This is one of my favorite reads of the year. Benjamin Toh is a government official trying to make do with bureaucracy and limited budget and staffing in Singapore. Except he’s not your typical government official; he’s a middle manager of the Department for the Engagement of Unusual Stakeholders (DEUS), which deals with the supernatural entities living amongst humans. When a block of flats goes missing and then returns, Benjamin realizes that something big is happening. Really big. He and his tiny crew have to go places where they are not welcome to save the world as they know it. 

This is one of my favorite series, and I cannot stop talking about it. Peter Grant is low on the totem pole in London’s Metropolitan Police. So when he’s given the task of standing guard over a crime scene in Covent Garden, he expects it’s going to be a long night. But when he interviews a witness, everything changes. The witness was a ghost. Now he’s the first trainee at the Folly, the part of the Metropolitan Police that deals with “weird stuff,” in many years. He’s learning to hone his detective skills while also learning about magic and the other world he never knew about. There are ten books and novellas and countless short stories and graphic novels (as well as an RPG). The series is ongoing and I can’t wait for the next book to be announced.

Thanks to the Rivers of London fandom, I came across the very funny C.K. McConnell, who used to be a stand-up comic and now writes crime novels and hosts an amazing podcast. Based in Manchester, the Stranger Times is a tabloid magazine that purports to give you the most important news about dog eating homework and articles about recognizing if your toddler is possessed.

It’s led by the very unpleasant Vincent Bancroft, who seems bound and determined to annoy everyone who comes into his orbit. So it really speaks to Hannah Willis’ need for a job that she’s willing to take a job at the paper. But when it’s clear that there are actual things that go bump in the night and bump people off for supernatural purposes, Bancroft, Hannah, and a motley crew have to get to the bottom of some very nasty plots. It’s an ongoing series with five books, a book of short stories, and a wonderful podcast. He’s also the mastermind of the “Increasingly Inaccurately Titled Dublin Trilogy.”

We may fantasize about getting magical powers, but the reality would be a lot more challenging. That is what Nisha is dealing with. Her life was stressful enough working at a Chicago-based reproductive health clinic and the constant threats against it, but now she has somehow gained potent powers that have awakened some unwanted attention from magical entities. Now she’s got to figure out her new powers, figure out an even more complicated world, protect herself, patients, and community. All in a day’s work.

Despite her dreams of working in the book world, Alicia is working in a retail job and living at home with her mom. This was not what she expected. But then again, she also did not expect to be visited by the river deity, River Mumma, who gives her 24 hours to find a golden comb. Alicia realizes that the Jamaican stories from her Grandmother were not just child’s tales, there’s a whole world of deities and spirits. Teaming up with her coworkers, Alicia tries to fulfill the request before calamity ensues.

For most people, myths and folklore are just stories. But Holland St. James always believed that all those stories were real. So when she finds a man known as the Watch Man, who is known to give you the time of your own death, her beliefs are confirmed. But in the worst way. If she cannot find something called the Alchemical Heart, she will die at midnight the following day. Now she’s thrown into the Los Angeles magical world with few allies and even fewer prospects. Can she find the Alchemical Heart in time?