Dead Man's Hand

The marketing for this book leans into the author's parentage a bit, so I feel that makes it fair game to comment that, unfortunately, James J. Butcher is not Jim Butcher. While, for me, his father's books are something to anticipate and read immediately, this one only managed to keep my attention.

The concept for the plot is fine: a hunt for a MacGuffin while solving a murder shrouded in mystery. The execution of that story line could use a little tweaking because you pretty much suspect the "surprise" villain from the early pages, but he isn't the first author to allow that, and it shouldn't bother you all that much. The fact that the MacGuffin turns out not to be totally a MacGuffin was welcome.

The world is interesting, though show more world-building is a little sketchy. Other series with "magic among normals" settings, like the Dresden books or Kim Harrison's Hollows books (picking her because she wrote the cover blurb), leave you with a far better sense of the backdrop after their first volume. I needed the Unorthodox, the Department, Elsewhere, etc. fleshed out a bit more in order for the world to come alive. Maybe subsequent volumes in the series rectify this.

The stilted dialogue was a little harder to overlook because it kept throwing me out of the story. For example, real people do not use names and/or epithets in every third line when addressing another—that's something reserved for Wesley talking to Humperdinck in the ending of The Princess Bride. Butcher could have cut out 90% of the ", witch" instances, and it would have been far less jarring to the ear.

But the real issue I had with this book is the characters. Grimsby, in particular, kept making these sophomoric attempts at humor. Not only were most too juvenile to be funny, they were inconsistent with the "panicked guy" character finding himself in a bad situation. The fundamental problem, in my opinion, is that they weren't written as tics of a frightened mind. That would have been fine. But Grimsby was far too self-satisfied in delivering his snarky one-liners to be convincing as the character he was supposed to be.

Mayflower, well, he just never really managed to carry off the "tough guy" persona to live up to his apparent legend ... not that we have any idea of what the legend surrounding The Huntsman actually is. And that lack of idea probably contributes heavily to why he fails to emerge from two-dimensions into a real character in the reader's mind.

And motivations? Why was the villain doing what he did? Why was the villain's sidekick/patsy doing what he did? Why, other than plot convenience, did so many people do what they did?

Oh, and using the epilogue to drop the name Elizabeth Bathory onto a character that heretofore has been a good person is either a heavy-handed spoiler alert or extraordinary mis-casting.

So, in summary, if you want ... inevitably ... to compare this with any of his father's series, it doesn't fare well. If you want to compare it to Kim Harrison's series, it doesn't fare well. If you can manage to do none of those, then it's neither good nor horrible ... a beach read for a little escapism, but not something to hunt for the next installment. show less

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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THE WORLD OF THIS NOVEL
This is a Fantasy world where the Muggles (here, they're called "Usuals") know about Magic and the Supernatural populace (called "the Unorthodox"). They're largely not that comfortable with them, it doesn't seem—and maybe look down upon them. We don't get a lot of Usual/Unorthodox interaction, so it's difficult to get a good read.

The Unorthodox are policed by a division of the Department of Unorthodox Affairs called Auditors. They're witches with the power to enforce the laws governing the Unorthodox. And there are rules governing how the Unorthodox interact with Usuals. We don't get to see a lot of them here—but you know they exist.

It occurs to me now show more that we really don't get that much insight or information about all the situation the protagonists find themselves in (more below). Dead Man's Hand cares about the story and will let the rest take care of itself. It took me until now (and this is the last section of the post I'm writing) to realize just how little we know because I didn't care. My mindset apparently was the same as the novel's: just tell me the story. I got the impression that there were rules and bureaucracy and some sort of history, but my focus was on this case.

That's kind of cool, really—until it comes time to think about and write about the book.

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS DEAD MAN'S HAND ABOUT?
One of our two protagonists is Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby. Grimsby grew up wanting to be an Auditor and tried to work on the requisite skills as much as he could to prepare himself. He's not the most powerful witch, but he can do a lot with what he has (roughly the equivalent of "street smarts" vs. "book smarts"). He's flunked out of the Auditor Training Program at the very end and has to go find a job in the Usual world.

He ends up as a performer/custodian at a Chuck E. Cheese-style restaurant, where the animated figures are powered by his magic. It's humiliating, embarrassing, and eats at his soul. Grimsby went through some big trauma in his childhood; was on the verge of his dreams coming true before that ended; and now he's scraping by demeaning himself and his abilities. It's hard to find a character with supernatural abilities downtrodden or pitiful, but...Grimsby is. To put it concisely, he's a schlub and he's fully aware of that.

The other protagonist is a Usual who worked with the Auditors, Leslie Mayflower, better known as The Huntsman. He's responsible for enough death and destruction amongst the Unorthodox that many don't believe he actually exists—he's an Urban Legend to keep people in line. In reality, he's a guy who's seen too much, done too much, and when personal tragedy hits, he's done. He retires to drink himself into oblivion to avoid the memories and his own tragedy.

The Auditor who flunked Grimsby is considered one of the most powerful and dangerous witches in the world. Mansgraf is respected and feared—mostly feared. And when the novel opens—she's been killed in a fairly brutal fashion (the only way she's going to be able to be taken out). Mayflower spent his career (at least the bulk of it) as her partner—and he's brought in to look at the scene to see if he can pick up any clues. He comes up with one—and doesn't share it with the Department—and it points right to Grimsby as his prime suspect.

The Huntsman is back in the saddle for one last ride—to get vengeance, and his target is a man currently wearing a pink tutu with taco wings and an avocado wand. The Taco Fairy at Mighty Magic Donald's Food Kingdom.

It's almost patently obvious to Mayflower that Grimsby can't have killed Mansgraf, but that's where the evidence points. The Auditors won't be far behind, and they'll be less inclined to listen to Grimsby. So Mayflower has to stay one step ahead of them while protecting the witch and using him to help the investigation. The result is a buddy cop kind of story—without that much comedy or much in the way of buddy-ness. The duo drag themselves and fight their way through a variety of hazardous situations facing a variety of supernatural obstacles (some are solid takes on well-established ideas—some are new and surprising twists to them).

BROKEN HEROES
Mayflower is your typical brooding, laconic, action hero. He's grizzled, he's serious, and he really only cares about wrapping this up so he can get back to destroying his liver. But he's fair, he's got a strong moral core, and on some level, he feels sorry for Grimsby and wants to help him out. We know just enough of his backstory to understand what kind of man he is and the scars he carries.

We get more information about Grimsby and the hardships he's endured. His cowardice, his lack of confidence, and his lack of career prospects make him a relatable kind of character, and you want to root for this underdog. Although you (and Grimsby) know that he's going to need a lot of help from Mayflower to survive, much less succeed here. His problems are both played for laughs and treated with respect—frequently in the same paragraph. He has a genuine reason for being scared by things, but it can result in some laughs/grins. I keep thinking about Arthur from The Tick.

There's a stoic, stay standing while the waves crash against you, feel to Mayflower's outlook and the way he treats Grimsby. Yes, life is hard, but keep moving because that's what you have to do. Whatever problems there are with that worldview, the immediate circumstances the duo finds themselves in, it works. if they survive it, maybe more nuanced approaches and help can be found. But that's a problem for another day.

COMPARING THIS TO THAT OTHER BUTCHER
I really don't want to spend a lot of time comparing this Butcher to his father, but 1. everyone I talk to about this asks about it and 2. the publisher's description mentions him, basically inviting the comparisons. I'd prefer to consider him on his own—but here we are.

Honestly, I don't see a lot of similarities—beyond seeing the influence that Jim Butcher has on many UF series (see Anton Strout, Kevin Hearne, Mike Carey, Benedict Jacka, etc., etc.). Sure, there are similar attitudes portrayed, similar character types and voices, and even a couple of situations that feel like I could easily name some parallels to in The Dresden Files. But again, every time I could point to something and say, "That's his Dad," I could point it and say, "That's Peter Hartog" or "That's Jacqueline Carey." So maybe it's just James J. Butcher.

His writing style is different, the characters aren't just retreads of Harry or his friends, and the particulars of the plot don't seem to fit something for Harry.

If you're looking for someone who writes things in the same general vein as Jim Butcher, you can look to James J. Butcher. But if you're looking for Butcher 2.0? There are other options that would be better.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT DEAD MAN'S HAND?
This is a solid introduction to a series. I want more of the worldbuilding, I want to see how Usuals/The Unorthodox interact when they're not at a lousy restaurant, etc. But I'm more than content to wait for it—like I said, I didn't really realize what we didn't get until now.

I would say I'm not a huge fan of the epilogue—the events of it should prove interesting, even if I might want for a different storyline to be pursued—but I don't like the way it functioned in the novel. Personally, I'd have been happier if it had been a prologue to book 2 or 3, and let the book end without it. I don't think it was needed, and I think the book ending with Chapter 47 would give a stronger impression.

Aside from that, I really have no complaints about the book—I was solidly entertained and invested from Chapter 1 onward. I don't know that I can say that I was blown away by anything—but there are some things I'm not talking about here because of space/don't want to give something away, that I will be talking about for months (and have already started doing so). I'm not going to be announcing to the world that the next Jim Butcher/Seanan McGuire is here. But I will say that this new writer is really good and absolutely worth reading. You're going to be entertained. Seriously, pick this up just for the kid's birthday party scenes, and then stick around for the excitement.

In the last twelve months, we had to say goodbye to Jane Yellowrock this year and Alex Verus the year before, I'm glad we got to say hello to The Unorthodox Chronicles now. I think this series could be as long and as satisfying as those if it's given the chance to grow naturally and doesn't get overshadowed by Butcher's DNA. show less

*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily*

Hello Fellow Reader,

I wanted to do this review without mentioning the other Butcher but unfortunately that seems impossible. I'm a Dresden Files Fan and urban fantasy are one of my comfort genres so I knew I absolutely needed to read this and wow and I so freaking happy I did. I can say that so far I currently prefer son over father.

Dead Man's Hand reminded me of a buddy cop movie. One older no nonsense veteran and the cinnamon roll rookie can accurately describe Mayflower and Grimsby. Butcher created such an interesting world and despite it being fantasy and magical Butcher does a good job at making things realistic and believable.

The story was very show more action-packed and fast-paced that I devoured the book pretty quickly because I wanted to know what would happen next. While I predicted who the bad guys were. I actually didn't mind that too much because I really enjoyed this book.

Overall, an amazing start and I can't wait to read the next one. show less

If you are looking for another series by Jim Butcher, James J. Butcher’s first book, Dead Man’s Hand, will not be it… but you won’t be disappointed. I did get some similarities between the father and son’s books, but James made this one all his own. I’m really hoping that he continues to do so and doesn’t let more of his father’s DNA slip into this series.

We still have the rough living mentor (The Huntsman), who wants to hurry this mission along so he can get back to the bottle. And there’s the newbie apprentice (Grimsby) with a traumatic past, where some of the humorous parts come in. Plus there’s a creature that reminds me of Dobby (the house elf from Harry Potter) that is much more self-assured and literal, who show more also adds to the humor… and could be seen as Bob, the skull.

But all of these points and other fantasy tropes could also point towards other authors like Kim Harrison with the use of demons, the agency that controls magic that really doesn’t like Grimsby or The Huntsman, and how the human world reacts to the supernatural world.

So looking past all of that, because everyone is going to be doing comparisons, Dead Man’s Hand is an excellent start to a new fantasy series. There is tons of action with some very amusing scenes. The characters are well developed for a first in a series, but the world building does need some more building. The bones are there and seem to be strong, but we need some more layers. As for who the bad guys are, that really wasn’t much of a shocker, but with only so many characters and how it seems to now be set up for future books, there wasn’t too much room to cast many doubts.

I’m looking forward to getting to know the characters more, especially the more side ones in this book and to seeing how in depth Butcher can make his new world, show less

Better than I expected! A touch of the grimdark, a rather juvenile sense of humor, some confusion at first over who the protagonist actually was, but the hapless hero of this book manages to NOT irritate me into uncaring, and I enjoyed the adventure.

Grimsby is the underdog every reader wants to root for - he's not particularly talented but he really, really wants to achieve his goal of becoming an Auditor. I enjoyed the world building and the way in which magic exists in this world that is like ours but is just slightly different - and more magic. There's a nice mystery to solve along the way and a grizzled and grumpy mentor and a magical trickster/side kick. Can't wait for the next book!

This was really good! It is no secret that I am a big fan of Jim Butcher’s books so I was really eager to see if I would feel the same about his son’s writing. I was quite pleased to find an incredibly entertaining novel with fantastic characters, a lot of action, some humor, and a whole bunch of magic. I am glad that I decided to give this book a try.

Grimsby is a witch but his magic wasn’t quite good enough to get a position with the Auditors so he spends his day doing tricks for kids at Might Magic Donald’s Kingdom. His job may sound bad but it is actually even worse than you can imagine. When a respected Auditor is killed holding a note that says kill Grimsby, his life is turned upside down. He ends up tagging along with show more Mayflower, also known as the Huntsman, who is trying to figure out who is responsible for his former partner’s death.

I came to love the bumbling hero, Grimsby, and his grumpy partner, Mayflower, before this book drew to a close. This book was rather exciting with enough action to keep the momentum going. There were plenty of times that I believed these two were in over their heads and always had fun watching them figure a way out of these situations. I thought that the magic in the story was very interesting and I have a feeling that we have only scratched the surface of Grimsby’s abilities. I loved that the book was packed full of twists, turns, and impossible situations.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to fans of urban fantasy. This is the first book in The Unorthodox Chronicles and I am excited to see where the series will go from here. I was quite impressed by this debut author’s style of storytelling and cannot wait to read more of his work.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing Group. show less