If you have read The Accidental Sorcerer (also reviewed on this site) then you will remember Gerald Dunwoody. He had always longed to be a powerful wizard, and at last he got his wish. But now that he has this awesome power at his fingertips he also has a new job—as a janitor. Actually, he is really working for the government on undercover missions, and his first one is to intercept and catch a saboteur. He has his friends as well as his enemies, of course: Princess Melissande, Reg and Monk Markham for example, but they have opened Witches Incorporated and so have enough trouble of their own to sort out...

Gerald made a good protagonist in the first book as the reader both sympathized and was rooting for him. In this book he is still ostensibly the leading character, but actually he takes a backseat much of the time in favor of Witches Incorporated. There is much in this second volume involving girls at their most girly, with lots of shouting and yelling when it all goes wrong, which gives it a certain modern chicklit appeal. One of this series’ strengths is the rather well realized world, gradually revealed to us as the story progresses in all its parallel universe glory. It is easy to get involved, and there are plenty of twists and turns to keep the interest going despite there being more talking than doing most of the time. To its detriment (and nothing to do with the story) the print is some of the smallest I have seen in a book, and oddly gray instead of black. Maybe for the third book in the series (Wizard Squared [Amazon US || UK]) the print might be larger, and Gerald and his powers will be seen to develop more. After an impressive start, it is unclear where this series is going—with two rather dissimilar books to date and a heady, sometimes confusing mixture of comedy, mystery, chicklit and even violence.