Book review: 24-Hour Warlock (The Chronos Chronicles Book 3) by Shami Stovall
We're off to kill the wizard
Time-Marked Warlock, the first novel starring Adair Finch, was an entertaining murder mystery starring “Adair Finch, Warlock for Hire.” (Yes, he refers to himself like that, complete with the capital letters. I think Jim Butcher would be amused.)
The follow-up, Chronos Warlock, was a complex, almost convoluted sequel.
Book three, 24-Hour Warlock, is almost simple by comparison.
Adair Finch is about to have the longest day of his life... again.
The Story
Adair Finch lost his brother over a decade ago to a coven of witches. Adair’s sister-in-law, Jessica, has tracked him down. Good news: she found a way to track down the witches.
Bad news: the source of her information is the Aztec wizard Maldonado, who is almost as insane as he is evil.
Worse news: Jessica agreed to assassinate some magic CIA officers for him, and reneged on the deal, so she’s being hunted down by Maldonado, all the legions of monsters at his command, AND the Magical CIA.
Adair’s day will be filled with supernatural intelligence officers, vampire lawyers (blood-sucking lawyers, how redundant), meth heads, shadow monsters, magical drug dealers, a witch with a bad attitude, Nephilim, and an overcaffeinated 12-year-old.
Again, this is almost simple compared to Chronos Warlock. Adair has to defeat one lousy guy … except this one lousy guy is almost impossible to kill, with more power than Adair and his allies put together, with demons at his command.
I must admit, this one was just fun. Instead of one “save point” where Adair resets back to earlier in the day, we have several times where he has to mark the time over and over again.
Stovall’s writing is also getting better. She seems to know what an actual quip is now. She so overused the word in the previous novels, I was getting quiplash.
It’s also fun to watch how this series is developing. By book three, we realize that a series plot has been developing since before the events of book one, a developing threat that was in plain sight the whole time. It’s all so much fun, and so well-crafted.
The Characters
Finch is still as cranky as ever. He’s not quite as much of a misanthrope as in the last book, there’s some development, but life has done a number on him and he’s working through some trauma. One of the biggest character developments for Adair is that he’s finally trusting other people to get the job done.
His sidekicks have been interesting. Enzo the werewolf is still fun, though there are moments he gives off a slightly Bruce Banner feel (Bill Bixby, not Ruffalo). Liam Blackstone and his daughter Bree add more to those one than their last outing; Bree herself is less of an insufferable 12-year-old than last time, but she still needs a net thrown over her.
The World
We add a little more in the way of world building outside of Finch’s little corner of the world. There is SHADOW: the Supernatural Hazard Analysis and Defense Operations Wing (clearly, someone really wanted the initials to spell SHADOW). They have some interesting and colorful agents, and that’s just from the sample size of one we see in this novel.
24-Hour Warlock also sets up more of the world-building in terms of long-term threats. There’s a rising threat that was hidden in book one, explained at the end of the novel, while at the same time also foreshadowing book four.
We also get more into the mechanics of magic—making deals with things, the side effects and consequences of said deals, etc. We’ve got dwarves, demons, witches, and how magic is developed in this world. We haven’t quite gotten to “magic is highly advanced biology” but we may get there.
Politics
LA is run by idiots, film at 11, mostly around McKinley park, another “quick construction project” that will never be finished.
Or to quote the werewolf Enzo: “California only works at one speed, and that speed is f***you.”
Also political (if you’re into that sort of thing): Aztec mythology. And we don’t even get into how many human sacrifices they performed a day.
There is a hint of politics here, but I could just be oversensitive. There is mention of “new gods” being born, one of which is “pollution.” My reaction is probably silly; there is exactly one paragraph on it, and the rest of the book has nothing to do with it. But it was a discordant note in an otherwise well-orchestrated novel, so it made me wince. It felt felt very … Neil Gaiman. I promise that is the most insulting thing I will say about her writing.
Content Warning
There are discussions of a sexual nature, like a coven with “group Thursdays”—but it is largely used for comedic effect. There is some cussing, but nothing I didn’t hear in my Catholic schoolyard.
Who is it for?
If you like Harry Dresden or Daniel Humphreys, with the mystery building level of Rex Stout, you’re going to enjoy 24-Hour Warlock.
Why buy it?
24-Hour Warlock is a tightly-written, fun little puzzle within the urban fantasy genre, keeping up the rapid pace of a Harry Dresden novel, without needing all of the explosions.