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The Cunning Man #3
The Familiar Spirit
A new novel in the Cunning Man series from Dragon Award-nominated author D.J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey.
Cunning man Hiram Woolley and his son Michael carry an itinerant preacher across the border into Mexico. Hiram is haunted by the specter of a bloody-faced man that stalks him in his dreams, but also by doubts about what lies ahead in the Mormon colonies around Nuevo Casas Grandes—this is the country Hiram’s father fled to when he abandoned young Hiram and his mother.
In the colonies, Hiram and Michael are dragged into investigating an impossible murder. They track the killer across a land haunted by robbers, by its history of oppression and revolution, by ancient conflict and modern racial strife, and by the insanity that flows from loneliness and exile. They battle bandits and also an elusive ghostmaster who blights the land with the spirits of the uneasy dead.
But before the killer can be brought to justice, Hiram will learn that the most haunting thing of all is family.
Cunning man Hiram Woolley and his son Michael carry an itinerant preacher across the border into Mexico. Hiram is haunted by the specter of a bloody-faced man that stalks him in his dreams, but also by doubts about what lies ahead in the Mormon colonies around Nuevo Casas Grandes—this is the country Hiram’s father fled to when he abandoned young Hiram and his mother.
In the colonies, Hiram and Michael are dragged into investigating an impossible murder. They track the killer across a land haunted by robbers, by its history of oppression and revolution, by ancient conflict and modern racial strife, and by the insanity that flows from loneliness and exile. They battle bandits and also an elusive ghostmaster who blights the land with the spirits of the uneasy dead.
But before the killer can be brought to justice, Hiram will learn that the most haunting thing of all is family.
- GenresFantasy
361 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2025
About the author
D.J. Butler
90 books290 followersD.J. Butler (Dave) is a novelist living in the Rocky Mountain west. His training is in law, and he worked as a securities lawyer at a major international firm and inhouse at two multinational semiconductor manufacturers before taking up writing fiction. He is a lover of language and languages, a guitarist and self-recorder, and a serious reader. He is married to a powerful and clever novelist and together they have three devious children.
Dave is published by Baen, Knopf, and WordFire Press. He writes adventure fiction for all ages. He writes for young readers under the name Dave Butler: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Read about D.J. Butler’s writing projects at http://davidjohnbutler.com.
Dave is published by Baen, Knopf, and WordFire Press. He writes adventure fiction for all ages. He writes for young readers under the name Dave Butler: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Read about D.J. Butler’s writing projects at http://davidjohnbutler.com.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 31, 2025
This is the third novel in the Cunning Man series from Butler and Ritchey. In it we have our usual spread of folk magic, mystery, ghosts and demons, and some good ol father son banter. In this novel Hiram and his son Michael travel down to Mexico and get involved in a murder mystery that may involve some dark family secrets that Hiram has been running from for a long time.
Overall this is a solid Cunning Man book, and if this is the last we see of these characters, I'll be well satisfied. I love these books, but boy are they weird. The combination of Hiram Wooly, a Mormon beet farmer, fighting off Mexican ghosts using Catholic prayers and Irish folk charms surely is self-evidently absurd. Yet it works. Michael becomes much more of a primary character in this book and becomes almost a second protagonist alongside his father. This is also the scaries of the three books by a good margin.
I would love to see more of these, but if this being the end means Ritchey writes his Christian Orcs fantasy novel and Butler keeps writing Witchy Eye books, well then I guess that's alright.
Do yourself a favor, try out book one. It's weird but you won't regret it.
Overall this is a solid Cunning Man book, and if this is the last we see of these characters, I'll be well satisfied. I love these books, but boy are they weird. The combination of Hiram Wooly, a Mormon beet farmer, fighting off Mexican ghosts using Catholic prayers and Irish folk charms surely is self-evidently absurd. Yet it works. Michael becomes much more of a primary character in this book and becomes almost a second protagonist alongside his father. This is also the scaries of the three books by a good margin.
I would love to see more of these, but if this being the end means Ritchey writes his Christian Orcs fantasy novel and Butler keeps writing Witchy Eye books, well then I guess that's alright.
Do yourself a favor, try out book one. It's weird but you won't regret it.
October 17, 2025
It’s been too long since I’ve read of Hiram Woolley and his son Michael. From Lehi to El Paso to Colonia Juarez this story is full of ghosts. It’s delightfully creepy, full of authentic magic, Mormons, a historical period and place that you don’t really ever see in fiction. To chock it all up, our heroes are normal folk concerned with helping others, being kind, and being right before God. They fast and push away lust to work helpful deeds. It’s refreshing to read about in this day and age.
Hopefully there are more stories after this, even if they are of a different flavor.
Hopefully there are more stories after this, even if they are of a different flavor.
November 30, 2025
Hiram Woolley, the cunning man, and his son Michael are lured to Mormon settlements in Mexico during the depression. The Familiar Spirit has them facing a man who can control ghosts and who is cursing the area. D.J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey prove that a locked room mystery is easy to solve when ghosts are involved. Very exciting and a nice addition to the fun series.
October 29, 2026
While I felt this was the weakest of the trilogy, I still enjoyed it. I liked the setting, the characters, and the ending, while bittersweet, felt like a nice way to end the series (if this is indeed the last book).
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews