-
The October Man
- A Rivers of London Novella
- Narrated by: Sam Peter Jackson
- Series: Rivers of London Series, Book 6.2
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Crime Fiction
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $14.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
A brand-new stand-alone novella in the Rivers of London series!
Tobias Winter has been assigned to the Abteilung KDA - the Department for Complex and Unspecific Matters.
Despite the intriguing department name, as Winter explains, dealing with the strange and the supernatural is 'actually 90 percent paperwork'. But this is a story about the other 10 percent of the job: the life-threatening danger part.
This is a tale about the Queen of the Harvest, the October Man, and the little-known time the vineyard around Trier started to eat people....
Winter may be P. C. Peter Grant's German counterpart, but surviving this investigation is entirely down to him....
More from the same
What listeners say about The October Man
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- TinkerTaylor
- 08-17-20
rivers of London spin-off
Nice, a German version of the rivers of London. Although Peter Grant and Nightingale are mentioned a couple of times, they are no actors in this story. It stands completely on its own legs.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jolyon Neytzell - de Wilde
- 08-06-19
Not as exciting
Not as exciting as the Peter Grant series, so far.......? Hope it will get better with time as characters settle.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Caroline
- 06-15-19
what a good surprise!
Out of the description I knew the plot would take place in Germany and I thought Peter Grant would have a trip there. I was a bit sad as I read that it wasn't Kobna Holdbrook-Smith reading the novella, I love his voice and couldn't imagine someone else reading a "Rivers of London" book. I was all wrong. First of all Peter is not coming to Germany, we meet a new apprentice, Tobias Winter. And the Rivers are…. well you'll have to listen by yourself. Sam Peter Jackson is the PERFECT reader for this book being English and German. Living in Germany myself it is so nice to hear the german words accentless spoken. He gave life to Tobias in such a convincing way that I missed Peter and Co only a very little bit. That was a wonderful trip to Trier and the Mosel. Dear Mr Ben Aaronovitch you need to be cloned, one of you must resume writing Peter Grant's stories, I want to see his child growing up. And the other one has to show us Tobias and Vanessa dealing with Vater Rhein and meeting the Elbe River ;-).
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anna
- 06-15-19
The German Peter Grant
It’s not Peter but Tobias has a similar voice.
The German folly has moved with the times and has a lot of paperwork, more likely to shoot centre mass than fireballs, genius loci distrusts them even more (with good reason!), it’s a good start to a new series.
Over all it was Enjoyable and I’m hoping there will eventually be cooperation between the Germans and Brit branches of the magical police.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- karohemd
- 06-15-19
Deutschlands Flüsse
First of all, kudos to the producers for finding a bilingual narrator for the new German protagonist. Someone who doesn't speak German well would have mangled all the names and expressions (I'm looking at you, Nicholas Guy Smith, in the Johannes Cabal stories).
Secondly, Ben Aaronovitch clearly put a lot of research into how the German police work, the localities and special terminology (I thought that Besondere Umstände for the special response unit was inspired). I wish more authors would do this when setting a book in a country that isn't their own.
We learn that The Folly isn't the only police force dealing with magic but there are equivalents in other parts of Europe, too, and a little about the history of Newtonian magic there.
I also really liked the story which unravels the mystery nicely as it is cranked up to the final confrontation.
More of Tobias, please, maybe he and Peter can solve a mystery together at some point?
34 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Lauren D'Silva
- 07-19-19
Not a satisfying listen
I really love the Rivers of London series and have listened to all of the others several times over. This story never felt like it got going properly to me. The narrator was acceptable, but not as talented as Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. The story felt thin and none of the characters were particularly interesting or appealing. Suddenly I found myself at the end of the book wondering why so many other fans had rated this one so highly.
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- P Barker
- 07-22-19
Oh Dear
having loved the series from the first bookRivers of london was pleased to see a new slant to the stories. How disappointed i have been . The story is convoluted and takes ages to get going . Slipping bits about Nightingale in is teasing but bit seems irrelevant to the story.. The narrator is pretty good and does his best but unlike the other books I will not be reccomending this to friends .
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Dentheprint
- 07-03-19
Not Worthy
Really shouldn’t be considered a Rivers of London Novella. The magic is so underplayed as to be inconsequential. I thought the story was weak along with the characters. Pointless purchase.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 07-16-19
Disappointing
I have listened to all of the Rivers of London main books and was really looking forward to this one but am feeling a bit disappointed. The magic was there but the twists weren't. I also spent most of the book trying to decipher which German named person was who as these names didn't stick at all. I also missed the places in London which I know from visiting throughout my life. For an audible monthly purchase there wasn't much book for my money. I hope his next book is really something to get my teeth into as this one really fell short.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Paul
- 06-30-19
Disappointing compared with previous of the series
I'm a big fan of the previous books of the Rivers of London series and have read each of them them several times. However, the main character in this novella is one dimensional, and, for me, the plot fails to grip. I gave up after the third chapter.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Gabriel
- 07-09-19
Must have ran out of ideas
As a fan of the river series I was looking forward to this. Weak story, very little background of the characters and silly German accent by the reader. Really disappointing.
Rehash of other other characters and nothing new. Not recommended.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Sarah
- 06-30-19
Definitely not up to normal standard
I usually love books from Ben Aaronvitch, but it’s just wasn’t the same without narration from kobna holdbrook-smith. I never got into it, it was missing something the previous books had.
Plus for the price it was a very short story. I would of expected something of more length/ quality. I’m hoping a new books will go back to old format otherwise not for me anymore.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Ginger guy!
- 06-14-19
Great expansion!
Great addition to the Riververs, well worth a listen can't wait to hear more from Peter Grant in the future.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- BFS
- 06-13-19
LOVING THE 128K AUDIO
I was dubious to begin but it quickly becomes a highly entertaining instalment to the series.
Top debut by Sam Peter Jackson. Superbly narrated.
Sounds GREAT in the updated enhanced format.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Saul
- 09-08-21
Awesome
So cool to find out about German practitioners. Can't wait for him to meet Peter Grant!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- K. Young
- 09-02-21
Enjoyable but nothing groundbreaking
The story is what you'd expect from a rivers of london novel set in Germany. I wouldn't recommend it at full price because it's only a novella but priced the same as a novel.
It does add a but more context from a German perspective but we already know most of it from other books. The author could have made added a bit more world building and differences between Germany/the main character and London/Peter Grant.
I can't say how well this reflects German culture, but the author is usually good at getting that kind of thing right. Talk of efficiency seemed a little on the nose, but is probably appropriate for a bureaucratic institution.
The performance has a decent accent - understandable in English while still sounding like he has a German accent (to someone who did high school German.) However, every time he uses an S it whistles and it doesn't sound good on my headphones. I got used to this and was still able to listen. I think it sounded better when I listened in the car, but I might have been used to it by then. I had to re-listen to the first chapter several times because I kept zoning out and found the voice difficult to take in at first.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 04-29-20
Great and want more
Really great novella. Hope we see more set in Germany. I found counter point to the normal stories, and I would love Ben to give us more from the German team.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 12-08-19
Great Addition to the series
This novel really expands on the Rivers of London universe and gives the reader a greater idea of what is happening in the magical world outside of London
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Roderic
- 11-06-19
An enjoyable extension of the magical world
This was a diverting enough book though I found nothing remarkable in the plot line. I have a lot of reading time invested in the world Ben Aaronovitch has created but something (I am not sure what) is needed to sharpen up the plots in coming books.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Mama-Ace
- 09-14-19
I loved this!
As a fan of the Peter Grant novels, it’s so wonderful to immerse in a completely new part of the magical realm Aaronovitch has so deftly created.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jessica
- 07-09-19
Lower your expectations
I was really disappointed with this book. I've only listened to the Rivers of London series on Audible so I don't know if it's possible that I was just missing Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, or missing Peter Grant, or missing London's sprawling presence in this book.
The narration never captured my attention, and try as I might I just couldn't keep the characters and the plot straight. The German names sounded too similar to my ears and with no clear difference between the characters voices when they spoke in dialogue, I just couldn't tell them apart and remember who was supposed to be who.
In terms of the plot, I didn't understand as the book went through and then when it ended I realised I still didn't understand wtf had happened.
Big chunks of dialogue were just slabs of exposition, like the Basil Exposition character in Austin Powers, but that still didn't make things clear.
So, yes. I think I'll just hold tight until Peter Grant and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith can be reunited.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Bishwa
- 07-01-19
Pricey for such a short book
Disappointing short, but still at the full price. I won’t buy any more in the series if this is the direction they’re heading
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Roger
- 06-30-19
Disappointed
I was struggling to stay listen to it not as good as his other books
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jennifer
- 06-28-19
Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!
Ben Aaronovitch is once again brilliant at writing a totally entertaining experience. This production is as good as the Peter Grant series. Great choice of narrator to suit the story. If you like this genre, it's one of the great audiobooks to listen to as the presentation is wonderfully done. Highly recommend it if you want to lose yourself in a book, this is it.