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 antiroyalist 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 whatever springs from the alleys, graves, and shadows next.
This was my first Bancroft book so I didn't have any real expectations for it. If I'm honest I found the prose style a little heavily on the descriptive side for me. That said I did still enjoy this, it just took me a little longer than expected as I read it in small bursts rather than long stints.
The 'odd couple' aspect was fun - Isolde was very much a barrel through and not care what anyone thinks character, while her husband was a much more approachable personality - they balanced each other out well.
I loved some of the magical systems and devices such as the storage method for magical items the couple used. Despite its magical world setting this story was at its heart a twisty whodunnit in an alternate victorian setting.
If you like Holmes stories but wish they came with a bit more of a magical twist this book is probably for you.
With thanks to Little Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for honest review.
The Hexologists is available now.
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