Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Dead Man's Hand (The Unorthodox Chronicles #1) by James J. Butcher

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre:  Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong Language

 

On the streets of Boston, the world is divided into the ordinary Usuals, and the paranormal Unorthodox. And in the Department of Unorthodox Affairs, the Auditors are the magical elite, government-sanctioned witches with spells at their command and all the power and prestige that comes with it. Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby is...not one of those witches.

After flunking out of the Auditor training program and being dismissed as "not Department material," Grimsby tried to resign himself to life as a mediocre witch. But he can't help hoping he'll somehow, someway, get another chance to prove his skill. That opportunity comes with a price when his former mentor, aka the most dangerous witch alive, is murdered down the street from where he works, and Grimsby is the Auditors' number one suspect.

Proving his innocence will require more than a little legwork, and after forming a strange alliance with the retired legend known as the Huntsman and a mysterious being from Elsewhere, Grimsby is abruptly thrown into a life of adventure, whether he wants it or not. Now all he has to do is find the real killer, avoid the Auditors on his trail, and most importantly, stay alive.
 

 

I've had this on my to-read list for a long time so I was happy to finally get to read it. I was really interested to see how Jim Butcher's son would write an urban fantasy. For the most part I enjoyed this. At times I thought some of the descriptions were unnecessarily detailed or things were oddly described. I'm almost done with book two at this point and there's one part where instead of just calling a keyboard a keyboard, it's referred to as a board of keys, which I thought was weird. So the writing could use some improvement, but these are the author's first books, so I can cut him some slack. 

I think it has a lot of potential to turn into a series I could love. I like the world the author has created here. I have contradicting feelings about some of the characters. The familiars are off putting, yet weirdly facinating. Wudge is selfish and mean but lovable at the same time. Mayflower is prickly as a cactus but somehow I still like him. Grimsby was a little weak for a main character at first but he grew and that's what matters. I'm going to continue with this series to see where it goes. 

 

 

 

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