James J. ButcherIn modern-day Boston, the witch Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby and his friends deal with paranormal problems in this action-packed urban fantasy series.
Available on (10-20-26)
Grim Folk Tale
Book 4
Hardcover$30
The Unorthodox Chronicles Series : Titles in Order
Grimsby, a junior Auditor in the government-sanctioned, magical Department of Unorthodox Affairs, must do all he can to fight for the innocent in this riveting urban fantasy.
When a magical illness begins to afflict children in Boston, the Department of Unorthodox Affairs tasks junior Auditor Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby with uncovering the source and—together with his partner, the grizzled veteran Huntsman Mayflower—putting a stop to it by any means necessary.
But their efforts to determine the origin of the spreading malady are soon complicated by the emergence of ancient and strange beings that Grimsby and Mayflower have never encountered before. To uncover the truth, they will have to turn to old acquaintances and allies and delve deep below Boston, into the city of monsters that lies beneath, and travel to the unfathomable reality of the Elsewhere.
Burdened by his own troubles, both past and present, it will take all Grimsby’s skill, iron, and no shortage of magic to stop this apparent plague and save those who have been afflicted.
Grimsby, a junior Auditor in the magical Department of Unorthodox Affairs, finds himself on the other side of the law in this spellbinding urban fantasy.
Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby may have one case under his belt, but he’s still a novice Auditor in Boston’s Department of Unorthodox Affairs. And he’s already made mistakes.
Desperate to repair his fraying friendships, he doesn’t ask too many questions when a mysterious patron offers him the chance to join a heist of an otherworldly vault—and in the process find answers that could make things right.
Complications arise when Grimsby learns that his partner, Mayflower, is keeping secrets about his past. Between facing new demons, old horrors, and monsters—both Usual and Unorthodox—Grimsby soon realizes nothing is how it appears and that not asking enough questions just might be his downfall.
Grimsby, the newest Auditor in the magical Department of Unorthodox Affairs, finds himself in hot water when he intercepts a friend’s case in this fast-paced and thrilling urban fantasy.
Against all odds, Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby has become an Auditor, enforcing laws about magic for Boston’s Department of Unorthodox Affairs. But Grimsby soon realizes the daily grind of his job is far removed from the glamour he imagined. Overlooked for every exciting case, Grimsby tires of being told to handle mundane magical troubles, and appropriates a case file intended for a friend.
Alongside Leslie Mayflower, the temporarily unretired Huntsman, Grimsby aims to crack the case and discover the origin of a strange, unfinished ritual—one that seems to imitate the handiwork of a foe Mayflower put down twenty years ago.
Together, they’ll have to deal with escaped werewolves, a cursed artifact, and a perilous journey to the mysterious subterranean city below Boston, all to uncover the shocking truth. At any cost, Grimsby must stop this ritual from finally being completed. Yet the cost may be paid not by himself but by his friends. . . .
In the tradition of his renowned father, James J. Butcher’s debut novel is a brilliant urban fantasy about a young man who must throw out the magical rule book to solve the murder of his former mentor.
On the streets of Boston, the world is divided into the ordinary Usuals, and the paranormal Unorthodox. And in the Department of Unorthodox Affairs, the Auditors are the magical elite, government-sanctioned witches with spells at their command and all the power and prestige that comes with it. Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby is…not one of those witches.
After flunking out of the Auditor training program and being dismissed as “not Department material,” Grimsby tried to resign himself to life as a mediocre witch. But he can’t help hoping he’ll somehow, someway, get another chance to prove his skill. That opportunity comes with a price when his former mentor, aka the most dangerous witch alive, is murdered down the street from where he works, and Grimsby is the Auditors’ number one suspect.
Proving his innocence will require more than a little legwork, and after forming a strange alliance with the retired legend known as the Huntsman and a mysterious being from Elsewhere, Grimsby is abruptly thrown into a life of adventure, whether he wants it or not. Now all he has to do is find the real killer, avoid the Auditors on his trail, and most importantly, stay alive.