The Hexologists is my second venture (after Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup) into an emerging subgenre where we follow detectives investigating crimes/murders in a Victorian/Edwardian-inspired fantasy world. What sets these types of stories obviously apart from classic Sherlock Holmes tales is the addition of magical elements which may be part of the crime, instrumental in the investigation, and especially part of the surrounding world. When Isolde and Warren Wilby, a married couple of private investigators, are hired by the Crown to uncover the truth about an extortion plot against the king, Isolde uses her powers of hexegy (i.e. casting spells by inscribing special characters onto surfaces) as well as other arcane resources to access secret information and fight the bad actors trying to prevent and obstruct them. The Wilbys bring to the investigation many fantastical things such as a carpet bag containing a portal to a storehouse of magical artifacts, bizarre informants such as a demon who possesses and uses the voices of unconscious humans to speak, as well as strange methods to access the memories of the dead. While it may sound dark and serious, the tone of the book is actually quite lively and exciting — a bit of a roller-coaster ride.

One of the hallmarks of this story is how fresh and unique the protagonists are. Isolde is not only a powerful practitioner of the lost craft of hexegy, she is also very intelligent, driven, direct and bold, stopping at virtually nothing to find the answers she seeks. The best aspect to the pairing of her with Warren is that he is in many ways her opposite and tempers her recklessness with an upbeat, warm, compassionate and cautious protectiveness. I liked him most out of the characters in this novel, but he definitely worked best as the “better half” to Isolde in solving crimes. Their love and passion for each other was also a welcome addition to the story. It’s not common to have husband and wife protagonists and it felt enjoyably fresh to not only see their strong mutual support and how they balanced each other, but also their affection for each other providing such great character energy and playful banter between them. During those parts of the story when they pursued targets separately, I was always eager to see them reunited and standing back-to-back again.

As a mashup of genres, this story takes the template of the crime investigation and makes it into a kind of fantasy quest, complete with obstacles and challenges. Right from the first scene, when a tree-monster attacks the Wilbys in their home, this story engages in magical action at full speed. At each subsequent step, Isolde and Warren make use of various supernatural and extra-dimensional techniques to get the next clue and follow the trail to uncovering the truth. These scenes felt a lot more like questing challenges than the traditional investigative interrogation. There was not as much intense, eyeball-to-eyeball questioning of suspects, or connecting of clues on a big white board with red string, as you might expect. Because of this, as I was reading chapter to chapter, I was often so distracted by the action that I had forgotten which clue they were pursuing at the moment. What brought them to this contact? Why they were doing what they were doing, or whatever they were trying to learn, easily got lost in the excitement of Isolde swimming through a shadow dimension, duelling magic with a masked sorcerer, or whichever wondrously odd encounter they were having. For better or worse, before long I was less interested in solving the crime itself and more excited about the adventure. 

Another quality of this story that was both pro and con was the prose. I really enjoyed Bancroft’s style and tone, using convoluted and occasionally old-fashioned, turn-of-the-century language really added to the flavour of the story. The word choice and style helped convey the setting on their own, without having to describe much about the time period or the social context. However, the dusty language also forced me, as a reader, to listen and concentrate a lot harder in order to parse what was being said about the characters and the plot. Similarly the descriptions were wonderful, and especially Bancroft’s use of this type of language really made the introductions of each character into delightful little polaroids (apologies for the anachronistic metaphor). For example, the description of Isolde from chapter one immediately grabbed my attention: “She was almost entirely insensible to pleasantries, especially the parentheses of polite conversation, preferring to let the drumroll of her heels convey her hellos and her coattails say her goodbyes.” It takes more than a few words, could hardly be considered concise, but it is such a colourful expression of the character’s personality! The cheeky tone was an added bonus that made me wish that Stephen Fry had been the narrator of the audiobook (not that there was anything wrong with the current narrator).

In the end, there was a satisfyingly-solved mystery with a number of plot twists along the way, but the main joy was in getting to know Isolde and Warren, and watching them fight monsters, take on side quests, escape traps, and defeat level bosses. I think this book would have made a pretty good video game (not that I know what modern video games are like anymore). A story where a fun couple have adventures while tracking down clues and bad guys also reminds me of the 80s prime-time detective shows that I grew up watching, like Moonlighting, Remington Steele, and especially Hart to Hart. There’s a casual, crazy, just-another-day vibe where nothing is taken too seriously, characters are not in true peril for long, and our detective leads end the episode dusting themselves off, ready to take on the next case.

3.5 stars

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