If you like Rivers of London: 12 audiobooks to try next
There is no single substitute for Peter Grant. These twelve picks follow particular pleasures of the series: a detective’s method, a city with a secret layer, institutional absurdity or a narrator who makes a setting audible. They are recommendations, not claims that the books share a universe. Edition details come from the linked Audible UK listings, checked 25 September 2026; durations and narrators can vary across editions.
Begin with the strand you miss most. If it is the graphic storytelling rather than the audio performance, the final section points back to the site’s visual detours.
Magical police procedurals
A Master of Djinn
By P. Djèlí Clark · Narrated by Suehyla El-Attar · 15 hrs 37 mins
If Peter’s careful interviewing is your favourite part of the Folly, try a detective working in a very different magical bureaucracy. Clark’s Cairo builds a world in which the fantastic has public consequences, so the mystery needs both evidence and political tact. Its alternate history has a more ornate, exuberant tone than Aaronovitch’s London. Go in for the casework and stay for the city’s richly imagined institutions.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — A Master of Djinn — I will supply]
The Atrocity Archives
By Charles Stross · Narrated by Jack Hawkins · 10 hrs 57 mins
The Laundry treats supernatural threats as a problem for civil servants, security protocols and office systems. That institutional absurdity should appeal to anyone who enjoys the Folly’s paperwork as much as its spellcraft. Stross is more interested in computing and cosmic horror than Peter’s neighbourhood policing, so expect a sharper satirical edge. The first book is an excellent test of whether you want your magic with a clearance badge.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — The Atrocity Archives — I will supply]
Storm Front
By Jim Butcher · Narrated by James Marsters · 8 hrs 1 min
Chicago wizard Harry Dresden takes cases for clients and sometimes for the police. The first-person investigation has the same pleasure of following one practitioner from clue to clue, but its private-eye voice and American noir conventions make a pronounced change from Peter’s team. Marsters gives the narration a distinctive, close-to-the-microphone urgency. Choose this if you want the magic more overt and the detective more openly embattled.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — Storm Front — I will supply]
London after dark
Neverwhere
By Neil Gaiman · Narrated by Neil Gaiman · 12 hrs 33 mins
London Below is a different answer to the same intriguing question: what might a city conceal beneath ordinary journeys? Gaiman makes names, stations and lost corners feel like entrances to a parallel social world. This is a quest rather than a police case, with fable-like logic where Peter would want a statement and a notebook. The author’s own reading suits its storytelling cadence; listen for atmosphere and hidden geography.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — Neverwhere — I will supply]
The Devil You Know
By Mike Carey · Narrated by Michael Kramer · 13 hrs 48 mins
Felix Castor works as an exorcist in a London where the dead are an increasingly practical problem. His trade gives the city a different nocturnal economy from the Folly’s official remit. The investigation is grimmer and more hard-boiled, but there is a comparable satisfaction in seeing supernatural rules emerge through a working professional’s decisions. If you enjoy Peter’s grounded voice, try this darker freelance counterpart.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — The Devil You Know — I will supply]
Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase
By Jonathan Stroud · Narrated by Miranda Raison · 10 hrs 7 mins
A small agency handles ghostly danger in a London with its own unsettling rules. Its young investigators have to combine fieldwork, courage and a good deal of improvisation, which gives the case a pleasing investigative drive. The youthful viewpoint and greater emphasis on haunting distinguish it from the Folly. Raison’s reading brings out both the close team dynamics and the suspense of entering an unsafe house.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase — I will supply]
Wry first-person investigators
Fated
By Benedict Jacka · Narrated by Gildart Jackson · 10 hrs 33 mins
Alex Verus is a London mage whose ability to see possible futures makes decisions more interesting than brute force. He operates outside Peter’s police structure, yet both books enjoy testing how a specific magical talent alters an investigation. The Camden setting keeps the city tangible. Jackson’s measured delivery is a useful contrast to Holdbrook-Smith’s Peter: an alternative London voice with a different relationship to danger.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — Fated — I will supply]
The Rook
By Daniel O’Malley · Narrated by Katy Carmichael · 17 hrs 57 mins
An amnesiac official must reconstruct her place in a secret supernatural institution. The paperwork, internal politics and bizarre colleagues make a good companion to the Folly’s institutional comedy, although the central puzzle is personal rather than a conventional murder inquiry. Its longer running time leaves room for a broad cast. Pick it when you want bureaucracy and strange powers with a brisker, more extravagant conspiratorial feel.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — The Rook — I will supply]
The Stranger Times
By C. K. McDonnell · Narrated by Brendan McDonald · 11 hrs 8 mins
A struggling newspaper devoted to the weird gives this Manchester story a very different kind of investigative team. Its reporters chase unlikely claims with a mix of scepticism and bad judgement that should appeal to readers who enjoy the Folly’s comic friction. McDonnell’s humour is broader and more chaotic than Aaronovitch’s, but the pleasure of ordinary work colliding with extraordinary evidence is familiar. McDonald handles the ensemble with energy.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — The Stranger Times — I will supply]
Narrators worth following
The City We Became
By N. K. Jemisin · Narrated by Robin Miles · 16 hrs 11 mins
Here a city is an idea with living representatives, not simply a backdrop. New York’s neighbourhoods acquire voices and competing stakes on a much larger, more mythic scale than London’s river families. Robin Miles gives those shifts of identity a vivid sonic shape. Start here for a different theory of urban magic and a performance that makes the argument audible; expect an ensemble struggle rather than a police procedural.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — The City We Became — I will supply]
The Invisible Library
By Genevieve Cogman · Narrated by Kristin Atherton · 12 hrs 2 mins
Librarian-spy Irene pursues a missing book through an alternative London where magical factions change the rules of access and trust. The case has the pleasures of research, pursuit and professional competence, though its multiverse machinery is much more flamboyant than Peter’s local beat. Atherton’s narration gives the mission a steady centre. It is a good choice when you want a capable investigator and a fantastical library rather than a police station.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — The Invisible Library — I will supply]
The Thursday Murder Club
By Richard Osman · Narrated by Lesley Manville, Richard Osman and Marian Keyes · 12 hrs 25 mins
There is no magic here. The kinship is in the ensemble’s patient attention to people and overlooked clues, and in the pleasure of a British mystery that can be funny without abandoning a serious case. Manville leads the performance; the edition also includes an author conversation. Listen when you want a break from the supernatural but still want investigators whose relationships matter as much as the answer.
Listen on Audible UK Affiliate link[AUDIBLE UK AFFILIATE LINK — The Thursday Murder Club — I will supply]
Graphic-novel detours
Panels call for a different kind of attention. The twelve collected Rivers of London graphic novels continue the world in visual form, with a reading checklist and creator credits. They have print placeholders rather than invented audiobook editions. If you want a change of detective company through headphones, the non-magical Thursday Murder Club recommendation sits in the narrator section above.
