A few years ago, Tessa's dad walked out of the house following a terrible fight with her and he never came back. The townspeople suspected Tessa and her mom had something to do with it and financial ruin caused them to move into an old house owned by Aunt April - a house that creaks oddly, has pots, pans and keys that randomly fly off their racks, and is just overall weird. Tessa gets roped into running a Meals by Wheels route by her aunt to offset rent and it is on this route that she meets cranky old Professor Brandard, a scholar well known to Tessa's mom through the university where she teaches, and a man who also had some dealings with her dad.
One evening, Tessa gets a frantic call from Professor Brandard about a fire and she runs on foot to his house to find it engulfed in flames. Despite a desperate attempt to locate him, she fails, only to discover a very naked, handsome and confused young man about her age hiding in the back yard. To make matters worse, the hotshot young cop Tessa has a crush on and the one who investigated her dad's disappearance, Carter Phillips, arrives on the scene to investigate. Joining him, but definitely not with him, is an odd British man in a bowler hat named Simon Steptoe, who appears to be conducting a rather peculiar investigation of his own, along with a few minions.
Before long, Tessa comes to realize that this young man, whom she calls Brian and dubs as the Professor's nephew, is actually the Professor himself, or a version of him anyway, and the man was actually a Phoenix Wizard. It'll be up to Tessa and Brandard's old and dear friend Mortimer Broadstone, an Iron Dwarf, to help the fledgling version of the Professor become that which he needs to in order to survive, especially since this new version can't make it without a number of relics, some serious wizarding skills, and a lot of help from his friends.
If only it were that easy. Turns out not only will Brandard and company encounter his old flame, a beautiful and dangerous woman named Remy who is a member of the Society, a group determined to meddle in the Professor's affairs, but there's also a dangerous and malevolent force headed to town named Malender and he is bent on the destruction of everything the Professor holds dear, and more. And those aren't the only kinks in the works.
If Brandard/Brian is to affect the full transformation into the Phoenix Wizard before he fades away, he's going to need a lot of help, even from some unlikely places, but the group will also get plenty of hindrance, and from where Tessa least expects it.
The Late Great Wizard is a fun adventure and a nice opener to an interesting world. Don't expect everything to wrap up in a tidy package by the end, because it definitely won't, but this is the first book in a series and is clearly more about setting up the characters and the universe than anything else. If you enjoy a little magic in your reads, The Late Great Wizard is a fun ride.
