Audiobook Review: Magical Detectives

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

Read by Sarah Slimani

Publication Date: September 26, 2023

Summary from Goodreads:

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 whatever springs from the alleys, graves, and shadows next.

Confession:

This was a really nice book with a wonderful cast of characters, an intricate magical system, and a mystery that kept getting more complicated. It was a fun book to listen to as well. I am also super excited that it will be a series as I want to spend more time in this very interesting world.

Sarah Slimani was a delight to listen to. She did a good job with the various characters but could have done a better job of differentiating the voices. It was occasionally difficult to tell who was talking during dialogue. But otherwise I thought she did well and I enjoyed listening to her read the story.

Isolde and Warren Wilby are a married couple who are committed to helping those who need it. Their relationship was delightful, full of love and devotion to each other, as well as dry, witty banter. Isolde is the one with the magical ability, but Warren has his strengths as well. He is perhaps overly protective of Iz, but she always has his back. Isolde is a little on the antisocial side, but Warren is very social and loves to cook and bake for people. They make a great duo.

There are lots of side characters that compliment this dynamic duo that are scattered throughout the story. Many we will probably never see again, but some I hope will continue on in the series. One I am sure of is Felivox, an epicurious dragon that lives in the Portalmanteau (more about that in a bit). He was a delightful addition to the story and I just adored him. I really hope he plays a bigger role in the rest of the series.

The world building was suburb. This is a somewhat steampunkish world where magic is waning and in some case being banned. There are many different layers to the magic from sorcerer (most powerful) to hexes (least powerful). Iz is a hexologist which means she needs to draw signs to make her magic work. But she is very good at. It is also a world that is reminiscent of Victorian England in both setting and society structure. There is some political tension between the aristocrats and lower classes. It will be interesting to see how this works out in the next books. My favorite bit of magic was the Portalmanteau which was basically a carpet bag that is a portal to a vast warehouse of magical artifacts. Iz and Warren take it almost everywhere and it saved them more than once.

Although there were some slow spots, the book was rather fast paced with a lot of action. I really enjoyed the mystery, although it was pretty easy to figure out. It still had lots of layers to it which made it very interesting and the tools and magic that Iz had to use to solve it also made for an exciting story. The writing was a bit heavy at times but for the most part I enjoyed the author’s style.

This is the first book in a new series for this author. His last series, The Books of Babel, is suppose to be really good. I will have to pick that one up when I get a chance. I highly recommend this series though. It was a lot of fun and I loved the world and the magical system. I look forward to the next book in this series.