For the calligraphers, maybe? [Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne]

New York Times bestselling author Kevin Hearne returns to the world of his beloved Iron Druid Chronicles in a spin-off series about an eccentric master of rare magic solving an uncanny mystery in Scotland.

“Ink & Sigil is escape reading, and I loved every word.”—Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author of A Longer Fall

Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails—and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae.

But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse.

But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective—while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice’s death will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld, and he’ll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he’s to survive.

Spinning off of his existing Iron Druid Chronicles series, Kevin Hearne's Ink & Sigil is a fastidious fantasy on the mechanics of the semiotics of a world adjacent to magic and myth. Aloysius, or Al, as he invites his friends to call him, our protagonist, is a 60-something year old ink maker and stationery accessory purveyor and one of only five so-called sigil agents, guarding the Earth realm against undue magical interference. Uncovering the secret life of his newly-dead apprentice, Al seeks to right wrongs and fulfill his obligations to the fullest. 

A cast of fun and diverse characters, taking place mostly in Scotland but also spanning the globe, Ink & Sigil is a fun romp through Celtic mythology and, loosely, other mythological canons. While the dialogue between characters was generally fantastic, I found the pacing of the story a bit off. The tension and suspense were minimal as culprits were deduced easily and quickly. The nature of the protagonist's predicament is such that he had no real enemy to fight. His job is really just cleaning up magical messes and working to be vigilant so as to prevent others. As the first entry in a new series the book successfully builds an attractive world ripe for expansion. Still, as a stand-alone read there was just a bit too much plot convenience for my liking. 4 stars from me.

Ink & Sigil was published August 2020.