The Hexologists

Book excerpt: 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 them: The Hexologists. “Bancroft is a magician.” — Madeline Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Circe “Fantastic! The Hexologists fizzes eloquently with wit and elegance, but also has marvelous worldbuilding and an excellent plot - and a central pair of characters who I quite simply love. A cocktail of a book made with the very best champagne.” — Genevieve Cogman, author of The Invisible Library 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. "Bancroft is a wonder as ever! The Hexologists was a joyous delight on every page— buoyantly inventive, witty, poignant, gripping, and deeply satisfying." — Madeline Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Circe “Josiah Bancroft’s imagination will astound you. One of the most inventive fantasy authors out there.” — Fonda Lee, author of the Green Bone Saga “Bancroft has returned to the page in force, deploying his crystal prose and razored wit around a tale that mixes whimsy and threat in equal measure. He's a gift to the genre." — Mark Lawrence, author of The Book That Wouldn't Burn