Orbit is thrilled to announce the acquisition of a brand new series from author Josiah Bancroft, the brilliant mind behind Senlin Ascends and The Books of Babel, the phenomenon fantasy series described as “future classics” (Los Angeles Times).

The Hexologists introduces us to a new world and the dynamic duo of Hexologists Iz and Warren Wilby: two private investigators who solve magical problems with magical solutions. While their usual quests are never more alarming than the occasional incubi infestation or mournful ghost haunting, their latest mission has given them an impossible task: save the king himself.

While you eagerly await the arrival of this newest arcane mystery series, you can find out more about Josiah Bancroft at his website thebooksofbabel.com.

For an early peek at Iz and Warren’s first adventure, read on!

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, the Hexologists 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 antiroyalist 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 whatever springs from the alleys, graves, and shadows next.

Orbit US editor Bradley Englert acquired World English rights to the books from Ian Drury of Sheil Land Associates. Orbit UK editor Emily Byron has secured UK rights.