A married couple uses a combination of investigative skills, arcane arts, and a magic carpetbag to solve a case that threatens a kingdom in the charming and humorous fantasy-mystery The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft (Senlin Ascends), the first novel in a series with the same name. Isolde Ann Always Wilby, a woman "often described as imposing... because she had a way of imposing her will upon others," and her gregarious "garden wall" of a husband, Warren, make up the sleuthing duo of the novel's title; they practice hexegy, a "shallow rill" of practical magic in a world that has all but banned magicians and necromancers, and reveres alchemists. The hexologists fall into a royal muddle when the king's secretary confides to them that His Majesty wishes to be baked into a cake, possibly due to a claim that the king fathered an illegitimate child in his youth. Iz is reluctant to work for the monarchy until Warren reminds her that suffering on high will trickle down to the poor. The ensuing investigation brings the Wilby pair up against a seven-foot-tall mandrake, a gang of spectral parasites in the form of disembodied limbs, and a loquacious dragon with a discerning palate. They will need all their wits, spellcraft, and love for each other to survive this case.
Bancroft's nimbly narrated and sesquipedalian fantasy has an emotional core as solid as its detailed magical system. Fans of steampunk and other Victoriana will rejoice at this promise of an expansive world and a lovable couple with many adventures ahead of them. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads