Hexhunter (Hexworld 4) by Jordan L. Hawk

[Ulysses]

Hexhunter (Hexworld 4)
BY Jordan L. Hawk
Published by the author, 2019
Five stars

I’m going to give this five stars, because I love the series and because this installment of Hawk’s Hexworld adventure lives up to the previous three. It made my heart pound, it brought tears to my eyes, and it created a world that lives up to my own imagination and real-world knowledge. This remarkable world, recognizably the turn-of-the-century New York where Teddy Roosevelt and the Gilded Age reign, is also a world where a substantial percentage of the population have magic – are witches – and another parallel group are familiars, animal shifters essential to the witches to tap into their powers. The world is run by technology, but also by magic in the form of hexes, which can do anything from prevent rising damp to healing bones.

Bill Quigley and Isaac have known each other for years – since Isaac was rescued from a horrific situation in which his magic was being stripped to fuel blood hexes. The murder of a nun at an orphanage brings Bill back into the MWP (Metropolitan Witch Police) from the regular police force. He once again has to work with Isaac, whom he’s loved secretly since the last time they met. What Bill doesn’t know is that Isaac’s damage runs so deep that he’s decided to stop transforming into a mastiff entirely, hoping that he’ll lose all of the awful memories along with his animal identity.

Isaac’s worst fears are realized when it looks like he and Bill are once again on the trail of someone powerful who is abusing magic and intent on the subjugation of famliars. Hawk is clever in her laying out the prejudices of both the magic and non-magic world against familiars. The echo of racism and ethnic prejudice is clear – in a world where same-sex relationships do not seem to be the target of the kind of negative reaction that prevailed in our world 120 years ago. The human drive toward greed and bigotry is ever-present, and the good witches of the MWP and their familiars are duty-bound to set it right.

The characters – drawn from previous chapters in the story—and the setting are palpable, and the increasingly tense plot arc pushes the story to a fever pitch. The power of Bill and Isaac’s love for each other is a lynchpin, if only Isaac can set aside his pain to save others.