Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil

Rare bookseller and memoirist Darkshire (Once upon a Tome) jokes his way through the English canon in this light debut fantasy. Isabella Nagg, a character lifted from Boccaccio’s The Decameron, lives in mutual misery with her husband on an impoverished mandrake farm. She spends most of her time tending to her houseplants and cleaning up after Mr. Nagg’s mistakes, the most recent of which is stealing a volume from the village wizard’s grimoire. When Isabella attempts to return the book, she finds that the wizard has vanished, leaving her now responsible for his collection of magic spells and the “catlike horror” known as a grimalkin that comes with it. Isabella’s attempts at magic cause more problems than solutions (like giving unwanted sentience to both a donkey named Bottom and her very needy basil plant) but the grimoire comes in handy when Mr. Nagg eats goblin fruit and Isabella must rescue him. Isabella’s relationship with her horrible husband is not quite nuanced or funny enough to give this rescue mission weight, but there’s plenty of fun to be had in the whimsical worldbuilding, while excerpts from the grimoire add charm. Tonally, Darkshire is clearly aiming for Terry Pratchett. Though he doesn’t quite hit that lofty goal, fans of comedic secondary fantasy will still find plenty to enjoy. (May)