Rivers of London reading order
By Ben Aaronovitch · Last verified · 9 sources
Quick answer
Read the ten main novels in their numbered order (Rivers of London, published in the US as Midnight Riot, through Stone and Sky). The novellas and graphic novels sit between novels, but because we could not reach the author's own placements, this page lists them by publication date only and does not give a reading position.
An urban fantasy series of novels, plus novellas, a short story collection and collected comic volumes set in the same continuity.
- The series has 10 novels, 5 novellas, 12 graphic novels.
- In publication order, the main sequence starts with Rivers of London (2011) and the latest listed is Stone and Sky (2025).
- No source we trust defines an alternative (e.g. chronological) order, so we show publication order only.
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Verification: Some works cite only secondary or catalogue sources (25 of 27 works cite an author, publisher or official source). How we verify.
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Ordered by first publication date (original language). Derived automatically from the dates listed for each work.
- Rivers of London
- Moon Over Soho
- Whispers Under Ground
- Broken Homes
- Foxglove Summer
- Body Work
- The Hanging Tree
- Night Witch
- Black Mould
- The Furthest Station
- Detective Stories
- Cry Fox
- Water Weed
- Lies Sleeping
- Action at a Distance
- The October Man
- False Value
- The Fey and the Furious
- What Abigail Did That Summer
- Monday, Monday
- Amongst Our Weapons
- Deadly Ever After
- Winter's Gifts
- Here Be Dragons
- The Masquerades of Spring
- Stray Cat Blues
- Stone and Sky
Why the order isn't simple
- Novellas and graphic novels are set between or around the novels rather than after them.
- Some reference lists number novels and novellas in a single combined sequence while others number only the novels.
Which order should I use?
Publication order is the only order shown. The publisher numbers the novels 1-10 and the graphic novels 1-12 separately.
Secondary sources give author-attributed placements for the novellas and comics; they will be added once they can be confirmed on the author's or publisher's own pages.
Where each order comes from
- Publication order — Derived from publication dates
- Ordered by first publication date (original language). Derived automatically from the dates listed for each work.
Novellas & short stories
Five novellas are listed, published 2017-2024. Tales from the Folly (2020) is a short story collection whose individual stories are not yet listed.
| Title | Type | First published | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Furthest Station | Novella | June 2017 | Date from Wikipedia only (secondary). |
| The October Man | Novella | May 2019 | Date from Wikipedia only (secondary). Gollancz announced the UK edition for 13 June 2019; a Subterranean Press (US) edition is catalogued at 31 May 2019, so first publication is shown as May 2019. |
| What Abigail Did That Summer | Novella | March 2021 | Date from Wikipedia only (secondary). |
| Winter's Gifts | Novella | June 2023 | Date from Wikipedia only (secondary). |
| The Masquerades of Spring | Novella | September 2024 | Date from Wikipedia only (secondary). |
Collections & omnibus editions: what's inside
Introducing Rivers of London is a publisher boxset of the first three novels.
Contents below are works from this series only. Tick the editions you own to check for duplicates and gaps.
Tales from the Folly
Story collection · 2020 · series contents only / partly verified
Short story collection in two parts (Peter Grant stories and stories with other characters). Individual story titles not verified, so contents are not listed.
Source: Rivers of London (book series), Ben Aaronovitch (contributor page)
Introducing Rivers of London (boxset)
Omnibus · Orion / Gollancz
- Rivers of London
- Moon Over Soho
- Whispers Under Ground
Publisher describes it as a boxset of the first three novels. Release date not shown on the publisher page.
Your editions
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Where sources disagree
We don't pick a winner silently. When sources conflict we show each view and cite it.
Internal chronology
Wikipedia gives placements for several novellas and graphic novels (e.g. The Furthest Station between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree), attributed to the author. The author’s site thefolly.org returned HTTP 503 and his agency’s site blocked automated access, and the publisher pages we could read (Orion, Penguin Random House, Gollancz) give no placements. No reading order is included until an author or publisher statement can be cited.
Sources: Rivers of London (book series), Ben Aaronovitch (contributor page), Rivers of London series: Titles in order, The Folly (author’s official site) — NOT ACCESSIBLE
Numbering
Wikipedia numbers novels and novellas in one combined sequence (Stone and Sky as 15); the publisher announcement describes Stone and Sky as the tenth novel. This file numbers novels only.
Sources: Rivers of London (book series), Search results on Stone and Sky (Orion/Gollancz announcement via Zeno Agency, Publishers Weekly listing)
Amongst Our Weapons publication date
Wikipedia gives April 2022 for the first UK edition; the earliest edition we found in library catalogue records is dated 2023. We show April 2022 and flag it until a publisher record is checked.
Sources: Rivers of London (book series), Open Library edition records (Aaronovitch)
How this page was verified
Numbering and the novella/collection labels come from the publishers (Orion/Gollancz, Penguin Random House). The author's site was unavailable (HTTP 503) and his agency's site blocks automated access, so author-stated placements are not used.
Last verified . Some works cite only secondary or catalogue sources.
Sources
Every date, order and edition listed on this page cites at least one of these. See our data methodology for how source types are ranked.
- Rivers of London (book series) — Wikipedia · Secondary reference · accessed 7 October 2026 Work list, dates, graphic novel numbering, reported chronology placements. Official sites (thefolly.org returned 503; Zeno Agency returned 425; ISFDB 403) could not be fetched.
- Search results on Stone and Sky (Orion/Gollancz announcement via Zeno Agency, Publishers Weekly listing) — Zeno Agency · Secondary reference · accessed 7 October 2026 Page itself not fetchable; seen only in search summary. Used for tenth-novel status and July 2025 date.
- Ben Aaronovitch (contributor page) — Orion Books / Gollancz (UK publisher) · Publisher · accessed 7 October 2026 States “Book N in the Rivers of London series” for books 1–8; describes The Furthest Station, The October Man, What Abigail Did That Summer and Winter’s Gifts as Rivers of London novellas; Tales From The Folly as a short story collection; Introducing Rivers of London as a boxset of the first three novels. No publication dates or reading-order placements are shown.
- Rivers of London series: Titles in order — Penguin Random House (US distributor of the Titan graphic novels; DAW novels) · Publisher · accessed 7 October 2026 Numbers the graphic novels Book 1 (Body Work) to Book 12 (Stray Cat Blues) and lists Stone and Sky as Book 10. No dates shown.
- Announcing Ben Aaronovitch’s The October Man — Gollancz (Hachette UK) · Publisher · accessed 7 October 2026 Announces The October Man as a novella co-published by Gollancz and Subterranean Press (Hachette UK news page; the gollancz.co.uk mirror now returns 404).
- Open Library edition records (Aaronovitch) — Open Library (Internet Archive) · Library catalog · accessed 7 October 2026 First-edition years cross-checked against catalogued Gollancz/Orion/Subterranean/DAW editions: e.g. Lies Sleeping 2018-11-15 Gollancz (/books/OL43564570M); The Hanging Tree Nov 2016 (/books/OL26814321M); Foxglove Summer 13 Nov 2014 (/books/OL26814320M); Stone and Sky 2025-07-08 DAW (/books/OL60702620M); The October Man 2019 Subterranean/Gollancz; What Abigail Did That Summer 2021 Subterranean/Orion. Amongst Our Weapons: earliest catalogued edition is 2023, while Wikipedia and retail listings give 7 April 2022 (kept, see conflicts).
- The Folly (author’s official site) — NOT ACCESSIBLE — Ben Aaronovitch · Author (official) · accessed 7 October 2026 Returned HTTP 503 on 2026-10-07 (and on the earlier check). The author’s literary agency site (zenoagency.com) returned HTTP 425 (bot protection) and was not bypassed. Because of this, no author-stated reading placements could be verified; this entry is cited only in the conflict that explains the missing reading order, never as evidence for a fact.
- False value. (2020) — British Library catalogue — British Library · Library catalog · accessed 7 October 2026 Catalogue entry seen in search results (title "False value. (2020)", London: Gollancz); the catalogue page itself did not respond to our tooling. Open Library also holds 2019-dated Orion records for this title, which appear to be pre-publication entries; the British Library record and retail listings give 20 February 2020.
- Open Library edition records (first-publication year cross-check) — Open Library (Internet Archive) · Library catalog · accessed 7 October 2026 Year of first publication matched the earliest year with two or more catalogued editions for: Rivers of London (/works/OL20099796W); Moon Over Soho (/works/OL15680051W); Broken Homes (/works/OL19800082W); Foxglove Summer (/works/OL20025187W); The Hanging Tree (/works/OL26477945W); Lies Sleeping (/works/OL35695286W); Stone and Sky (/works/OL42443323W); The October Man (/works/OL19822660W); What Abigail Did That Summer (/works/OL24234914W); Winter's Gifts (/works/OL34025281W). Generated by scripts/audit-dates.mjs; see audit/date-crosscheck.json.
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