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Long Past Dues
The Unorthodox Chronicles #2
by James J. Butcher
Ace, $27.00, 416pp
Published: October 2023

In this world, certain paranormal people are known as Unorthodox; and, the highest ranking witches are government Auditors with a wide range of spells for their use along with a great deal of power and prestige.  Our protagonist, a "mediocre" witch named Grimsby who once entertained children at a pizza parlor type business, is now an Auditor, a lifelong dream of his.  But just because his actions merited him a position as Auditor didn't mean that everyone thought he'd earned it.  All he gets are the mundane and boring jobs; until one day, he snaps and inappropriately appropriates a case file meant for a coworker, Rayne.  She's wasn't very happy when she discovered this.  This particular case is personal for Rayne; it may be the only chance she has of discovering the fate of her partner, Hives.

In the same vein as the previous book, "Dead Man's Hand", the plot starts getting very complicated.  Grimsby is partnered with Mayflower, who has come out of retirement.  But Mayflower isn't terribly motivated to be an Auditor again; convinced that he's a bad choice for young Grimsby's partner.  The only thing he's ever been good at was killing.  Grimsby, on the other hand, appears to be a bit infatuated with Mayflower and is devastated that Mayflower wants to quit on him.

Rayne is hiding her own secrets, intent on discovering what happened to her old partner.  With no leads, she is understandably grateful when an unknown Auditor, from the NY office, shows up with Hives' badge; something never recovered…along with his body.  The Auditor, Defaux, attaches herself to Rayne; ostensibly to lend a hand in the investigation.  And Rayne, so terribly grateful, never thinks to question it.

One of Grimsby's onerous tasks is to pay a monthly visit, sort of like a probation officer, to certain Unorthodox individuals known as Therians.  A Therian is one who is a shape-shifter but with no conscious control; so that once a month they have to report in to be confined for the period of time they are uncontrollable.  This was moderately interesting with some tantalizing clues the author dropped in.  Maybe he'll make more of these individuals in a later book.  It also suggests there may be other types of Unorthodox people that we haven't yet met.  The author uses this device to good effect later.

Back at home, Grimsby has to deal with a despondent Wudge; a fascinating mascot-type character introduced in the first book.  When pushed, Wudge finally confesses that he still needs to find a certain door that was being kept from him by his earlier captor, the witch Mansgraf.  Grimsby ends up making a pledge to help Wudge find a piece of the door that Wudge hopes will lead him to the actual door.  Neither we nor Grimsby know yet what is behind the door that Wudge needs so badly.  Poor Grimsby ends up in the other dimension known as Elsewhere trying to steal a box from a mismatched pair of Unorthodox, a Troll and his sister, Echidna.  He does succeed only to discover the stolen item is cursed and the curse is now attached to him.  His magic was always fitful and undependable due to injuries he suffered as a child; but the curse messes with his magic in even more unpredictable ways.

All of these events end up being tied to an old case of Mayflower's.  It was a case that he believed was one of the 'good' ones where he succeeded in defeating evil and saving a baby.  There was much more going on than he understood and that error is back to haunt not only him but Grimsby, Rayne and her not-so-dead partner, Hives.  And without that understanding, no one was going to be able to figure out who Defaux was and why she was helping Rayne.

This isn't a bad sequel and the characters are adequate; just nothing particularly outstanding.  The plot was good and the growing relationship between Grimsby and Mayflower was worth it.  My biggest complaint is that it doesn't seem like an editor took much of a hand in helping this book.  The author fell prey to a typical novice error:  he's in love with all his words.  And there's too many of them; particularly adjectives and adverbs.  Hopefully, he grows out of that; I, for one, am interested enough to stay with him and see how he matures.  ~~ Catherine Book

For more titles by James J. Butcher click here

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