History Literature / BlackLondon

* TheyFightCrime: She's a Detective Inspector with a magic talent she's been denying up 'til now. He's a punk rocker junkie mage!

* ASpotOfTea: Pete tends to fix tea and sandwiches or tea and curry both to keep her and Jack's strength up, and to assert ''normal'' when the Black causes things to get too weird for her to cope with.

* TomboyishName: Pete, and [[UnfortunateNames with good reason]].

* UnfortunateNames: Pete and MG's full first names are pretty unfortunate.

* InfantImmortality: Subverted in the first book. Of the several endangered children in the first book, they all survive [[spoiler: but three of them have been driven insane and magically leached so their eyes are just [[BlankWhiteEyes staring white and blind]]]]. In the second, [[spoiler: several children ghosts appear]].

** to Creator/JimButcher, whose name is on the cover recommending the series:

*** ''Soul Trade'' has Donovan mentioning the show as "about the wizard with the talking skull and the twatty name."

* BlackBestFriend: Lawrence the [[MagicalNegro rasta white witch]] is the closest thing to a good friend Jack has, Pete notwithstanding.

* LondonTown: Where the majority of the series takes place, although they do venture out of the city proper when situations call for it.

** to JimButcher, whose name is on the cover recommending the series:

* CanNotSpitItOut: they dance around whether they're a couple; Jack will tell others how important to him Pete is... and Pete will curse Jack out and tell him how worried for him she is, that she cried over him, but so far, neither of them has come right out and said it.

* MisterousMist: The Black tends to generate mist when supernatural events encroach on the regular human world.

* PowerTattoo: [[spoiler: Pete gets Jack to get 2 more tattoos, then infuses them with power to keep his second sight at bay so he won't need to drink or shoot up]].

* '''Dark Days'' (2013).

* CanNotSpitItOut: they dance around whether they're a couple; Jack will tell others how important to him Pete is...and Pete will curse Jack out and tell him how worried for him she is, that she cried over him, but so far, neither of them has come right out and said it.

* DeadpanSnarker: Jack and Pete take turns...er, well, no, they snark at each other pretty much. Pete just turns it off when she's being professional.

Twelve years ago, young Pete Caldecott, smitten with her sister MG's boyfriend Jack Winter, lead singer of the Poor Dead Bastards and BadAss mage, followed him into a graveyard to help him with some magic. It went wrong. Badly, badly wrong. Jack was savaged by what he summoned. Pete ran, back to the {{Muggle}} world, finished school and went on to live a somewhat normal life, becoming a Detective Inspector at the tender age of 28, at the cost of her relationship.

* BadAss: Jack Winter, former punk rocker, and mage who still has a good bit of fight in him.

* UsefulNotes/BritishCoppers: Pete's a detective inspector when the series begins. Although she changes jobs in the second book, she still follows police procedure and works with her friends who are still in the services and frowns on Jack's shifty, illegal activities. Pete's father was also a police officer.
* UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish: Used correctly. Kittredge lives in Washington state, but her AboutTheAuthor does not say whether she's from England herself.

* BlondGuysAreEvil: Subverted. Jack's hair is bottle blond, and even though he's an untrustworthy, lying, dodgy, cranky, ex-junkie wanker of a man, he is still one of the good guys.

* GenreSavvy: Jack, being a mage, knows full well that a little paranoia means he stays alive a little longer, to say nothing of the aforementioned DealWithTheDevil.

* ''Street Magic''
* ''Demon Bound ''
* ''Bone Gods''
* ''Devil's Business''
* ''Soul Trade''

* "Soul Trade"

* DealWithTheDevil: Jack Winter made one to survive the magic event that went wrong 12 years ago, and makes another in an attempt to wiggle his way out of the previous one.

** MissingMom: Lily Caldecott, Pete and MG's mother.

* DealWiththeDevil: Jack Winter made one to survive the magic event that went wrong 12 years ago, and makes another in an attempt to wiggle his way out of the previous one.

* ButtMonkey: [[HangsALampshade Lampshaded]] by Jack, when he asks where "the arse monkey" is of someone he's being asked to find.

* BritishCoppers: Pete's a detective inspector when the series begins. Although she changes jobs in the second book, she still follows police procedure and works with her friends who are still in the services and frowns on Jack's shifty, illegal activities. Pete's father was also a police officer.

* CellPhone: Pete's mobile phone is strong enough to not break when she throws it across the room. It remains usable several chapters later when Jack has to use it to call for help.

---> '''Pete:''' Smells like [[TheDresdenFiles Pizza Express]].