Publisher: Hachette Australia (Trade Paperback – 25 August 2026)
Series: Standalone/Book One
Length: 360 pages
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Australian author Jacob K. Gallagher drops one of the more distinctive fantasy debuts of 2026 with The Doubles, a captivating and inventive urban fantasy novel that makes amazing use of its rural Australian setting.
Plot Synopsis:
‘I remembered a dream I had been having: a mountain, covered in trees, swelling up out of a plain like a tidal wave. But peering out from the underbrush was a row of eyeless faces looking past me out into the endless expanse I knew was at my back.’
On the Liverpool Plains, near the town of Werris Creek, the Veil that separates the mortal realm from the Outside is wearing thin. Children have been disappearing and turning up dead. Someone – or something – is responsible; taking them from their beds in the middle of the night and sending a message no one can understand.
That’s all Kring knows when she gets the case. That’s all she needs to know.
Kring is no stranger to magic and monsters – her job as an Envoy for the Higher Powers is to banish Trespassers from our world. But this mission will push her capabilities to the limit, and bring back memories of a past she’d rather leave forgotten. Together with Dries, a local officer of magical law enforcement, she finds herself in a race against time to stop a demon from killing again. And once the demon finds what it’s looking for, things will get a whole lot worse …
The Doubles was an exciting and impressive first novel from Jacob K. Gallagher, a fellow Canberran who has jumped onto the fantasy scene in a big way with a complex Australian fantasy story. Featuring a great urban fantasy narrative loaded with cool details and a distinctive local Australian setting, The Doubles was an excellent read that hooked me extremely quickly.
I had an amazing time with the cool story that Gallagher came up with for The Doubles, that brought together classic urban fantasy elements with the always awesome Australian outback setting. Following protagonist Kring, an Australian human magic user who works as a monster hunter (known as an Envoy), for the Higher Powers (angels). After a series of mysterious disappearances of several children, Kring is sent to the small town of Werris Creek in rural New South Wales Australia to investigate the potential appearance of a Trespasser, an invading being from another reality. Gallagher does an excellent job setting up a lot of these early story elements for The Doubles, including a concise introduction to the magic system and the overarching supernatural governance of this world.
This early worldbuilding is soon backed up by a compelling mystery, as you become invested in discovering what is targeting indigenous children in the area around Werris Creek and replacing them with magical duplicates. Teaming up with local magical law enforcement agent Dries, Kring is forced into a complex investigation, as they look at impacted locals, legends and the sinister nearby mountain that appears to be at the centre of the mystery. Gallagher provides some excellent and compelling story elements as The Doubles continues, with Kring and Dries forced to compete with multiple magical attacks as they attempt to uncover the being responsible and destroy them. The author also throws in some interesting personal struggles, as Kring is forced to deal with social interactions after years of fighting monsters, while Dries attempts to get a more human reaction out of Kring. Everything leads up to a massive final confrontation that nicely wraps up this specific story, while also hinting at larger issues to come if Gallagher chooses to continue this series. An overall excellent Australian fantasy story that is guaranteed to hook you with its tense magical action and overarching mystery.
I had an excellent time reading The Doubles, which I felt was both a great Australian debut, and one of the more distinctive fantasy novels of 2026. The quick paced story loaded with magical mayhem was very addictive right off the bat, and Gallagher produced a great urban fantasy narrative, with humans in the modern world dealing with hidden magic and monsters. The story contained an impressive blend of world-building, character development and a complex magical mystery, which Gallagher did an excellent job of blending together into a tight, cohesive narrative. The central mystery was of particular note, and I quite enjoyed seeing the powerful dive into the local culture to uncover clues. The well-written character development was also quite impressive, and the main duo of the powerful yet impersonal Kring and the more human Dries played off each other extremely well, and it was great to see their clashing views of magic and the risks of the investigation.
While I enjoyed the mystery and character elements of The Doubles, I felt that the highlight was the compelling fantasy elements and the overarching setting of the story. Gallagher made use of a fun blend of more traditional western fantasy inclusions, such as angels, monsters from another realm, and a system of world-spanning magic rules, which helped to create a fascinating urban fantasy framework for the plot. These elements are very well introduced, and the reader soon gets their head around many of this universe’s particular rules. I quite enjoyed the interchange between the angelic Higher Powers who create the rules of magic and the human operated Null Legion that enforce it, especially as it caused some friction for the protagonist, who serves as the angel’s human agent. Gallagher also created some compelling additional mystery by hinting at secrets and a potential conspiracy behind the Higher Powers, and there were some interesting unanswered questions at the end of this book that will likely bring me back for a sequel.
One thing that made all these fantastic supernatural elements even cooler to me was the way in which Gallagher expertly brought it into an Australian setting by having the protagonists hunt for monsters out in some iconic rural bush territory. As an avid fantasy reader who reads a lot of Australian fiction, I can tell you that there aren’t enough mainstream fantasy novels out there that feature Australia as a key setting. Gallagher more than made up for the lack of competition, cleverly portraying some real-life Australian locations and setting them up as the scene of a magical investigation. A lot of cool elements from this setting, including its local mythology, the Aboriginal history, the isolated nature of the towns and all its local flavour are worked into the plot in some fun ways. The resulting contrast from the more traditional fantasy inclusions and the local Australian elements was very intriguing and helped The Doubles to stand out as a very special read.
Overall, I had an outstanding time reading The Doubles, which was ended up being an amazing urban fantasy debut. Jacob Gallagher really wrote something impressive with his first book, and I loved the great magical mystery out in the Australian wilderness. I really hope that Gallagher choses to write a sequel to The Doubles at some point, as this really was one of the better Australian-set fantasy novels I have had the pleasure of reading.
