The Case of The Formidable Fiend: An adventurous paranormal cozy mystery

by H.B. Chapman

A kinetic witch has been murdered, and Ella is drawn into both the investigation and the mad machinations of Toby, Reo, Henry, Ziska and Luc of the Magic Investigations Society. When she uses her distinct witchy skillset to examine the victim, she discovers they were killed by a magical arrow that inflicts intense physical and emotional agony, and she prays no one else suffers the same fate. Unfortunately, they do. Meanwhile, Ella's introduction into Celwia is fraught with the tears and awkward tension of a losing football team's after-match party. When witches in high places accuse her of being indirectly involved in the murders, she feels far from welcome, and she's compelled to help the investigation in any way she can—even if it costs her precious hours away from piano practice. What now could possibly put her career second? This wasn't the plan. Well, it was the old plan when she took a break from her career to have her child, Molly, but it's certainly not the new plan. Unless...she indeed feels partly responsible for the murders....

The Magic Investigations Society Archive is a genre-bending cozy mystery series filled with paranormal fantasy adventure.

305 pages, Paperback

Published March 31, 2022

About the author

H.B. Chapman is author of the series, Magic Investigations Society Archive. Her broad creative and commercial background, which spans the computer games industry, marketing, content creation, copywriting, theatre making, and grant writing, has influenced her aim to craft narratives that hook, offer humane perspectives, and earn the reader’s attention.

In writing her debut series, this eclectic working life merged with her love for fantasy pop culture and fiction, as in her formative years, she was in awe of its powerful use of metaphoric universes to transcend real-world limitations and resonate with people on an deeper level.

The Magic Investigations Society Archive is a genre-blending series. It ramps up the pulse of a paranormal cozy with a little more adventure and fantasy worldbuilding, and all while remaining warm and fuzzy. The tone is playful, the content clean, the plots twisting, and the danger magical.

H.B loves cats, super-dark chocolate, dancing, unsolicited dress-ups, and ugly cars (except Fiat Multipla—that’s going too far). She lives in Australia with her wonderful partner, two cats, stash of dark chocolate, box of costumes (for you-never-know-when), and…her little red ugly car.

Reviews

[King Tut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the characters in this series. A bit madcap and magical but then they grab you with emotional moments. They really expand in book 2. The MIS folks are cool, flawed for various reasons, and that's when the main character, Ella, shines in her 'civilian' wisdom.

Book 2 is a fantastic follow-up on the unique universe and magic rules in book 1, which I rediscovered through the epic mystery plot (for a cozy). I wondered about this from reading other reviews before I got book 1 - this series does lean into cozy fantasy.

Is it YA, or above, or both? Mmm. Perhaps depends less on your age and more on your humour. I enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek style often seen in surreal TV series that place real-world adults in a make-believe world. I laughed a lot for something that isn't a comedy. The author didn't always smooth that shift between the serious character exchanges (emotionally authentic and quite well done) and the surreal campiness fitting of the quite entertaining universe. However, I consume a lot of books/shows with this surreal flavour and it wasn't glaring enough for me to drop a star because I love where these characters are taken in both extremes. Can't wait for book 3.

Recommended for those who:
1) like their para cozy mystery a bit 'bigger' in plot and world-building
2) like surreal characters and dry wit, parody
3) happily read books that sit between genres

[Elayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moved down in stars from 1

I liked book 1, which seemed targeted well at YA as well as general fantasy readers.
This book is uncertain of its target audience.
In some places it is still YA, but in others, it has moved down in style and content to younger readers. Take, for instance, the radio phrases ending in 'floof' and involving 'eggnog' etc. Silly phrases and words that younger readers may giggle at, but...
A shame but this is so often the case where authors start series with good intentions. Either book 2 shows an improvement in plotting, style, etc, or the opposite.