Rochelle’s #CBR5 Review #15: The Devil You Know by Mike Carey

I’ve had Mike Carey’s The Devil You Know on my TBR list for a couple of years.  After I read Teresaelectro’s review of Thicker Than Water, I couldn’t resist.   I got it at Audible, narrated by Michael Kramer.  It was great.

It’s a great first book in a series that looks like it gets more interesting.   One of the reasons I had resisted The Devil You Know was all the comparisons to the Dresden Files.  They are both in the same genre.  Harry and Felix  ‘Fix’ Castor are both hard on their friends with and have similar “investigative” styles.   But apart from some surface similarities Mike Carey and Jim Butcher are very different writers and the worlds they create are very much their own.

One of the things I found surprising was the degree to which Carey married real events with his fantasy London.  Bringing in real world events gives depth and gravity to the story.  I wasn’t surprised when I found out that Carey also wrote comics.  His writing style creates strong visual images.

The Devil You Know is a great start to a series.  If Carey had never written another Felix Castor novel, I would have been happy with the book I got.  But there is a lot of room in this universe for the story to grow.  From the review of Thicker Than Water, I can tell a lot changes.  I’m looking forward to diving in to this series.

 

Teresaelectro’s #CBR5 Review #3: Thicker Than Water by Mike Carey

Thicker than Water is the fourth tale of Felix Castor’s trials and tribulations in modern day London. Fix as his friends call him is a freelance exorcist with a problem with authority and penchant for chaos. Demons, ghosts, zombies and werewolves are very real and aren’t hiding in the shadows these days. Nevertheless, Fix can barely make enough money to pay his eccentric landlady and confidant Pen.

This time, the case is personal – a bully from his past named Kenny Seddon has written “F..Castor” on a bloody car window where said bully had a party with a couple of straight razors. Fix is already on the Met’s radar for past indescretions and is promptly dragged into the case. One cop in particular really hates Castor, which thrusts him upon an unwanted walk down memory lane to clear his name. And if that wasn’t enough, his estranged brother who is Catholic Priest striving for sainthood is somehow mixed up with the case and refuses to show his cards.

Read the rest of the review on my blog.