History Characters / RiversOfLondon

* {{Adorkable}}: He makes almost as many cultural references as Peter. Most notable when he plays {{Film/Gladiator}} at a Roman amphitheater

* NaturalizedName: After moving to London she changed her name from Mamusu to Rose. Even her husband calls her Rose.

The villain of the first book and recurring element in later books, Henry Pyke is a revenant: A powerful ghost of a murdered actor capable of [[DemonicPossession sequestering]] humans and forcing them to act out scenes from ''Punch and Judy'' with fatal real-world effects.

* FacialHorror: Humans who get sequestered 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.

* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: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.]]

* ObliviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:The ghost of Henry Pyke turns out to be unaware that his theatre act is actually killing people.]]

* {{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.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Given his speculated background, he's either an example of this or ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney. [[spoiler: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.]]

* ThatThingIsNotMyChild: Said almost word for word by her mother, who wants back the little girl she has spent the last ten years raising, regardless of any genetic connections.
* TragicVillain: 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 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.

* SergeantRock

* {{Omniglot}}: He’s comfortable and flawless in going through multiple old languages.

* CharmPerson: 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.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Of the Thames above Teddington Lock.

* [[ManOfWealthAndTaste Woman of Wealth and Taste]]

* DeathGlare

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Her last name has sometimes been spelled "Stephanopoulis".

* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: The first novel alone details that Peter exhibits more than enough attention issues in his daily life to suggest some kind of AmbiguousDisorder:

* MeaningfulName: The demimonde call him [[spoiler: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.]]

* UltimateJobSecurity: 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 [[spoiler: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. [[spoiler: However, this does have the nasty consequence of Peter inevitability getting sucked into the hunt for Lesley despite his well-known personal baggage regarding that criminal, because he can't be spared.]]

* UnderestimatingBadassery: 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 [[DeadpanSnarker Deadpan Sneakers]] 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.

** WordOfGod has said that the reason is clear in the books

* SupernaturalSensitivity: He's able to sense ''vestigia''. In fact, his sensing of jazz music on Cyrus Wilkinson's body in the second book is what draws Peter into the case in the first place.

* LethalChef: She favours making dishes 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.

* MaskingTheDeformity: she wears a combination of a hoodie and a face mask after possession by a revenant makes her face fall off.
* OutOfFocus: She only has a couple of scenes in book 2, but is back on the main roster for book three.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Some North American printings spell her first name as "Leslie".

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When they first meet Peter notes how odd it is hat she changed the subject rather than reveal her last name.

* EnfantTerrible: Not the worst example of the trope, but she does take glee in abusing her CompellingVoice. About the worst she does is seriously embarace 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.

* SweetTooth: 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 vomitting it all back up.

* Adorkable: He makes almost as many cultural references as Peter. Most notable when he plays {{Film/Gladiator}} at a Roman amphitheater
* AlmightyJanitor: Before he started being trained as a practitioner, his job at the KDA mostly consisted mostly of driving around Germany picking up newly discovered [[{{Ghostapo}} Nazi magic research]] and returning it to KDA's archives.