Grim Folk Tale By James J. Butcher
Publication Date: January 5, 2027
Summary from NetGalley:
Grimsby, a junior Auditor in the government-sanctioned, magical Department of Unorthodox Affairs, must do all he can to fight for the innocent in this riveting urban fantasy.
When a magical illness begins to afflict children in Boston, the Department of Unorthodox Affairs tasks junior Auditor Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby with uncovering the source and—together with his partner, the grizzled veteran Huntsman Mayflower—putting a stop to it by any means necessary.
But their efforts to determine the origin of the spreading malady are soon complicated by the emergence of ancient and strange beings that Grimsby and Mayflower have never encountered before. To uncover the truth, they will have to turn to old acquaintances and allies and delve deep below Boston, into the city of monsters that lies beneath, and travel to the unfathomable reality of the Elsewhere.
Burdened by his own troubles, both past and present, it will take all Grimsby’s skill, iron, and no shortage of magic to stop this apparent plague and save those who have been afflicted.
ARC provided by Berkley Publishing Group Via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
This is a great addition to an already solid series. I really enjoyed the character growth as well as the growth in the two main characters relationship and the darker aspects of the story. The pacing could have been a bit faster at times, but the ending was riveting.
I really enjoy Grimsby as a character. He seems very real as he has a lot of self doubt and lacks confidence, but he has a solid moral compass to do good and to help people. It is this moral foundation that comes into play and is shaken quite a bit in this story and is what makes Grimsby feel so human. He deals with some harsh revelations about his past, but he still manages to get himself together in order to save the children who have been taken. He is a great hero and I hope his story continues.
Mayflower is also dealing with his own demons, and he is beginning to feel his age. He also has a very solid core set of values, although he is more willing to bend them to get to his goal. He and Grimsby have developed a wonderful relationship and are really working better as a team in this story. He is more trusting of Grimsby’s strengths and respects that he knows what he is doing, even when his choices are not what Mayflower would have done.
I was happy to see Wudge in this story, and that he had a more major role in it. He is a bit of comic relief in these stories and I really enjoyed learning a bit more about him. He also has stepped up a bit on being willing to help Grimsby in his journey to save the children, and appears to be growing a bit as well.
The pacing was a bit slow at times, but other than that this was a well plotted story. There were some nice twists towards the end, which also happened to be bittersweet. The magical system is pretty well established at this point, but we are still learning more about, it especially the creatures that lurk below Boston and in the Elsewhere. I loved the library and the curator in the Elsewhere, that was very imaginative.
If you have read the previous books in the series, this is a must read. This sort of felt like an ending to the series, but I don’t believe it is. I have seen reviews from people saying that this works as a stand alone, but I think to really understand the characters and the magical system you really need to start at the beginning with Dead Man’s Hand.
