Timeline

This represents an attempt to piece together a basic timeline of the series, using mostly information internal in the stories, and the chronology published in the author's blog, cf. a chronology of rivers-of-london books.

• In The Hanging Tree, a newspaper headline is mentioned, "UKIP TO ROCK WESTMINSTER", which was actually used by The Daily Express at October 9th, 2014.
• The Home Crowd Advantage takes place during the London 2012 summer olympics.
• Action at a Distance is said to be "outside the main sequence".
• The "Moments" are actually dated in their respective subtitles to a specific year (1966, 2012, 2014).

These are the only fixed time referents in the books. From these, the following, tentative and inconsistent timeline can be inferred:

• 1966
  • Moments one
    • Nightingale in London 1966
• 2012
  • Rivers of London
    • The exchange of hostages (Beverley and Ash) takes place on June 21st, Midsummer.
    • Starts in January.
  • Moments three
    • Tobias Winter in Meckenheim
  • The Home Crowd Advantage
    • Peter Grant in London during the summer Olympics
  • The Domestic
  • Moon over Soho
    • Quote at beginning: "Soho on a hot summer night"
    • Quote at end: "It was a cold miserable day in October"
    • Presumably late summer 2012.
  • Detective Stories #3, Cry Me a River
    • Panel dated as November 2012.
  • Whispers Under Ground
    • Quote at beginning: "It was one of those dull grey winter days"
    • End said to happen at Christmas.
    • Presumably winter 2012.
• 2013
  • Detective Stories #2, Old Soldiers
    • Panel dated as January 20th 2013.
  • The Cockpit
  • Broken Homes
    • Presumably spring 2013, since Beverley says to Peter, regarding he has not sent any message during her hostage time, "not one in nine months".
    • Varvara Sidorovna's arrest, referred to in next book as "two months before" (August), must have taken place in June.
    • Operation Tinker took place in spring 2013.
  • Body Work
  • Foxglove Summer
    • Said to happen in August, presumably 2013. However weather in the UK was good for June and July and terrible in August, starting with thunderstorms on the 2nd and then deteriorating. Peter has only been with the Folly for a little over a year at this point. "You have been with the SAU for over a Year? ... Since February last year."
  • Untitled Tobias Winter (novella)
  • The Loneliness of the Long Distance Granny
    • Set immediately after Foxglove Summer
  • Night Witch
  • King of the Rats
    • Word of Author
  • Black Mould
• 2014
  • Moments two
    • Kimberley Reynolds in Florida
  • The Furthest Station
  • Detective Stories #1, Magic Circle
    • Panel dated as September 8th 2014.
  • The Hanging Tree
    • Refers the events of "Foxglove Summer" as "the previous summer".
    • Daily Express headline pinpoints one date at October 9:th, 2014.
    • Peter says of FBI Agent Kimberley Reynolds: "We'd met a couple of years back [...] exchanged may be five emails apiece since then --- mostly at Christmas". They first met in "Whispers Under Ground".
  • A rare book of cunning device
    • Said to happen 17 years after the British Library was built in 1997.
  • Detective Stories (framing story)
  • Cry Fox
  • Water Weed
  • Lies Sleeping
  • The Fey and the Furious