Book Title: The Hexologists
Series: The Hexologists (#1)
Author: Josiah Bancroft
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59612836-the-hexologists
Release Date: 9/26/23
Star Rating:
The first book in a wildly inventive and mesmerizing new fantasy series from acclaimed author Josiah Bancroft where magical mysteries abound and only one team can solve The Hexologists.
The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Wilbies have recovered children abducted by chimney-wraiths, removed infestations of barb-nosed incubi, and ventured into the Gray Plains of the Unmade to soothe a troubled ghost. Well-acquainted with the weird, they never shy away from a challenging case.
But when they are approached by the royal secretary and told the king pleads to be baked into a cake—going so far as to wedge himself inside a lit oven—the Wilbies soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that could very well see the nation turned on its head. Their effort to expose a royal secret buried under forty years of lies brings them nose to nose with a violent anti-royalist gang, avaricious ghouls, alchemists who draw their power from a hell-like dimension, and a bookish dragon who only occasionally eats people.
Armed with a love toughened by adversity and a stick of chalk that can conjure light from the darkness, hope from the hopeless, Iz and Warren Wilby are ready for a case that will test every spell, skill, and odd magical artifact in their considerable bag of tricks.
Another excellent new series come to me from Orbit. I have to admit they are my absolute favorite publisher right now.
This series is very imaginative and interesting. The mystery at the heart of the book is intriguing and the characters are excellent. But it’s funny the thing I came away with most after reading this book was the relationship between the hexologists themselves. I absolutely adored Wilby. He is such a wonderful person and the love he has for his wife is so sweet and he supports her and her magical talents. So many times a story will pull me in, but if the characters and their relationships are not strong then there is nothing to keep me. This book is an example of good characterization. I am really looking forward to the next book in the series.
Lost In A Good Book 