentially fulfills every role in his department from sergeant on down and is called on to perform every duty his department needs to provide that doesn't require a DCI, so he's simultaneously a lowly Police Constable (later Detective Constable) and his DCI's right hand and one of only two Falcon-capable specialists with which the other departments can consult, with all the significance and above-paygrade involvement that entails; by the later novels the other ranking officers basically treat him as Nightingale's sergeant in all but name. In earlier novels Peter's also the main point of interaction between the Folly and other departments, owing partially to Nightingale having distanced himself from his duties in the years before Peter joined and partially to the fact that DCI Seawoll of the murder squad can't stand Nightingale.
The Apprentice: To Nightingale.
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The first novel alone details that Peter exhibits more than enough attention issues in his daily life to suggest some kind of ambiguous disorder:
- On his first day working with Peter, Nightingale asks why he didn't complete a science degree despite his science background, to which Peter answers that he was distracted, so his grades weren't good enough to get into the classes he needed (Nightingale asks if he had been distracted by some activity, such as starting a band; Peter denies this).
- While learning magic, Peter is often impatient with the repetitive lessons and tends to seek new stimuli for himself, such as the experiments he designs with what he's already learned, which leads to him learning a much larger volume of information than required but also to him mastering the actual lessons comparatively slower than would be expected. Peter's inability to focus on a subject he privately professes to love due to the long and repetitive nature of the actual activity involved is very in line with various attention disorders.
- Lesley at one point claims the biggest flaw keeping Peter from being a good copper is in fact his lack of focus; she reminds Peter of an incident in Trafalgar Square at New Years, in which she had to fight multiple drunks while Peter didn't notice because he was reading an information panel on the bum of a lion statue. As she puts it, "it's like you see things that aren't there."
- Despite these attention issues, Peter focuses bullheadedly over things that do manage to catch his interest, something that again falls in line with attention disorders such as ADD and ADHD.
  - Peter's attention issues appear to occasionally act as a Handy Shortcoming, because Peter's tendency to lack focus in some instances and hyperfocus in others means that he's very naturally talented at sensing magic even when compared to other apprentices (though it also means he's slower at actually learning it). This focus on everything and nothing is also probably why he tends to notice details about objects and locations that others don't and is thus usually quicker to notice when things are out of place, which, despite occasional mockery or bemusement from those around him, has more than once led to him finding or noticing things other investigators have not. Also, despite being slower than the very focused Lesley at learning magic, his experimental approach makes him consistently more versatile and creative with the spells he's mastered. In the climactic battle in Moon Over Soho, for example, Peter fights the Faceless Man with Peter's own variations on the simple spells Nightingale's taught him — variations whose creation Nightingale had dismissed as Peter messing around. This versatility enables Peter, who'd only been learning magic for seven months, to hold his own against a master wizard long enough for The Cavalry to arrive.
Britain Is Only London: Peter believes London is the only place worth being. Lampshaded in Moon Over Soho; Nightingale tells Peter that there's more to life than London, and Peter replies "People keep saying that, but I've never actually seen any proof".
By-the-Book Cop: Peter accepts that a lot of Falcon cases go into territory where the Police Training Manual doesn't venture, and the top brass would be very happy if the paperwork disappeared and was never seen again, but he doesn't like it. In the later books, he's started writing proper procedures for the Folly himself.
Chekhov's Skill:
- Peter's background as a wannabe architect comes in handy when he spots historically-inconsistent brickwork in The Furthest Station. Having been drafted by his mum to help with cleaning jobs as a child also lets him assess at a glance how recently and proficiently various crime scenes were cleaned.
- Because his superiors expected him to become a Desk Jockey, about a month before he was formally assigned to a department Peter took a special course on the police force's bureaucratic functions and systems with an emphasis on data entry. This comes in handy when Peter basically ends up having to single-handedly modernize the Folly's departmental functions to make them compatible with the rest of the police force.
City Mouse: As mentioned above, Peter loves living in London. When he goes to the countryside in Foxglove Summer, he definitely finds countryside living not what he's used to.
Cool Car: Peter's Ford Focus ST, a/k/a "The Asbo". ^note It finally meets its maker in The Hanging Tree, but is quickly replaced by a very nice Ferrari from the Faceless Man's garage, which Nightingale confiscated to "inspect it for magic".
Deadpan Snarker: Mostly during the narration, but more often than not his thoughts slip through in his dialogue as well.
Desk Jockey: Peter was about to be assigned to a career with the Met's Desk Jockey unit before meeting Nightingale.
Destructive Savior: He's accused of being this, with much property destruction happening during his cases. Though, to be fair, he rarely is the one doing the destroying.
Guile Hero: Father Thames (and other demi-monde) has called him "a cunning man" numerous times, and he's quite skilled at the type of Social Engineering practiced by the police.
Hidden Depths: Despite not having the highest education and initially not impressing his superiors with his police skills, Peter's very good at working with people and with deescalating conflicts, a point of contrast between him and his otherwise extremely competent fellow PC Lesley May. He's also very observant, though not the best at consistently focusing, and still has a good bit of knowledge about architecture, which proves to be useful for ruining the Faceless Man's plans for Skygarden Tower. He has a decent knowledge of London's history, ancient history, jazz, and has started to do serious work of scientifically testing magic. He's also extremely good at legalese and bureaucratic terminology; while this usually shows itself in Peter's sense of humor, he has occasionally used this to justify his decisions against uncooperative fellow officers and superiors entirely using Met terminology and policies quoted verbatim. To cap it off, his networking efforts within the numerous factions of both law enforcement and the demi-monde are deft and calculated enough to spook Nightingale a bit.
Immune to Mind Control: Peter Grant has built up a near-total resistance to glamours, due to literally every supernatural creature he meets trying to magically compel him in some fashion or another.
Insistent Terminology: When Peter and Nightingale discover they're up against a black magician in book two, Peter points out that the term "black magician" is problematic, particularly since Peter is of African descent and is thus, in a sense, himself a black magician. Thereafter he uses variations on "ethically challenged magical practitioner" instead.
The Magnificent: Later in the series the demimonde starts referring to him as The Starling, Herald of the Morning and Harbinger of the New World.
Meaningful Name: The demimonde call him The Starling, partly as a play on Thomas "The Nightingale" Nightingale, and partly because he talks so darn much, starlings being a member of the myna family and noted for their habit of repeating different calls they hear. This latter skill also references his increasingly wide range of magical knowledge from, again, talking to everybody so much.
Number Two: To Nightingale, partially because he's his apprentice, partially because they help compensate for each other's obsoletion/inexperience, and partially because there's no one else in their department.
Pop-Cultured Badass: Peter makes a lot of Genre Savvy references to movies, Doctor Who, and various fictional wizards.
Occult Detective: One of the two officers who run the Folly, Britain's center of magical studies more recently functioning primarily as its department of magical law enforcement.
Rank Up: Peter becomes a Detective Constable in Detective Stories.
Science Hero: He approaches his magic studies like a science — which, in many ways, it is — and manages to discover new things even during his apprenticeship.
Terrible Artist: In school, Peter wanted to train as an architect, but discovered that his drawing was too abysmal to pass the requisite Drafting course.
Ultimate Job Security: Briefly discussed in Moon Over Soho and implied to be in effect through most of the series. It takes ten years to properly train an apprentice and Nightingale and Peter are all the police have when it comes to Falcon support. Peter suspects the only reason his job wasn't on the line after the ambulance incident is because the Commissioner would otherwise have to explain why someone who'd only been a police constable for roughly half a year was de facto head of an entire department, owing to there only being two officers in said department, one of whom was on medical leave. Even after Nightingale officially returns to his post, the discovery of a long-standing and large-scale magical criminal element in London ensures that Peter's skills are simply too critically needed to get rid of him, even if the MET wanted to do so. However, this does have the nasty consequence of Peter inevitably getting sucked into the hunt for Lesley despite his well-known personal baggage regarding her, because he can't be spared.
Unaffected by Spice: He was raised eating his mother's incredibly hot Sierra Leone dishes, and as a result has a high tolerance for heat, which he proves by eating a curry that amazes his Indian friends.
Underestimating Badassery: His disposition leans towards the cheeky and when combined with his curious and experimental nature and occasionally unprofessional demeanor, it's easy for others to underestimate him and his proficiency at his job. This isn't helped by the fact that the majority of the recurring characters are DeadpanSnarkers and so we rarely hear anyone outright complimenting Peter on his talents to his face. However, Peter's acquired a long list of genuinely impressive accomplishments under what is usually very difficult situations throughout the series, and in The Hanging Tree Nightingale says in response to Folsom's criticism of the Folly's functions that it typically takes years to train an apprentice to a level in which they would be decently competent in self-defense and providing Falcon-style backup, and notes that Peter's skills make him an exception, not the rule. Peter's also very people smart and good at convincing and/or manipulating others into doing what he wants when he's actually focused on doing so. The trope is only subtly present in the text, though, since Peter himself tends to downplay his own capabilities.
Walking Disaster Area: He gets this treatment after being around things like the Covent Garden riot and fire in Rivers of London and the demolition of Skygarden Tower in Broken Homes, the latter of which he occasionally gets blamed for although the Faceless Man was truly responsible.
Yiddish as a Second Language: He uses a lot of these terms. (Justified: North and East London argot has adopted a lot of them.)
You Are in Command Now: After Nightingale is shot in Rivers of London, Peter, with only four months of experience in the Folly, ends up essentially running the Folly in all but name as the only officer active for the majority of Moon Over Soho. It all goes wrong when Ash, a river spirit, is stabbed, causing Peter's duty and the standard emergency procedure of the paramedics to conflict without Peter having the experience to smooth the disparity over. One hijacked ambulance later, Nightingale ends up stepping in and accepting blame for not providing better oversight.
- Further downplayed throughout the series. While Nightingale is officially the Folly's leader throughout the books, Peter still ends up having to make executive decisions far more than a lowly police constable (or, later, a detective constable) typically should because he has to take a compensating role for what Nightingale has not done or cannot do. The flaws and virtues of this are exposed throughout the series: Peter's influence greatly helps to jumpstart the resurrection of the Folly as a force of order maintenance, but as he is the first Folly-associated apprentice since World War II and the main force and catalyst of this change, this comes with many burdens, responsibilities, and duties that far outstretch what a police constable is usually expected to handle.

Thomas Nightingale

DCI Thomas Nightingale

The last government-sanctioned wizard in London, a DCI for the Met (London Police) heading a unit of one specializing in magical crimes. He becomes Peter's teacher during the first book.

Berserk Button:
- His school's name was Casterbrook. If you wish to clean the toilets for next few weeks, do go ahead and keep calling it Hogwarts.
- On a more serious note, certain forms of abuse of magic, and — especially — teaching magic without any of the discipline and restraints that Casterbrook taught its pupils tend to send Nightingale into the kind of quiet fury that makes Peter profoundly glad it isn't directed at him.
Children Raise You: A Mentor-Student variety. While Nightingale was not particularly childish prior to mentoring Peter—in fact, he's characterized from the beginning as very stiff and disciplined in demeanor—taking Peter on as his apprentice forces Nightingale to emotionally reengage with a world from which he'd otherwise largely withdrawn. Nightingale noticably becomes better adjusted in his job as a modern police officer and his place in modernity in general over the course of the series.
Cool Old Guy: Considering the man is more than a century old, he's way cool.
The Dreaded: Among the demi-monde, who know what he's capable of.
Excessive Mourning: Heavily implied to have affected his ability to run the Folly for most of his duration as its sole wizard, although he's stoic to the point that he rarely shows it openly. Nightingale sincerely tried to maintain the Folly's operations and thought he'd been doing an adequate job, but a combination of his own grief and lack of direction meant he effectively kept the Folly in a neglected stasis for seventy years, seemingly unable to adapt to changing times and, until very recently, unwilling to take on apprentices to build back the ranks, despite knowing that magic was becoming more active again since the sixties. Peter offhandedly mentions in Moon Over Soho that the Folly's paperwork hadn't been completed and processed in over a decade, and it later becomes a quip between Peter and Lesley that random civilians knew more about London's magical activity in the last half-century than Nightingale.
Failed a Spot Check: He spent decades assuming the wizarding community had died out and missing out on signs of the Faceless Man's activities, something made only more egregious by the fact that the Faceless Man turns out to have long been notorious in both the magical and criminal communities of London. To further the point, Peter notices evidence of the Faceless Man's existence during the investigation of only his second major case, a mere four months after the beginning of his apprenticeship.
Gentleman and a Scholar: Being a full wizard in this universe means having an in-depth understanding of "Newtonian magic" which, as the name suggests, is a system of magic with natural laws which is studied using scientific principles in the hope of advancing understanding of magic and/or figuring out and stopping the latest string of magical crimes.
Gentleman Wizard: Right down to the silver-tipped cane.
Grammar Nazi: He frequently corrects Peter.
Hidden Depths: Nightingale may look like an Officer and a Gentleman, but he once personally destroyed two Tiger tanks by himself.
Limited Advancement Opportunities: Has been stuck as a DCI for decades. Although the covert nature of his duties and the self-imposed stagnation of the Folly have probably contributed heavily to this, strictly speaking in organisational terms he should have been made a Detective Superintendent in the service re-structurings of the 1980s and 90s.
The Magnificent: In the demimonde he's most commonly known as The Nightingale, or the Nightingale, depending on how panicked the speaker is.
The Mentor: To Peter. Although he verges on Obsolete Mentor a couple of times, especially when it comes to modern police methods, and this is a particular bone of contention at the end of Moon Over Soho, when the issue of Inhumanable Alien Rights and due process through the courts versus just killing sentient non-human possible criminals comes up.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Subverted. In the words of the author: "Nightingale ain't Dumbledore".
Merlin Sickness: Nightingale was born in 1900, aged normally until the 1970s, and then for reasons that are still not clear began getting younger again. The effect is only on his biological age, however; his memory works normally. More recently though, the short story Miroslav's Fabulous Hand, bundled with Amongst Our Weapons, indicates that due to not forgetting anything as he de-aged and then continued living well beyond a normal human lifespan, he seems to be forgetting and conflating quite a lot of his own memories. He observes wryly that professor Postmartin has "greater access to my records" and has thus explained quite a lot to Nightingale about what Nightingale was like when he was young.
- Word of God has said that the reason is clear in the books.
- The date of the onset does appear to be the same date as the apotheosis of Mama Thames.
Mistaken for Gay: The first time Peter saw Nightingale he thought he was being picked up.
My Grandson, Myself: Due to his Merlin Sickness, he's occasionally attended funerals for people he used to know related to the Folly posing as his own son.
Old Master: He's over 100 years old, and a master wizard, although he dislikes the term.
Obsolete Mentor: One of the recurring issues underlying the series is the consequences of Nightingale being this. While he may be a legendarily powerful master wizard, Nightingale also neglected a lot of his duties over the decades, and the obsolete functionality of Nightingale and the Folly itself when Peter first arrives puts a lot of pressure on Peter to try to make the Folly functional again. Nightingale always knew it would be a lot of tough work for Peter to manage his magical education and his responsibilities as a police officer and Folly member, but it's clear, given his treatment of supernatural disturbances as uncommon and his lack of knowledge on the Faceless Man and the Little Crocodiles, that Nightingale didn't even fully realize how behind the Folly was in its duties when he asked Peter to join and just how much of those duties Peter would rapidly have to take on because Nightingale no longer knew anything about how they worked anymore.
Person of Mass Destruction: If you can blow up two Tiger tanks, you're this.
Polyglot: We've seen him speaking Danish, and know for a fact that he reads Latin fluently. It's strongly implied in the books that he also reads Greek, Arabic, German and French. In the tabletop game, composed with the cooperation of Ben Aaronovitch, the languages Nightingale can understand to some extent are listed as Arabic (50%), Brittonic (40%), Danish (40%), English (80%), Greek (60%), German (50%), Latin (70%), and Welsh (40%).
Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Nightingale doesn't really get Peter's Harry Potter namedrops.
Quintessential British Gentleman: Not to stereotype levels, but the aspects are definitely there. Although he may be playing up the part.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He's good at training his fellow wizards and accepting any mistakes.
Renaissance Man: Which turned out to be a good thing when he became the last practising wizard in the UK. Being able to forge his own staff, for one...
Sharp-Dressed Man: Even Lampshaded in The Hanging Tree. The most relaxed we've seen him dress is a polo shirt and blazer.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Though he conceals it much of the time, Nightingale evidently saw some extremely nasty things at Ettersberg, both in whatever ghastly research the Nazis' wizards were up to and in how his fellow Casterbrook alumni died. One of the "Moments" short stories shows him still having nightmares about the war, the battle at Ettersberg, and about the people he lost in both.
The Stoic: He rarely shows signs of emotion, and never raises his voice. Moment One, bundled in Tales from the Folly, suggests that this is, at least in part, affected intentionally, the other WW2 veteran wizards looking to Nightingale carrying on as a pillar of strength and him choosing not to let them down.
Survivor Guilt: Nightingale is still haunted, even 60-odd years later, by his survivor guilt from WW2 and Ettersberg; the trip to the ruins of his old school (where they once taught wizardry) and the list of the fallen shows him to be still utterly broken by that last battle.
Technologically Blind Elders: It comes with the territory of being over 110 years old at the beginning of the series, having mostly withdrawn from society, and living in a building with magical protections that prevent the installation of new electronic connections. He does, however, prove himself quite capable of picking up technology quickly if sufficiently motivated, like the airwaves, the TV in the tech cave (for watching rugby), and (in Lies Sleeping) skyping.

Abdul Walid

Dr. Abdul Haqq Walid

A world-renowned gastroenterologist who also doubles as a cryptopathologist. He's a Scot from Oban who was raised a Presbyterian but converted to Islam while studying medicine.

Admiring the Abomination: Most of the things he comes across are Nightmare Fuel, but he handles it all rather well and demonstrates a scientist's curiosity. Considering that he's been doing it for decades, his attitude is not all that strange.
Collector of the Strange: Maybe not that strange given his role in the Folly, but Peter repeatedly claims he has a selection of brains suffering from hyperthaumaturgical degradation, and he's always eager for samples.
Masquerade: He handles the stranger autopsies that go on in London as well as handling medical care for the Folly's residents.
Nightmare Fetishist: He's very enthusiastic about new magical phenomena, and will frequently ask for samples.
Open Heart Dentistry: His work with the Folly entails autopsies on chimeras and victims of magical attacks, genetic analysis of tissues, and running MRIs on practitioners' brains to check for neural damage. Walid's formal medical specialty? Gastroenterology.
Technobabble: He's come up with a few medical terms for things have to do with magic, including hyperthaumaturgical degradation. He's also adept at translating both modern terminology and Peter's theories for Nightingale, so Peter occasionally has him explain his ideas for him.

Toby

Toby the Dog

A mongrel terrier who belonged to the late William Skirmish and now resides in the Folly.

Big Eater: He's always on the prowl for a meal. Something Peter and Nightingale take advantage of when faced with some of Molly's cooking.
Canine Companion: The Folly's beloved and loyal dog.
Dog Stereotype: Being a terrier, he's The Napoleon and being a mongrel he's street smart enough to make it back to the Folly by himself.
Evil-Detecting Dog: Molly is normally his favourite because she feeds him, but when Horror Hunger overtakes her during the haemomancy rite, Toby senses she's lost control and rushes to protect Peter.
Heroic Dog: Near the end of the first book, he manages to fend off Molly when she was about to do Peter in.
Mysterious Animal Senses: He's able to sense the supernatural and reacts by barking.
Trademark Favorite Food: Sausages.
Urine Trouble: In Body Work, Toby urinates on both the possessed cars' crushed remains, as if he's taunting the evil entity his human friends just bested.

Molly

The Folly's mysterious maid and cook.

Creepy Housekeeper: She moves around very silently, never speaks and has way too many teeth. All of this tends to unnerve people.
The Fair Folk: Peter's encounter with the Faerie Queen in Foxglove Summer leads him to believe that she and Molly are the same variety of fae.
Hidden Depths:
- Book one implies that Molly and Beverley can communicate, although they don't do so in front of Peter. Later books hint that Molly has been going online in Peter's tech-cave when he's not around, which would be news to Peter who hadn't even realized she could type.
- By Foxglove Summer, it's revealed that she's been using Twitter to trade recipes.
- One of the "Moments" eventually reveals how Molly experiences the world and feels about the people, present and long past, at the Folly. It's... different, yet moving. To Molly, echoes of the Folly's dead are all around, and a comfort.
House Fey: She's a fairy housekeeper.
Humanoid Abomination: Possibly. She creeps Peter out. Other supernatural beings and Toby are wary of her upon meeting her for the first time. Not even Nightingale seems to know what she is. To put that in perspective, even the Night Witch — who survived the Nazis and went toe-to-toe with Nightingale — is cautious of her. Given what happened to Peter at the end of the first book, their caution might be justified. Peter believes that there's some relation between her and the Pale Lady. In Lies Sleeping it's pretty much confirmed that she's a High Fae, and hinted to be one of a group traded by the Faerie Queen many years ago, with the others including the Pale Lady, "Charlotte Greenwood", and Foxglove.
Lethal Chef: She favours making dishes which were popular a century ago. This suits Nightingale, but sometimes horrifies Peter. As of Moon Over Soho she's been experimenting with new recipes, leading to an attempt at eggs Benedict that even Toby wouldn't eat. As of the fourth book, she's getting better thanks to the gift of a modern cookbook.
- Body Work implies that Molly has begun privately trading recipes online while Peter's tech-cave is unoccupied.
Living Emotional Crutch: Served as one for Nightingale in the past. There was a point where the main thing motivating him to remain functional was the knowledge that abandoning the Folly would mean abandoning Molly as well.
Meido: Of the Edwardian variety.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: There's a reason that she's usually silent and covers her mouth when she laughs. She also has an Overly-Long Tongue.
Mysterious Past: She was found as a young girl, around the age of 10 or so, by the Folly in 1911 in the house of a Canadian criminal named Harry Speltz who was posing as a Chinese magician and alleged white slaver. Not even Speltz knew where she came from, and when she was brought into the grounds of the Folly, she refused to leave. Lies Sleeping indicates that she may be one of a group of High Fae traded by the Faerie Queen many years ago, but that still leaves many questions unanswered.
Older Than They Look: Looks like a young woman, but she's been at the Folly since she was a little girl, which was around 1911.
Shipper on Deck: In the "Tales from the Folly" bonus strip from issue #2 of the Action at a Distance comic, it is revealed that Molly is writing stories about Peter and Nightingale being romantic towards each other.
The Shut-In: She is reluctant to leave the Folly. Even when Nightingale is kidnapped in Night Witch, and she goes after the kidnappers in a murderous rage, she stops at the front door.
The Speechless/The Voiceless: It's unclear which trope applies; Peter's never heard her speak, but he has heard her shriek in distress and presumably laugh, so she's at least capable of that much.
Stab the Salad: In "Red Mist", a vignette in Body Work, she effortlessly makes the vigorous chopping of tomatoes look like a murder in progress.

Lesley May

Constable Lesley May

Peter's friend and fellow constable. After the end of book one, she suffers an accident that destroys her face. The end of the second book reveals that she can do magic. She joins the Folly sometime before the third book begins. She is also a Walking Spoiler.

Action Girl: She's not scared of a fight.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: A pointed and horrifying aversion.
- Facial Horror: Mr. Punch absolutely destroys her face. In The Hanging Tree her face seems restored, but it looks just a bit too perfect, and she can alter it at will.
Deadpan Snarker: As is the case with most of the police force (and, indeed, most of the cast).
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: How evil she really is is debatable, but even after her Face–Heel Turn, she won't allow the Faceless Man to kill Peter.
Evil Counterpart/Foil: To Peter, after her Face–Heel Turn.
Face–Heel Turn: Comes to light in book 4.
Fair Cop: In both senses.
Fantastic Racism: Implied moreso in the graphic novels, it seems that she's come to see supernatural entities like Oberon as monsters (even telling Oberon this to his face at one point), likely due to the incident with Mr Punch. This is in contrast to Peter who sees them as people with the same faults and virtues, with one or two murky areas like some of the Rivers' Charm Person tendencies.
Foreshadowing: Pay close attention to what she says in book one. Some of these things Lesley has no way of knowing, while Mr. Punch would have known them. Even Nightingale doesn't notice - he just picks up the point Lesley made without questioning it.
Masking the Deformity: She wears a combination of a hoodie and a face mask after possession by a revenant makes her face fall off.
Out of Focus: She only has a couple of scenes in book 2 while recovering, but is back on the main roster for book three. After she executes her Face–Heel Turn, she pops up intermittently to try intercepting whatever MacGuffin in the focus of the latest book.
Redemption Rejection: Refuses an offer to return during Lies Sleeping, choosing to kill Chorley and run instead.
Revenge: Aside from her face, a huge part of her motivation for working with the Faceless Man is hoping that he can help her get revenge for the possession and ruin of her face. Turns out it was really the only thing keeping her loyal to him by the end.
Scars Are Forever: Mr. Punch destroys her face. Despite her numerous operations, people are still shocked when they see her without her mask. Magic offers no cure either, which may be the reason she betrays Peter at the end of the fourth book since the Faceless Man was likely offering her a way to undo the damage.
Walking Spoiler: After the events of book one, pretty much everything she does has to come in spoiler tags. If you see a spoiler tag, it probably involves Lesley.

Frank Caffrey

A Fire Investigation Officer and a reservist for the 4th Battalion, Parachute Regiment who leads the Folly's secret Armed Response Unit.

Badass Normal: He's a normal — albeit well-trained and well-armed — man who has to provide backup when a wizard needs a bit of help.
Nerves of Steel: His reaction to Peter accidentally finding a crate of fragmentation grenades that had been sitting in a puddle in the Folly's weapons locker since 1946 was his voice going up two octaves while telling Peter to back away slowly.
Old Soldier: He’s the one the Folly calls when they need force and is no spring chicken.

Stiff Upper Lip: Granted he's a veteran and has probably been dealing with the supernatural for a while, but he doesn't show any fear despite the threat of a nest of vampires, a murderous ghost, a rogue magician, a chimera, and a trio of succubi.
Suddenly Significant Rule: When they find Skygarden's basement rooms padlocked, Peter and Lesley realize that Frank can legally order the locks cut off because it's a breach of fire safety codes. Subverted when Zach shows up and can pick the locks faster than that.

Harold Postmartin

Professor Harold Postmartin

The Folly's archivist. He's based out of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.

Cool Old Guy: He’s a friendly and knowledgeable guy who Peter likes and who is definitely on the older side.
The Masquerade: His job involves handling the sensitive information that would expose the way the world really works. He's more of a friendly librarian than a Man in Black, though.
Omniglot: He’s comfortable and flawless in going through multiple old languages. In later books, he's acting as one of Abigail's Latin tutors.

Jennifer Vaughan

Dr. Jennifer Vaughan

The Folly's second pathologist, recruited by Dr. Walid once the rising number of Falcon incidents made it clear that a full-time forensics expert was needed. Very organized, very Welsh, and very happy to argue minutia with Walid.

The Coroner: Unlike Walid, forensic pathology is her professional specialty.
Fantastic Science: Her attitude to autopsying chimeras, Fae and talking foxes is that they're intriguing variants on known organisms whose physical differences should be properly documented and classified.
The Nicknamer: In a serious example, she systematizes record-keeping on the Folly's growing collection of deceased demimonde suspects, giving the bodies placeholder names like "Barry Brown" or "Charlotte Greenwood". The assigned initials indicate both the order of acquisition and the category (chimera, fae, etc.) to which each body belongs.

Abigail Kamara

A teenage cousin of Peter's and a neighbour of his parents, who learned of Peter's interest in magic from Mrs. Grant. Her stubborn determination to snoop into ghosts and other supernatural phenomena led Peter to concoct an unofficial "cadet" branch of the Folly, purely to keep an eye on her. As of Lies Sleeping, she officially becomes Nightingale's second apprentice for fear of what would happen if she tried teaching herself magic.

Afro Asskicker: Mostly just verbally. But she did make it clear to her parents that she would call family services if they tried to straighten her natural curls.
Annoying Younger Sibling: Technically she's Peter's cousin, being the daughter of Rose Grant's half-brother, but she still fills the spot.
The Apprentice: Eventually manages to become an official apprentice of Nightingale's through being an excellent student, having a tendency to get into sometimes dangerous magical affairs, and being willing to experiment with dangerous magic on her own if they don't teach her how to properly use it.
A Day in the Limelight:
- The short story "Favourite Uncle" shows us what Abigail's up to when not at the Folly: accumulating supernatural experience of her own, embarking on investigations for her friends, and visiting her brother, a long-time cancer patient, in the hospital.
- The novella What Abigail Did That Summer is also from Abigail's perspective, while Peter's in Hertfordshire for Foxglove Summer.
The Determinator: Peter told her she needed to learn Latin in order to learn magic, mostly as a way to make her give up. It didn't work.
Paranormal Investigation: Most of her fieldwork as a junior Folly associate is ghost-spotting in and around London.
Rail Enthusiast: She takes offence at being called a train-spotter, but she knows a lot about London's rolling stock. What Abigail Did That Summer implies that this is the residue of a time in her childhood when she spent a lot of time calculating just how far away from home she could get.
Tagalong Kid: Abigail wants to be this, despite the dangers of probing the supernatural.

Foxglove

A fae who was sold to humans by her Queen, and worked for both the first and second Faceless Man, before taking up residence at the Folly.

Anti-Magic: Has the power to prevent human practitioners from using their own powers, though it's dependent on her emotional state. Once she moves into the Folly, its basement is refitted with Falcon-rated jail cells that negate apprehended practitioners' magic, right next to her studio.
Attention Deficit OOH! Shiny: The only flaw in the aforementioned cells is the very likely possibility she might run out of the Folly to do impromptu sketches of passers-by.
Eccentric Artist / Reclusive Artist: She's a very gifted artist, so much so that once she moves into the Folly, her works become welcome additions to several London galleries.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Was close to the other fae she was sold with and does not take the news of the Pale Ladies' deaths well. Having connected a few dots, Peter convinces her to flee captivity with him by promising to take her to one of her missing friends—and takes her to the Folly, where she's joyfully reunited with Molly.
Godiva Hair: Is the only thing protecting her nonexistent modesty when Molly stops her from running outside.
Heel–Face Turn: Peter's friendliness and honesty ultimately convince her to help him escape the Faceless Man.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Just like Molly, and put on full display in Monday, Monday.
Please Put Some Clothes ON: She has been known to run around the Folly in nothing but her artist's beret. Molly makes a point of confronting her with very scolding body language if she tries to leave the premises without any clothes on.
Punch-Clock Villain: She isn't very malevolent, she just works for the second Faceless Man because she was sold by a fae queen to the first one and she doesn't have anywhere else to go.
The Speechless/The Voiceless: Like the rest of the fae, her speech is imperceptible to normal humans.

The Rivers

Mama Thames

A Nigerian nurse-in-training who attempted suicide and ended up becoming the goddess of the Thames.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the Thames below Teddington Lock.
Came Back Strong: A normal woman who killed herself and came back as a goddess.
Charm Person: Being in her presence is enough. Peter later finds out that the compulsion she exerted on him during their first meeting was actually her keeping the effect to a minimum and she could have overwhelmed him easily if she had wished. Her daughter later explains that her magical influence can be compared to a celebrity superstar: Beyonce doesn't go out for her own coffee because she would attract so much attention that it would actively disrupt the cafe's everyday operations.
Compelling Voice: Given that her daughters possess it, she probably does too, although we don't actually see her use it.
Deity of Human Origin: Used to be a normal woman.
Driven to Suicide: In her backstory, she failed her medical exams and her fiancé broke up with her. Fortunately for her, the river had need of someone to be its deity.
Education Mama: She expects all of her daughters to have degrees.
Gods Need Prayer Badly: Nightingale theorizes she may get her power from worshipers but it's never confirmed.
No Name Given: Claims she doesn't even remember what name she had as a mortal.
Older Than They Look: Appears to be an attractive mature woman, but she'd be somewhere in her 80s or 90s if she hadn't become goddess of the Thames.
Physical God: A river goddess.
Power Incontinence: Being one of the most powerful nature spirits in a thousand miles has a few downsides. According to Beverley her status as The Shut-In is necessary lest her innate Charm Person powers turn a walk to the store into a royal procession that diverts traffic throughout London.
The Shut-In: She hardly ever leaves her house and relies on her daughters and hangers-on to get things for her.

Father Thames

The god of the Thames since the Romans were in Britain. He abandoned London during the Great Stink and hasn't returned.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the Thames above Teddington Lock. He once encompassed all of the Thames river, but at the start of the books he hadn't returned to London because of the deaths of his sons due to the physical 'drowning' of their rivers.
Charm Person: His presence is enough to do this.
Cool Old Guy: A very old, divine Charm Person.
Physical God: A river god.
Really 700 Years Old: While there are quite a few people in the series who are Older Than They Look, Father Thames is close to about 2000 years old given or take a few decades. He was once known as Tiberius Claudius Verica, making him a client citizen of the Roman Empire during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, which went from 14 AD to 37 AD. Father Thames may in fact be the historical Verica, who was a client king at this time.

Tyburn

Tyburn "Lady Ty" Thames, aka Lady Cecelia Tyburn-Thames

The goddess of the Tyburn and Mama Thames' eldest daughter. She's dissatisfied with the current state of the supernatural community and wants to replace it with something more organized, including a government branch that handles supernatural matters.

Aloof Big Sister: Beverley describes her as such.
Big Sister Instinct: As the oldest sister of the Thames daughters, which makes it personally annoying to her how none of the others want to rely on her.
Charm Person: She's strong enough that she makes Peter buy flowers, get on a train, and come see her despite his never having met her before and the fact that he was nowhere near her at the time.
Compelling Voice: She tries to use it on Peter to make him drink some water and end up under her complete control. It almost works.
The Dragon: To her mother.
Happily Married: To her husband George. Unlike Oxley, she isn't able to grant her husband the same immortality she has.
Hypocrite:
- She's not subtle about her contempt for the current state of the Folly being held together by old agreements and the Old Boy Network, but she will happily use her own influence and political power to try and control things, including locking Peter out of the Folly until he bribes her mother, and later ordering him to shield her daughter during an investigation regardless of whether or not her daughter's actually innocent.
- She likes to taunt Grant about his lower-class upbringing, education, and the troubles of his mother's first home, Sierra Leone. Her mother was from Nigeria and only became a goddess because she chose to commit suicide by jumping into the Thames after she failed to pass her medical exams.
Evil Is Petty: While somewhat of a stretch to be called evil, she's ultimately not a positive presence and the bulk of her animosity towards Peter begins with the fact that while she was trying to mind control Peter into permanently being suborned to her will he resisted and accidentally broke some old statue she had. While Nightingale later critiques how he removed himself from the situation this still does not excuse her actions in the altercation.
Jerkass Has a Point: Peter actually agrees with her about the Folly being woefully insufficient for handling London's magical community, let alone all of Britain's, and badly needing to be updated. He just doesn't trust her to be the one running things.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tyburn is ruthless, cunning and merciless to those who oppose her and seems to find glee in humiliating Peter, but she's by no account an actual villain and loves her family (both her sisters/mother and husband/children).
Legacy Character: She is not the first spirit of the Tyburn, and Peter meets the ghost of the previous one in book three.
Making a Splash: Being the goddess of a river, she has control over water. The first time we see her in the book she uses it for the rather mundane task of filling a vase.
Mama Bear: Tyburn isn't prone to on-screen violence, but as The Hanging Tree shows, threaten her children, and you will be making the worst mistake of your life. Not coincidentally, unless you're the Faceless Man, and even then it was close, it will also be the last.
Manipulative Bitch: Oh, yes.
Not So Above It All: Ty is the most serious-minded of her family and prefers to run in high powered political circles, but she also chose to marry a hydrological engineer rather than someone more politically advantageous and as time goes on she shows herself willing to crack a few jokes from time to time, especially if they're at Peter's expense.
Nothing Personal: As she notes to Peter at the end of The Hanging Tree, she has nothing against him and Nightingale as people besides how they're continual headaches in her attempt to modernize all the "arrangements".
Outliving One's Offspring: Is dreading this happening as her children age normally when she's immortal.
The Starscream: Mama Thames is quite happy with tradition and holding court out of her flat, Tyburn is... not. Lady Ty has ambitions to sweep away the Folly and all the systems of "arrangements" and get everything out in the open. She also quite likes prowling the corridors of power at Westminster and Whitehall. Nightingale has said that when the eventual clash between Tyburn and Mama Thames comes, it might be a good idea to take a holiday somewhere very far away.
Water Is Womanly: Goddess of the river Tyburn and a refined, manipulative woman and protective mother.
Woman of Wealth and Taste: Boy does she like to live the good life.

Oxley Thames

Father Thames' son and right-hand man. He's said to be the wisest of Father Thames' sons and is the god of the Oxley Mill River/Abbey River.

The Consigliere: He's the voice of reason who counsels his father on important decisions.
The Fog of Ages: When Peter suggests that historians would love to talk to him, he explains that he may have been alive for many centuries, but that doesn't mean he remembers much about it.
Happily Married: To his wife Isis. Apparently since 1802.
Hidden Depths: He seems like an irreverent old carnie, but he's a powerful river spirit and sharp as a tack. Underestimate him at your own risk.
Noble Profession: He was once a monk — presumably at Chertsey Abbey on the Oxley Mill River — and by his own admission, he was a terrible one. He may have been a Dirty Old Monk given his love of women, the theatre, and Skinny Dipping.
Older Than They Look: Like most of them, he seems like a normal, slightly older man despite his centuries old lifestyle.
Physical God: He's a god in human form who can unleash some powerful river forces.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He wants to end the conflict between the rival Thames factions before it turns into something worse. He also seems to genuinely like Peter.

Fleet Thames

Goddess of the Fleet River. A woman in her mid-thirties who (unsurprisingly) is heavily involved in journalism and art.

Bad Liar: In "King of the Rats", she turns a Blunt "No" from Ty into a Suspiciously Specific Denial that instantly clues Peter in that the Rivers know what's going on.
Cool Aunt: To Tyburn's kids. Olivia McAllister-Thames felt comfortable enough about her to tell her she was a lesbian — something Tyburn (her mother) only learned years later.
Massive Numbered Siblings: Beverley mentions she takes in runaways and orphans and has a double-digit number of adoptive children, many of them magical.
One Degree of Separation: When first meeting her, Peter finds her familiar, and she tells him he went to the same school as her kids.

Beverley Brook

Beverley Brook Thames

The spirit of the Beverley Brook. Peter's on and off love interest. Likes to drive Minis and act a lot more "street smart" than she really is.

Born of Magic: Implied; she says that her mother just found her floating in the river as a baby. This leads Peter to crack a joke about her being "created by the midi-chlorians", a reference she doesn't get.
Girl of the Week: Initially just one of these in book one, but fleshed out later on.
Insistent Terminology: Beverley and her family are orisha, thank you very much.
Making a Splash: Big enough to flood Covent Garden.
Pretty Fly for a White Guy: A mild example of this, as Peter notes in book one, in that her river flows through some pretty upper-middle-class areas despite her acting all street and urban. This is reflected in her choice of car, which is the very middle-class MINI.
Put on a Bus: At the end of book one.
- The Bus Came Back: Book Four.
Reincarnation Romance: An unusual sort, in Lies Sleeping the male version that was Father Thames' son is just as affectionate with Peter as she is and Peter's able to identify him just by a kiss.
Surprise Pregnancy: With Peter at the end of Lies Sleeping, though she doesn't seem to mind much.
Violently Protective Girlfriend: At the end of Foxglove Summer, she wields a shotgun when rescuing Peter from the Faerie Queen.

Chelsea and Olympia

Westbourne and Counter's Creek Thames

The Spirits of the Rivers Westbourne and Counter's Creek, who are usually seen hanging out together on account of being twins.

Bratty Teenage Daughters: Even more of a pain when they work in pairs.
Embarrassing First Name: They don't like being called Westbourne and Counter's Creek.
Only Known by Their Nickname: For the reasons mentioned above, they prefer to go by Chelsea and Olympia.
Robbing the Mob Bank: They hijack a drug courier on the river that would have gotten them in trouble if they weren't staying with their sister, Beverley Brook.

Lea

Lea Thames

The personification of the River Lea, and the only one of Mama Thames' tributaries who plainly isn't the same ethnicity as her.

Ambiguous Situation: Since it's pretty clear that Mother and Father Thames only have children who are the same sex and ethnicity as themselves, Lea being white and goddess of a tributary of the originally-Nigerian Mama Thames's tidewater begs several questions. Peter's come up with a few theories to explain her, but the truth has yet to be stated. This is particularly interesting given that Walbrook, introduced in Lies Sleeping, is a river spirit predating Father Thames, but doesn't associate herself with Mama Thames, whereas Lea does.
Uniformity Exception: The only one of Mama Thames' tributary-goddesses who's white instead of black.

Nicky

Neckinger "Nicky" Thames

The personification of the "lost" River Neckinger in South London.

Beware the Cute Ones: She's an adorable little girl with the power to drown a man on dry land.
Goo-Goo-Godlike: Not older than ten, and a young river goddess who has the power to drown a man on dry land and bend unprepared minds to her will. Her family does their best to keep her in check and prevent her from misusing her powers.

Lulu

Lulu/Walbrook

The personification of the Walbrook, once the most important river in Roman Londinium. She runs a pub in Shoreditch, and doesn't associate with the other Rivers because she's not one of Mama Thames' clan, but something much older.

Morality Chain: Being the daughter of Gaius Pulcinella makes her the only person who can talk down Mr Punch.
Really 700 Years Old: Is only slightly younger than Father Thames.

Wanda

Wandle Thames

The personification of the River Wandle in South London.

Ambiguous Situation: Because the story featuring her mostly focuses on her birth in the sixties, and is vague about her present day situation beyond the fact she's still with her adopted father, it's not clear how close she is to Mama Thames.
Fashionista: Seems to have become one by the present day, as a result of being the spirit of a river known for textile mills, born from bales of cloth in the cellar of a "Dedicated Follower of Fashion". Aaronovitch calls her the "Goddess of Schmutter".
Goo-Goo-Godlike: In her only appearance she's a newborn baby, and can already bend minds to her will, including convincing some serious gangsters that getting her home fixed up is more important than breaking her adopted father's legs. It's also implied that this is why he suddenly decided to turn his fashion skills into a proper job.

Rom

Rom Thames

The personification of the River Rom. The Princess of Dagenham. The Queen of WKD. Patron Saint of Illegal Street Racing.

Try to Fit That on a Business Card: See above.

Lugg

The newly born personification of the River Lugg.

Mystical Pregnancy: His birth was catalyzed by Peter and Beverley during the events of Foxglove Summer. He appears to be around two years old when he incarnates the next spring.
Raised by Wolves: According to the local Rivers this is how things normally went in the past, but it's averted by necessity in his case given modern child protective services.
Wonder Child: He's found by Dominic playing in the river that goes through his husband's farm.

Chess

Chess/Chester

The personification of the river Chess, introduced in The Furthest Station. His adoptive parents are completely unaware of magic, the demimonde, etc before Peter meets them by accident.

Members of the London Metropolitan Police Service (and other police services), not in the employ of the Folly

Alexander Seawoll

DCI Alexander Seawoll

Head of the murder team and Stephanopoulos' boss. He's aware of the supernatural but doesn't like it one bit, especially when it interferes with proper policing.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's not fond of Nightingale, but he's genuinely protective of Lesley and considers her to be one of the finest constables of her generation.
Not Using the "Z" Word: He doesn't like the word "magic" being used, preferring to call it "weird bollocks".
Oop North: Peter's description of him in book one: He was from Yorkshire, or somewhere like that, and like many Northerners with issues, he’d moved to London as a cheap alternative to psychotherapy.
Old-Fashioned Copper: He projects this image, but according to Peter in Lies Sleeping is really as modern a copper as ever actioned a community outreach project going forward.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He's not above bending the rules or upholding the Masquerade, but he's also one of the best there is at what he does.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: He does quite a bit of casual swearing.

Miriam Stephanopoulos

DI Miriam Stephanopoulos

Seawoll's right hand, but also an accomplished detective in her own right.

Berserk Button: Peter tells us it's rumoured that she has a set of jars in her home containing the preserved testicles of men who made jokes about her sexual orientation.
Butch Lesbian: And not at all shy about putting assholes in their place when they make jokes about the stereotype.

Face of a Thug: Peter describes her as "a squat, angry-faced middle-aged woman with lank brown hair who looked like she fought Rottweilers for a hobby", but she's a reasonable person who actually has a sense of humour.
Gut Feeling: In the third book she has an accurate feeling there’s something mystical about the crime scene and summons Peter to get confirmation.
Number Two: To Seawoll.
Rank Up: Promoted from Detective Sergeant to Detective Inspector at some time between the second and third books.
Reasonable Authority Figure: She more or less takes Seawoll's place during the second book while he's recovering from the incident in the first book. She's less antagonistic about magic, but still wants all the cases to be solved with evidence that can actually be presented in court.

Sahra Guleed

Constable (later DS) Sahra Guleed

A junior member of Seawoll's team, who's worked with the Folly enough to have become the Murder Team's unofficial go-to officer on Falcon operations. Guleed immigrated from Somalia at a young age, has a knack for getting suspects to confess to her by appearing graciously sympathetic, and is an observant Muslim.

Badass Normal: Up until Lies Sleeping, Guleed had no magical ability whatsoever, yet she survived two run-ins with the Faceless Man and subdued another hostile wizard with a Glasgow kiss.
Dark and Troubled Past: If Tyburn's snark is to be believed, Guleed's father worked for the Somali secret police before the civil war sent the family fleeing to Britain.
Empowered Badass Normal: As of Lies Sleeping, she's learning Supernatural Martial Arts from Michael Cheung.
Maligned Mixed Marriage: Although she refuses point-blank to discuss it, it's implied that Michael's Chinese family is unhappy about their engagement. It's unclear if it's the "conversion thing", the "melanin thing", or both together that's the issue.
Ninja: Guleed jokes about being a "Muslim ninja" when Peter first meets her during the raid on the Strip Club of Dr. Moreau.
Riches to Rags: Her family was wealthy when she was a child, until suddenly they weren't. She's deliberately vague as to how or why this happened.
Supernatural Martial Arts: As of Lies Sleeping, she has started to learn this under the guidance of Michael Cheung.

David Carey

DC David Carey

Another junior member of Seawoll's team, who's worked on Folly cases and shares a two-person desk with Peter and Sahra Guleed. Mostly involved with the non-magical aspects of investigations, he's more uncomfortable with the supernatural than curious about it. By Lies Sleeping, he has an emotional breakdown over the violence and weirdness of Falcon cases in general and Operation Jennifer in particular, and is placed on medical leave.

If Jesus, Then Aliens: Carey is perplexed to learn that Peter doesn't take God's existence as a given, considering all the supernatural things Peter does believe in.
Innocent Bigot: A mild example; although he works productively with Grant and Guleed, his occasional ignorant comments are received by them with a "Sheltered white boy, what can you do?" response.
The Team Normal: Becomes this among the Peter/Sahra/David trio of junior Murder Team members once Guleed becomes a trainee Legendary Swordswoman.

Jaget Kumar

Sergeant Jaget Kumar

A member of the British Transport Police, as well as an urban explorer and spelunker.

Agent Mulder: When he finds out that magic is real, he acts with excitement rather than disbelief. Given that he keeps track of the strange things that happen in the Underground — including reports of ghosts — and the fact that he's actually an X-Files fan, his reaction isn't uprising.
Love-Obstructing Parents: Inverted; his family and his wife's were exuberant when they started dating, so much so that the couple had to smuggle Indian spices into a white-owned fish-and-chip shop in order to eat out without pushy relatives turning up to badger them about their wedding plans.
Seeker Archetype: He's a spelunker and urban explorer in his spare time.
Tunnel King: While he doesn’t actually dig underground his urban explorer hobby gives him experience for breaking through sealed off tunnels and navigating underground.

Dominic Croft

DC Dominic Croft

A rural policeman in Leominster, Herefordshire, who worked with Peter on the fairy-abduction case in Foxglove Summer, and makes brief appearances in the Black Mould comic story and its "Legal Sabotage" vignette.

City Mouse: He considers himself one. Especially regarding his relationship with his farmer boyfriend. Don't get him started on whether Hereford is a city or not.
Crazy-Prepared: Dominic keeps such a complete stock of evidence-collecting materials and tools in his vehicle that Peter rates him as having a near-Batman grade in this trope.
Straight Gay: Is in a committed relationship with Victor, a farmer.
Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Mild example; Dominic is a serious-minded officer of the law, whereas his Mum tries to side-step housing regulations by setting up a bed & breakfast in her outbuilding but still calling it a "cowshed".

Kimberley Reynolds

Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds

An FBI agent assigned to liaison with the Met's investigation into the Gallagher murder, who became Peter's main U.S. contact after she took part in opening up relations with the Quiet People. She grew up in Oklahoma, and is a devout Christian who dislikes foul language. Takes up the protagonist role in Winter's Gifts.

Action Girl: Does not hesitate to open fire when threatened, in marked (and very American) contrast to Peter and Kumar who don't even carry firearms.
Cowboy Cop: Although not violent unless threatened, Kim is very proactive and aggressive about her work, to the point of ditching her Met liaison and launching her own unsanctioned one-woman investigation on foreign soil.
Fair Cop: Good-looking enough that she initially dyed her auburn hair a mousy brown to ensure people would treat her more as a law-enforcement officer than an attractive redhead.
Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Kimberly finds swearing extremely distasteful, and used "shoot" and "fudge" in place of harsher terminology. She even does this when she imagines what Peter would say about events in her own spin-off book, censoring his F-bombs to "fudge" in her own mental dialogue and narration.
Informed Attribute: The blurb on the UK version of Whispers Under Ground gives the impression that Agent Reynolds' "deep religious beliefs" are going to cause her to come to blows with Peter, with the US Del Rey edition going so far as to describe her as a born-again Christian likely to take any magic as the sign of the devil. Neither is included in the actual book (aside from her briefly rebuking Peter for blaspheming), nor in her own short story or spin-off novella.
Separated by a Common Language: Needs to have London slang explained to her. This provides an in-universe excuse for Peter or Postmartin to explain certain England-specific terms in accounts of the Folly's cases.
Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Naturally red-haired with green eyes.

Tobias Winter

Tobias “Tobi” Winter

A junior member of the Abteilung KDA, ((Komplexe und Diffuse Angelegenheiten, Department for Complex and Unspecific Matters) the German equivalent of the Folly) Aside from his 'Master' and boss Die Chefin, he is the only other licensed practitioner in Germany.

Adorkable: He makes almost as many cultural references as Peter. Most notable when he plays Gladiator at a Roman amphitheater.
Almighty Janitor: Before he started being trained as a practitioner, his job at the KDA mostly consisted of driving around Germany picking up newly discovered Nazi magic research and returning it to KDA's archives.
Crazy-Prepared: He keeps a flame thrower in his car's boot, in case of vampires.
Never Heard That One Before: "Summer and Winter" is pointed out once at the end of October Man. You can tell it's already getting old.
Real Men Cook: He cooks as a hobby and sometimes seems to do it as a way to relieve stress. He claims he likes to know what he's eating.

The Director

Die Chefin

Tobias's boss in the Abteilung KDA, and the only licensed magic-user in post-war Germany before she started training him.

The Baroness: From her black old-fashioned skirt suits, Saxon accent, and super high heels to the awful f6 cigarettes she smokes in a long holder, she plays this image up to the hilt. Tobias thinks this is mostly an affectation.
Names to Run Away From: Tobi says he has heard her called 'Die Hexe aus dem Osten' ('The Witch from the East') by the members of the Demi-monde. Kelly, a Genius loci, calls her 'The Ice Queen'.
No Name Given: She is only ever referred to as "Die Chefin".

Vanessa Sommer

Vanessa “Vani” Sommer

A Kriminalkommissarin in Trier, Germany. She transfers to the Abteilung KDA after a case with Tobias Winter described in October Man.

This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: While working in Trier she got pegged as the department's wine expert and was the officer usually called on for wine related crimes. While this is a useful specialty in wine country, it's probably why she Jumped at the Call.
Jumped at the Call: Gleefully applied for a transfer to the Abteilung KDA despite all of Winter's warnings.

Family, Friends, and Miscellaneous Spirits

Richard Grant

Richard "Lord" Grant

Peter's father. He was a famous trumpet player in his time and on the verge of becoming a legend until heroin addiction ended that chance. It's hinted in the second book that because he was a victim of the jazz-vampire/succubus Simone, the addiction wasn't completely his fault. He survives a heart attack in "Monday, Monday", with a prognosis that he won't live much longer.

Alcoholic Parent: Peter's dad is a serious and habitual heroin addict. He isn't a bad parent but just a bit ineffectual, although Peter's mother being an Apron Matron probably means she did all the parenting stuff anyway. As of the end of Moon Over Soho he's clean, and remarks that of all the drugs he quit, nicotine was the hardest.
Career Resurrection: An In-Universe example. He switched to a keyboard and formed a band with some secondary characters from the second novel. Following dental surgery arranged in the fourth novel, he's able to play the trumpet again.
Cool Old Guy: He's not quite The Mentor, but he will hand out advice to his son. Being a rather famous jazz musician — at least to those who know jazz — also helps. In fact, his knowledge of jazz proves quite helpful in the second book.
Functional Addict: Heroin destroyed his teeth and thus his embouchure, which meant he could no longer play the trumpet with the same amount of skill. He was receiving free clean heroin and safe paraphernalia thanks to a doctor who was his fan. As of the second book he's given up heroin.
Parents as People: He means well, and Peter does love him, but being a mostly under control heroin addict limits your parenting abilities.

Rose Grant

Rose Mamusu Grant

Peter's Sierra Leonean mother.

Apron Matron: She’s a spirited wife and mother who highly values her rule over the household and encounters little resistance from her family.
The Clan: Peter suspects his Mum is related to roughly half the population of Sierra Leone, and regularly keeps in touch with each and every one of the ones she's still speaking to.
Education Mama: She wanted Peter to be something more than a police officer. She actually finds that his working with magic is a more acceptable career than being a constable, and tells certain people that he's a witch smeller.
Ethnic Menial Labor: She's a cleaning lady. Offices, not residences, and rather nice ones lately.
Girls Like Musicians: She emigrated to London purely for its jazz scene, married a jazzman who seldom talks or thinks about anything else, and stuck with him despite his heroin addiction and career collapse. Peter admits she was disappointed that he didn't grow up to play jazz professionally like his dad.
It's All About Me: Apparently common among African mothers. Peter had to fight her not to take his personal belongings when she decided someone else needed them more, and she's mentioned as regularly having arguments when someone else disagrees with her. Even Nightingale finds her a force to be reckoned with.
I Want Grandkids: In book six, she nags Peter about this, even offering to take care of any kids he and Beverley might have so they won't have to take time away from their own pursuits.
Lethal Chef: She's not a bad cook, but her love of hot spices borders on the incendiary. Peter describes it as growing up in a two pot household - one pot for his father, and a second (much spicier) pot for him and his mother. Given the number of supernatural beings in the series, there's a chance that we might find out if her cooking is literally Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth.
Named in the Sequel: Because the books are first-person and Peter obviously calls her "Mum", her name never came up. When people pointed this out, Aaronovitch immediately had someone use it in the audio-only short story "A Rare Book of Cunning Device".
Naturalized Name: After moving to London she changed her name from Mamusu to Rose. Even her husband calls her Rose. When people address her as Mamusu, it's a sign of how long they've known her.
Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Given that the series takes place in what's more or less the real world, most people don't believe in the supernatural and those that do are seen as superstitious or ignorant. This led to a bit of initial Arbitrary Skepticism on Peter's part when his mother attacked Simone and called her a witch. Peter didn't believe that Simone was around when his parents first met, i.e. before he was born. It turns out that his mother was right. Simone is an ageless being and has been feeding off of jazz musicians since World War II.
Parents as People: Less so than her husband, but she still expects Peter to do as she wants, even as an adult. According to Peter, African women have children so there's someone else to do the chores.
Stealing from the Till: Judging by some of the items in the Grants' flat, she's not above taking home a few "perks" from the offices she cleans, like paper towels or complimentary biscuits left out for the cubicle-staff.
Worthless Foreign Degree: She had a promising career in Library Science in Freetown before moving to London for the jazz scene - a former colleague even recognized Peter just based on the family resemblence thirty years later. She seems content with the trade overall.

Zachary Palmer

A young man Peter meets while investigating a murder in the third book. He proves to be more than he appears and introduces Peter to London's supernatural underground.

Bad Liar: He lies with enough nervousness to pick up on easily, and he lies so often that people are always prepared for another lie from him and spot it easily.
Big Eater: His appetite falls somewhere between comical and frightening. Despite eating so much, he's still described as skinny.
Compulsive Liar: As noted above, part of the reason he's bad at lying is because he's always doing so. Peter says that, if questioned about his own existence, Zach would deny it out of habit.
"Friends" Rent Control: First seen living apparently rent-free in a small, maid-serviced mews house in the achingly hip and unbelievably expensive Notting Hill area. Apparently, his presence is more or less legitimate, he just happened to befriend an American art student (and murder victim) with extremely rich and well-connected parents and became his housemate in return for introducing him to the Quiet People.
Half-Human Hybrid: To quote: "My dad was a fairy," said Zach. "And by that I don’t mean he dressed well and enjoyed musical theatre."
Hopeless Suitor: In love with Elizabeth Ten-Tons, who was betrothed to someone else and in a secret romance with Zach's roommate.
Master of Unlocking: Zach can open locks in seconds without leaving a trace he's done so. He claims it's a "family talent", although whether it's a fae thing or not is unclear.
Motor Mouth: He's highly talkative about almost any subject.
Our Goblins Are Different: Apparently he is one, although Peter doesn't think the term is particularly taxonomic.
Walking the Earth: Albeit not in a heroic way, and he seems to confine his wandering to London. He's a rough sleeper. Lesley theorizes that it may have something to do with him being fae.

Oberon

A fae introduced in the third book.

Badass Longcoat: He wears a faded version of the red coat that gave British soldiers their nickname.
Cool Sword: Is armed with one.
The Fair Folk: Despite his name and despite being a fae, he's not the Oberon of legend.
Really 700 Years Old: Despite looking like a young man, he's old enough to have been a slave at some point during the era of the Atlantic slave trade.
Scars Are Forever: His back still bears the scars from his time as a slave.
War God: There's evidence — aside from the way he dresses — that he may be some sort of spirit of battle. He takes Nightingale's oath as a soldier rather seriously in the fourth book.

Sky

The Anthropomorphic Personification of the trees in the Skygarden Estate in book four.

Nature Spirit: Specifically a wood nymph from a London plane tree.

Thomas Debden

An auto mechanic introduced in the Body Work comic story. Now the Folly's regular vehicle repairman and contact for cases where knowledge of cars, modern or vintage, is beneficial.

Hopeless Suitor: Upon meeting Molly, Thomas followed her into the Folly, only to emerge a few minutes later in a state of mute shock. He's been terrified of meeting her again, so no chance.
Messy Hair: Tom wears his hair in short beaded braids that dangle all over erratically.

The Foxes

A population of Talking Animal red foxes who inhabit London and the countryside, who befriend Abigail and become regular associates of the Folly. Precisely how they became sentient hasn't been revealed, but they may have been recruited in the past for espionage operations, as they think of themselves as spies.

Animal Espionage: Young foxes undergo training in observation, scouting, tactics and counterintelligence, employing these skills to watch over their human friends, mess with fox-hunters or litterbug picnickers, and mooch cheese puffs.
Animal Nemesis: Chronically suspicious of cats, although the foxes admit they've never found any hard evidence of a secret feline conspiracy.
Food as Bribe: They mostly work for snacks, especially cheese puffs or eggs.
Microts: Foxes don't wear watches, so they've devised their own system for pinpointing events over the course of a day, citing terms like "mousetime" or "second prance".
Military Alphabet: They use names based on phonetic-alphabet words, like Sugar Niner or Indigo. Interestingly, it's not the current version used by NATO, but an older alphabet used during WWII.

The Villains

Mr. Punch

Mr. Punch/Henry Pyke

The villain of the first book and recurring element in later books, Mr Punch is a revenant: A powerful ghost capable of sequestrating humans and forcing them to act out scenes from Punch and Judy with fatal real-world effects.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Mr. Punch is a spirit of riot and rebellion. In life he was the Roman citizen Gaius C. Pulcinella, son of the Atrebates' leader.
Broken Pedestal: In life, believed so much in law and order that when Boudica led the Iceni to attack Londoninium he refused to flee with his family. Their horrific fates and the failure of the Roman authorities led him to become the anti-authority Mr. Punch he is now.
The Bus Came Back: Peter keeps hearing Mr. Punch in his head well after the first book is over. By The Hanging Tree, this effect is powerful enough for Punch to talk to Peter directly and he's a major character in Lies Sleeping.
Demonic Possession: The modus operandi of the killing spree.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Pretty much the only one who can talk him down is his daughter, Walbrook.
Facial Horror: Humans who get sequestrated to play the role of Mr. Punch have their facial structures horribly distorted to resemble the puppet. Once the effect ends, the faces literally deflate and most victims die of blood loss almost immediately.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Peter stops Mr. Punch in the first book. He's forced to free him when Martin Chorley tries to sacrifice Mr. Punch for power.
The Man Behind the Man: Henry Pyke and Mr. Punch are actually two distinct entities. Pyke is what he seems to be — the revenge-driven ghost of a murdered 18th century actor — but Punch is something much older, more powerful, and malicious, who took over Pyke for his own ends.
Monstrous Cannibalism: Revenants survive by "eating" less powerful ghosts.
Obliviously Evil: The ghost of Henry Pyke turns out to be unaware that his theatre act is actually killing people.
Revenant Spirit: What Pyke turns out to be.
Revenge:
- Pyke's motivation: Having his murderer's play put up on a theatre turns out to have been the catalyst that starts the killing and two of the audience become the first victims.
- Punch's motivation: The murder of his family in front of him, leaving him Laughing Mad as he died and going on a post-death rampage to avenge them.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: As a Classically-Trained Extra, Pyke uses a lot of theatrical language and has a lot of trouble actually breaking the habit even when disguised as his latest victim.
Worthy Opponent: Pyke mentions that he thinks of Peter as the comedy element of the play — a bumbling Inspector Javert whose constant failures are there for laughs. Needless to say, Peter does not reciprocate.

The Faceless Man

The Faceless Man/Martin Chorley

The ethically challenged magician introduced in the second book and the closest thing the series has to a Big Bad so far. He's the second man to hold the title. The first — Albert Woodville-Gentle — was likely his teacher.

Aristocrats Are Evil: Given his speculated background, he's either an example of this or Screw the Rules, I Have Money! His home also contains paintings of kings and queens of England, and his rant to Peter indicates he favours people of pure English descent like Lesley over descendants of immigrants like Peter.
Barrier Warrior: Protects himself with forcefields in his earlier appearances.
Big Bad: In several of the books.
Blow You Away: Uses a lot of wind magic.
Boom, Headshot!: The moment Lesley finds out he can't kill Mr. Punch, she helps Peter beat him and then shoots him dead.
The Chessmaster: He comes across as this. He works behind the scenes and has been planning things for a long time, with very few people even knowing that he exists.
Collector of the Strange: Has at least one storage unit filled with occult books and artifacts that even the Folly doesn't have copies of. The supernatural pub the Chestnut Tree contains another one hidden in the basement.
Compelling Voice: He uses it to try and make Peter commit suicide in the second book.
Cool Mask: He's always wearing one. Peter describes him as looking like an "unusually tasteful Mexican wrestler". It's part of the face-obscuring spell he uses.
Deadpan Snarker: Is given to leaving smart-alecky "warnings" on his booby traps.
Diabolical Mastermind: Owns an as-of-yet unknown number of shell companies and trusts that lets him fund his as-of-yet unknown agenda. Both Broken Homes and The Hanging Tree shows that he owns properties and companies all over London.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: At least part of his motivation in The Hanging Tree is revenge against those who provided the drugs that caused his daughter to suffer a fatal brain hemorrhage.
Evil Counterpart/Foil: To Nightingale. They're both wizards from the old gentry, with old-fashioned ideas, but they approach them very differently.
Evil Sorcerer: Very much so. He uses a lot of magic that Nightingale finds reprehensible. He's created supernatural beings and has others working for him as assassins/hired muscle.
The Faceless: It's in his name. It's actually a Glamour that stops people from seeing what he looks like.
Fan of the Past: The Dark Ages, viewing it as a time when people could be legends. More specifically, the questionable history of Arthurian legends.
Genre Blindness: Peter lampshades that for all the Faceless Man's chessmaster brilliance, deciding to turn up for a Rooftop Confrontation on a building you're planning to blow up is really stupid.
Hidden Agenda Villain: Exactly what his endgame is is unknown to everyone save himself. In Lies Sleeping, it's discovered he wants to recreate the mythical England of Arthurian legend and take the position of Merlin to a new Arthur.
Legacy Character: The second villain to use the name.
Man of Wealth and Taste: He's a high-class evil magician with an Oxford education and a taste for cravats.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In The Hanging Tree, Peter and Nightingale take notice of the fact that the Faceless Man's actions in that book seem far sloppier than what they're used to from him. The reveal that it's a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the people involved in his daughter's death by drug overdose explains a lot. This sloppiness is also a major factor in the Folly learning his identity.
Pet the Dog: Unlike the first Faceless Man, who seems to have used them purely as slaves, he treated the three fae under his control more kindly and took Foxglove to see museums.
Politically Incorrect Villain: His rant at Peter in the end of The Hanging Tree has a lot of racist undertones.
Pragmatic Villainy: He shows a distinct preference for avoiding unnecessary deaths: he uses dogs to power his demon traps, and only sets off the explosives to illegally demolish Skygarden Tower after he's confirmed it's been evacuated.
Psychic-Assisted Suicide: His favourite disposal method when he wants to be subtle.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: What his actions in The Hanging Tree amount to. Murdering the drug dealer who sold his daughter's friends the drugs that killed her, trying to kill the aforementioned friends and the criminal who helped his daughter steal some of his magical artifacts and as a result introduced her to the friends that got her killed.
Visionary Villain: His crimes are to ultimately create his ideal England where he can be a Merlin to a new Arthur.
Wicked Cultured: Is a fan of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

Varvara Tamonina

Varvara Sidorovna Tamonina

Former Soviet "Night Witch" and Nightingale's fellow victim of Merlin Sickness. Previously in the employ of the first Faceless Man and probably responsible for his untimely death.

The Baroness: A somewhat sensual and occasionally callous slavic woman.
Chekhov's Gunman: First appears in Whispers Under Ground as Albert Woodville-Gentle's nurse, under an assumed name.
The Dragon: In book four.
Foreshadowing: When they first meet Peter notes how odd it is that she changed the subject rather than reveal her last name.
Merlin Sickness: She was born in the 1920s, and started aging backwards in the late '60s.
- Possibly on the date that the same happened to Nightingale.
Punch-Clock Villain: She sees herself as a service provider who has no particular grudge against the heroes, or loyalty to the Faceless Man beyond the fact he hired her.

The Pale Lady

The Faceless Man's Hit-Woman.

Dropped a Bridge on Him: For all the buildup, she's killed off rather unceremoniously.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Was close to the other fae she was sold with.
Humanoid Abomination: A fae being with a Vagina Dentata.
Vagina Dentata: She killed men by letting them bleed to death from amputation of their genitals.

Reynard Fossman

A minor criminal who patterns his behaviour on, and may be a fae manifestation of, the French folklore-figure Reynard the Fox. A nasty little thief, grifter and would-be statutory rapist, although not a killer so far as Peter knows.

Affably Evil: Charming, smooth-talking, and completely unashamed of his chickenhawk tendencies.
Animal Motif: Plays his "fox" role to the hilt.
Legacy Character: Apparently one of many demi-monde fae-types to play the part of Reynard the Fox.
Meaningful Name: "Fossman" roughly translates as "fox-man".
Pædo Hunt: In his first appearance he hits on Peter's 14 year old cousin, and is later shown to be in some manner of relationship with a high-school aged girl who also happens to be the Faceless Man's daughter, a fact he was unaware of. Annoyingly, Peter is present when he learns about this and is duty bound to offer him police protection despite his personal feelings about the man.
Shapeshifting Trickster: He certainly tries to be true to the "Reynard" archetype, and possibly is a shapeshifter, as Peter sees his teeth visibly sharpen when Fossman is tussling with an enemy, and a rip in his shirt reveals a hairy chest.

Charlotte Greenwood

A fae who worked as a Hit-Man for the Faceless Man.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Was close with the Pale Lady and Foxglove.
Magical Nanny: A literal one, and was very effective at keeping the children of her target under control while working for him. Peter hopes that this was because she was a good nanny, and not just terrifying.
No Name Given: One of the first things the police find out about the name she was working under is that it was an identity purchased from a Scottish drug addict. The name "Charlotte Greenwood" was given to her after her death as part of Dr Vaughn's classification system: "Charlotte" because she's the third High Fae they've investigated and "Greenwood" (or initially "Green") for "gamma", because High Fae are the third type of magical being Dr Vaughn's looked at.

Not-Nicole

Nicole Lacey/Not-Nicole

A child who was abducted by the Fairy Queen and replaced with a changeling ten years prior to the events of Foxglove Summer. Less of a villain and more of a bratty 11 year old with mind control powers.

Changeling Tale: Inverted. She's the original Nicole who has been returned after ten years when the Fairy Queen comes to reclaim the actual changeling.
Compelling Voice: She picked up the trick during her time in Faery. She mostly uses it to play tricks on people and get more sweets. Luckily Peter has been around people who are far more practiced at it and resists handily.
Enfant Terrible: Not the worst example of the trope, but she does take glee in abusing her Compelling Voice. About the worst she does is seriously embarrass a nosey reporter during a press conference and try to get Peter to punch himself in the face. Once she's around adults who are immune to the trick she settles down.
Foster Kid: Peter hands her over to Beverley's sister Fleet, who has a habit of taking in the demi-monde's problem children and is far more able to deal with her particular problems than normal child services would be.
Muggle Foster Parents: Inverted, but she does pick up a few tricks during her time in Faery.
Non-Indicative Name: She's the original child named Nicole Lacey, but Peter calls her Not-Nicole to avoid confusion with the changeling girl everyone thinks of as Nicole.
Raised by Orcs: Being raised in a literal fairy tale castle doesn't exactly prepare you for the modern world. She has to lean on her Compelling Voice pretty hard to keep people from noticing, and even then the other children can tell something's off.
Sweet Tooth: She didn't have access to refined sugar growing up and takes to it with abandon. According to Peter, she gorged for a week then spent the next three days vomiting it all back up.
That Thing Is Not My Child!: Said almost word for word by her biological mother, who wants back the little girl she has spent the last ten years raising, regardless of any genetic connections.
Tragic Villain: She's mostly just a normal girl who was abducted as an infant and is now in a world she doesn't know, surrounded by people she doesn't know, whose biological mother wanted to trade her for her half sister the instant they found out the truth. Kind of hard not to feel bad for her, at least once she's around people who know to keep an eye out for mind control.

Characters / Rivers of London

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