5 Witchy New Books for Friday the 13th

Long Past Dues

Grimshaw Griswold Grimsby returns as the newest—and least magically skilled—Auditor for the Department of Unorthodox Affairs in Butcher’s dynamic urban fantasy sequel to Dead Man’s Hand. Grimsby’s partner, Leslie Mayflower, aka “the Hunstman,” has been AWOL for weeks, limiting Grimsby to routine drudge work—until he swaps out his latest assignment for a RUIN case assigned to his newly distant colleague Auditor Rayne Bathory. Grimsby isn’t ready to investigate the “ritual of unknown intent and nature” alone, so he tracks down Mayflower, who, recognizing something from his past in the ritual’s details, reluctantly agrees to help investigate. Meanwhile, Bathory, who is still searching for her ex-partner, Hives, receives unexpected help from the New York office’s Agent Defaux, who offers to provide some ritual assistance. Complicating things further, the creature Wudge, whom Grimsby rescued in the previous volume, now needs his help to recover an item from the Elsewhere. Functional magic or no, “half-witch” Grimsby stubbornly forges ahead in his mission to save others, making up in heart what he lacks in talent. The message that determination trumps ability will please fantasy readers who love to cheer for the little guy. Butcher proves that this series has legs. (Oct.)

Sword Catcher

Bestselling YA author Clare (the Shadowhunter Chronicles series) makes her adult debut with this enchanting if somewhat bloated fantasy, the first in a series. Kel is the Sword Catcher, bodyguard to Conor Aurelian, Prince of Castellane. Having sworn his undying loyalty to Conor (“I die that he might live forever”), Kel’s sole job is to keep the prince safe. When the prince’s reckless choices land him in hot water with slumlord Prosper Beck, Kel turns to the enigmatic Ragpicker King, criminal ruler of the underworld, for assistance. In alternating sections, readers are also introduced to Lin Caster. Lin is an Ashkar, those born with the only remaining magic left in Castellane and exiled behind the city-state’s walls. As a healer, however, Lin is able to enter the city, and the two narratives intertwine when Lin is called to heal one of the royals and she and Kel meet. Clare drops readers into this ornate and unique world and plants seeds for forbidden romance, dangerous magic, and brewing war to be harvested in later installments. The book at hand, however, lacks a sense of urgency, and Kel’s sections outshine Lin’s, making the pacing a bit uneven. Still, this multilayered epic is sure to be a hit with Clare’s many fans. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Oct.)

The Bone Roots

For this dark fairy tale, Houston (The Second Bell) spins a lush narrative that gets lost in its own fecund detail. There’s a folkloric simplicity to the premise: two women go to a tree blessed by a goddess—one a noble hoping for a child, the other a witch who has promised to help. They find twin babies hanging from a branch like fruit. Fast-forward 15 years, and wealthy Sladyana believes that her goddess-given daughter has been stolen from her by supernatural forces. Though she takes in a nonspeaking orphan, fostering the child cannot fill the void. Meanwhile Kada, the witch, raises a not-quite-human daughter of her own whom she ferociously guards, fearing exposure of the child’s uncanny nature. Threat appears in the form of a marauding blue-eyed fox, alongside a glossary’s worth of other monstrous beings that Kada overcomes or commands in succession—all while navigating the complex dynamics of family and village. This is a tapestry of a book, wonderfully woven but thin. The Slavic mythology it draws from brings the benefit of novelty, but the fairy tale elements don’t quite come together to lend emotive meaning to Houston’s decorative prose. Fans of fabulist literature hoping for depth should look elsewhere, but readers seeking pure story, lovingly told, will find plenty to savor. Agent: John Baker, Bell Lomax Moreton. (Oct.)

An Inheritance of Magic

A world of magic usually known only to the rich and powerful is put to the test in the page-turning urban fantasy that launches an intriguing new series from Jacka (the Alex Verus series). Twenty-year-old Stephen Oakwood ekes out a life in modern-day London by working low-wage jobs and renting a room in his aunt’s house. The only thing that really matters to him is fulfilling the promise he made to his father just before the man disappeared two years ago: namely, to keep practicing his drucraft, or magic. Stephen’s growing skill draws the wrong kind of attention, however. When people start trying to murder him—and very nearly kill his cat in a scene that will be tough to handle for animal lovers—Stephen realizes he’s got much more to learn about the elite world of drucraft, its internal power struggles, and what his family has to do with all of it. Jacka provides immense detail about the ins and outs of drucraft, which will please fans of hard magic systems but occasionally slows down the story. Still, there’s lots of promise to this eat-the-rich world. Readers will be eager to see where things go next. Agent: Sophie Hicks, Sophie Hicks Agency. (Oct.)

The Witch of Maracoor

Maguire closes out the Another Day series, a spin-off of his bestselling Wicked Years novels, with this memorable and satisfying adventure. Following the events of The Oracle of Maracoor, it’s time for Rain, the adolescent greenish-skinned granddaughter of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, to return to Oz, where the Cowardly Lion rules as the absent Ozma’s regent. The plot largely consists of a series of misadventures along the journey as Rain slowly overcomes her series-spanning amnesia and remembers her past life. Though she’s coming back to herself, she’s still struggling with the effects of the Grimmerie, a spell book with a strange level of control over her, despite having thrown it into the sea. She also pines for her young lover Tip, who is really the spellbound Ozma. Gradually, Rain tames her adolescent anger and loneliness by accepting the things she’s lost while she’s been away from home and realizing that the key to maturity is love. Maguire’s edgy take on Oz is as much fun to visit as ever, full of sentient animal wisdom from Rain’s goose familiar, complicated familial dynamics, and even some winged monkeys. Series fans will be thrilled. Agent: Moses Cardona, John Hawkins & Assoc. (Oct.)