Rivers of London / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation: In-universe, Peter wonders if his father's newfound ability to kick heroin and start playing jazz again could be due to his mother obtaining a blessing from Mama Thames.
Complete Monster:
- Albert Woodville-Gentle, the original Faceless Man, was a charming but vicious East End gangster during the 1970's. Albert cemented his position through brutality and corruption, terrifying the local gangs into submission by presenting them with local thug Larry the Lark's still-living decapitated head, begging for someone to kill him. Kidnapping numerous innocent people, Albert used experimental and unreliable techniques to transform them into Beast Men, imprisoning and forcing them to work at his club "The Garden of Unearthly Delights", offering all manner of sexual depravities to anyone who could afford it. Following being forced into early retirement—leaving most of his victims to starve to death—Albert, upon being found by the second Faceless Man, happily tutored his successor in all he knew about magic as well as providing him with his old criminal contacts, enabling all his horrific crimes to occur.
- Professor Uwe Fischer, from the Action at a Distance comic, is a former Luftwaffe pilot with the ability to move objects with his mind. Recruited by the British nuclear program due to his abilities, Fischer sets out to make his dream a reality: to kill a woman of every type for his collection. Fischer begins to stalk and violently murder women of different races and hair colors, to indulge his sexually violent nature. Upon being stopped by Thomas Nightingale, Fischer, out of spite, decides to cause the Windscale fire at the nuclear plant he works at, causing the worst nuclear disaster in British history, and planning to irradiate the entire country.
Cry for the Devil: The Faceless Man 2 is an undeniably evil person who has committed literal, prosecutable crimes against humanity, but in The Hanging Tree he's also a father whose only child just died of a drug overdose. It doesn't excuse a single thing he's done, but it does make you feel for the guy, if only for a moment.
Genius Bonus: Loads of them. Almost Once a Page.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The series was originally conceived as a TV show. In 2019, it was announced that the series had been optioned for a TV adaptation.
Magnificent Bitch: Varvara Sidorovna Tamonina is a free spirited, quick-witted but ruthless Nochnye Koldunyi who stands out as both one of the Folly's most dangerous foes and most capable allies. Joining the Red Army to protect her homeland, Varvara's idealism was crushed by the brutality of World War II. Captured, she fools the Nazis into believing she is a harmless medic and survived until she could escape, later aiding the Guernsey Resistance. Following her youth being restored Varvara throws herself into the counterculture of the 1970s, building many connections within the Demi-monde, becoming a sort of mercenary. Employed by the Second Faceless Man, Varvara assists in his efforts to destroy Sky Garden Tower, easily proving to be more of a match for Peter Grant and Lesley May. Defeated in a mystical duel, Varvara congratulated Nightingale for living up to his reputation and charms her captors into making beneficial deals to her, helping take down her former employer. Later aiding the Folly with the abduction of Russian Oligarch's daughter, Varvara gave up her existence to the Russians to free Nightingale, despite knowing they would never leave her in peace, accepting that it was the right thing to do.
Moe: Molly the maid, and the revelation of her Backstory in book two just makes it worse. If you don't want to give her a hug after that then you may have a heart of stone.
One-Scene Wonder: Prior to book six, the Faceless Man appeared in person exactly two times, for one scene each. Both of these scenes were some of the most awesome, snarky-funny and plot-relevant scenes in the entire series.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Reveal that Molly is simply a kind of fae seems kind of disappointing after four books full of hints and the Nightmare Fuel that was the Pale Lady.
- Assuming that the fae in question and Pale Ladies aren't actually one and the same, that is: the PL from book 2 presumably came from somewhere, after all.
- This also raises the question of why none of the Rivers told Peter what he was up against in Foxglove Summer despite at least Father Thames' boys obviously knowing what Pale Ladies are. Possibly Mother Thames' daughters only know about the urban side of the demimonde, and the Pale Lady's kind are more rural.
  - Nightingale actually says as much regarding the fae in Whispers Under Ground: they tend to be more rural, so it is likely that Mother Thames' daughters wouldn't know much about them.
  - The Thames ladies are also very young, by river-spirit standards, so may simply never have encountered Molly's people before. Even their Mum hasn't been a goddess for all that long; Nightingale's significantly older than her, and he evidently didn't know what Molly was despite living with her for decades.
Unintentional Period Piece: A strangely recent example, but on his blog, Aaronovitch frequently laments that the Met reinvents itself so often the books are instantly dated. Usually this just means he has to change exactly what the Folly's official designation is, but in Broken Homes he came up with the phrase "Working together for a stranger London" as a play on the Met slogan "Working together for a safer London", and they immediately stopped using it.
- In False Value Peter is very impressed by Deep Thought, and suspects correctly that there's something else going on behind the scenes. Today, only three years after the book was published and about eight years after it was set, Deep Thought's conversational ability can easily be duplicated by real-world A.I.s.
Wangst: Yes, Peter, Leslie betrayed you. No, Peter, you do not have to mention that she tasered you in the back of the neck every few paragraphs.

YMMV / Rivers of London

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