Think about your morning commute. It’s crowded, loud, and smells faintly of someone’s leftover tuna sandwich. Now imagine that the person next to you is actually a wizard hiding from a magical IRS.
That is the world of the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. It follows Peter Grant, a London police officer who discovers that magic is real — and that it’s mostly bureaucracy. He deals with the paperwork of spells, the headache of magical traffic violations, and the terrifying fact that ghosts make terrible witnesses. It’s like Harry Potter if Harry had grown up, paid taxes, and had to explain to his boss why a giant fox is blocking the M25.
A Dash of Corporate Magic
Have you ever felt like your office was a little too much like a house of intrigue? In The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, the main character wakes up with amnesia and discovers she works for a secret British agency that deals with supernatural threats.
She has to figure out who she can trust, and she does it by reading the instruction manual her past self left her. It is basically Harry Potter meets The Office, but with more mind control and less awkward birthday cake. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, and you’ll never look at a coworker’s “helpful” email the same way again.
