In Hicklin’s debut SF novel, a woman takes a strange job in a strange town.

When her beloved—if unconventional—Uncle Amos dies, Wilma Dunn learns that he had left her assets, property, and “confidences” in his will. All she has to do is travel to the mysterious town of Crate and speak to his lawyer, one Lattimer Fernico. With her best friend Dot Vander in tow, 22-year-old Wilma—on a break from college to decide what she wants to do with her life—heads to the surprisingly difficult-to-find hamlet of Crate, population 3,087. It seems Amos has left Wilma his seat on the Crate town council, an office she is expected to fill immediately. She’s also to take over Amos’ job as Crate’s official maintenance specialist. “He made sure the machinery of the town ran smoothly, responding to internal error calls and so forth,” Fernico explains vaguely. “I believe he had a sort of ticker in his house that alerted him to faults.” Armed with the new tools of her trade—including a medallionlike key that unlocks most doors—Wilma begins to explore Crate and its eccentricities: a library filled with board games, 3D-printed funnel cakes. Then come the stranger discoveries, like the missing store mannequins, the fact that Amos died coughing puffs of green smoke, and the mysterious underground tunnels that run beneath the entire town. Wilma is eager to complete the work that Amos began, though it seems as though others may go to lethal lengths to stop her. Hicklin’s plot is a clockwork puzzle with many spinning gears, some of them literal. When Wilma discovered that a jogger fell through a hole in the street, she “expected to see a sinkhole or a breached storm drain. Instead, she saw a deep shaft filled with protruding wheels and oscillating pistons, stretching down farther than she could see.” Told in an offbeat, slightly heightened style, this labyrinthian novel has many wonderful secrets to offer for those willing to plumb the depths of Crate.

A delightful, intricate maze of a novel.

Hicklin presents a collection of linked magical adventure stories starring a bowler-hat-wearing hero.

Israel St. James, the narrator and protagonist of these tales, was born in New York City in 1840. At the age of 18, he journeys to England to study archeology at Cambridge. A university expedition to Baghdad in 1863 ends up changing his life forever; there, he and others from the university find the Apothecary of Archimedes, a “kind of vault,” as St. James’ professor puts it, that contains invaluable items from the ancient world. After the group opens the Apothecary, it becomes apparent that it contains not just immense knowledge, but magical items, as well. One important find is the healing Rod of Asclepius, which can heal any wound—even one that might otherwise be fatal. It’s just the beginning of St. James’ ongoing journey to seek similar artifacts throughout the world. He earns his doctorate from Cambridge and becomes the institution’s “curator of the Abnormal Relics Collection.” Although he eventually leaves the university, the next several decades see him tackling adventures in which he encounters famous real-life figures, such as Nikola Tesla. At another point, St. James finds a sextant from the ill-fated ship Mary Celeste that gives its user the power to see ghosts and living people’s auras. Hicklin organizes St. James’ escapades in straightforward, chronological chapters, with occasional grayscale images from illustrator Belden featuring tableaux such as St. James dancing in the moonlight. Readers accompany him to many a legendary place; he’s never idle long, but he appealingly has time for some humor, as when, in Chicago, he releases cattle to slow a pursuer, reflecting on how cows are “immune to Authority.” Not every tale has an equal amount of zing, but each its share of intrigue as St. James attempts to slake his unending thirst for adventure.

A whimsical, spirited jaunt with an intrepid supernatural investigator.