Thicker than Water by Mike Carey

When an attempted murder victim writes Castor's name on the inside of his windshield in blood, and it turns out that Felix and he were childhood acquaintances, the police are understandably suspicious. And Felix, in his usual bull in a china shop way, goes blundering in to try to find out why the message was left for him.

A very dark tale of old sins and new, as Felix discovers a growing demonic presence, and tries to exorcise it, while hunting down shades from his own past.

Dead Men's Boots by Mike Carey

I was really surprised to see another Felix Castor novel out so quickly from Mike Carey, and when I was searching Amazon for the title, I saw a fourth installment in the offing. Good news. Dead Men's boots takes place a few months after Vicious Circle. After the events of that book, nefarious forces are trying to get Fix's friend, Rafi, and his demonic rider moved out of the sanitarium into a supernatural research facility, where they can do nasty things to him/them. So, there's a subplot throughout the book of Fix and Pen showing up in court trying to get that action blocked. Pen's not exactly speaking with Fix at this point, but she does have to put up with him to help keep Rafi out of Professor Jenna-Jane Mulbridges icy clutches.

The action actually begins at the funeral of a fellow exorcist, John Gittings, who has just nibbled on the business end of a shotgun. Gitttings' widow, Carla, asks Fix to come home with her after the funeral for emotional support, but it turns out that she has an ulterior motive...John has gone "geist" and is tearing up their apartment. Fix plays a special little lullaby on his tin whistle to give both the ghost and Carla some rest, and then, of course, gets roped into taking over some of John's unfinished business. John had gone schizophrenic near the end, and his notes on the exorcism he'd been working are even more cryptic than the Da Vinci Code.

Shortly after that, Fix is contacted by the wife of a man who has just been jailed for the gruesome murder of another man. No surprises, she believes he's innocent, even though he was caught with the victim's blood all over him, and left behind matching DNA evidence at the scene. Fix promises to look into things for her, and we have a third plot thread. His old buddy on the police force, Gary Coldwood, is the lead investigator on the case, so he pays him a visit. It turns out that his former exorcist's apprentice, the succubus Juliet was called in to "read" the scene, so he has a chat with her, as well. Together, they visit the killer in prison and find that he is being possessed by the ghost of a female serial killer, which technically might make him innocent, even though his hands committed the crime.

One great line from early in the book, "But then Juliet Salazar never did hold with cheap sentiment. In fact, she probably didn't have any to sell even at the market price."

As usual, Fix bulls his way through these cases, getting into and out of hot water along the way. He very nearly is killed in a falling elevator, gets run off the road by Satanists, has a knifepoint deposition by an evil lawyer, gets slapped silly by a succubus, is shredded a touch by a loup-garou, but eventually survives to save the night from the evil dead. Can't wait for  the next sequel.

Vicious Circle by Mike Carey

You know, there are two types of series mystery (well, probably more than that, but I'm only going to talk about two) that I read regularly. The first is the type where the "detective" appears throughout the series, but the villain or perpetrator of the crime is apprehended or killed, and doesn't appear in subsequent novels. The detective might not even be a professional, per se, thinking of Kellerman's Alex Delaware (a shrink), or Child's Jack Reacher (a retired MP), but that's not the point. The other type of mystery is one where the villain, or a subset of a number of villians, may be apprehended or killed, but there's always another bad guy or organization left lurking in the background, waiting for another conflict with the hero, thinking of Hamilton's Anita Blake or Harris' Sookie Stackhouse.

So, while this novel by Carey is not exactly a mystery, and Felix Castor is not exactly a detective, this story falls into the latter category of series mysteries. Castor is put in the position of having to do some detective work to figure out what's really going on, and the reader is dragged along through his false starts and misadventures.

I really love a smart aleck protagonist, and Castor has a tendency to give his adverseries a certain amount of lip. Amusingly enough, it usually results in him getting his head bashed, ribs cracked, or backside bitten.

Castor is hired by a married couple to help them track down the ghost of their daughter, Abby. Her spirit has been kidnapped by a fellow exorcist named David Peace (and I groaned like anything at the end of the book when his name turned out to be part of a great shaggy dog shtick). Should be a straightforward sort of thing, but it rapidly gets sticky. A renegade order of Catholic enforcers gets involved, a major demon gets loose to wreak havoc in a London shopping mall, Castor's succubus protege pulls him in for a consultation, Fix goes head to head with the director of the sanitarium in which his demon-possessed friend, Rafi, is sequestered, and the police haul him in under suspicion of human sacrifice.

Without spoiling things, I can only say that Fix's case is brought to a successful, though unanticipated, solution, while the rest of his problems just metastasize into another form, to be dealt with in the next installment. If you liked Carey's dark urban fantasy, The Devil You Know, you'll probably love this one.

The Devil You Know by Mike Carey

This was the first novel I'd ever read by Mike Carey, and it may, indeed, be his first novel ever. Felix "Fix" Castor is a rather reluctant exorcist, having had some bad experiences in the past. He makes ends meet by doing the occasional odd job around London, and even the odd bit of magic at parties, most of which is standard sleight of hand, but every once in a while, when he's properly motivated, he adds a touch of the supernatural to his act.
Fix's last attempt at exorcism went very badly for a friend of his, Rafi. Rafi had been experimenting with summoning demons, and when he became possessed by one, Fix's effort to drive out the demon from his body ended up driving Rafi out, instead. On a visit to Rafi at the insane asylum, the demon (unimaginatively named "Asmodeus") tells Fix that he's about to accept a job that's going to kill him.
Fix is contacted after that by the director of the Bonnington Archive, who wants him to get rid of a ghost that's been haunting the archive for several months. Ghosts generally don't behave too badly, but this one seems to be seriously upset about something, and has actually injured one of the workers there. Fix tries his best to avoid taking the job, but some unfortunate events (not quite a series of them) and a desperate need for cash force his hand.
Now, after a brief bit of investigation, Fix could have just banished the ghost to wherever it was supposed to go when it died, but he begins to suspect there's more involved in this haunting than meets the eye, so he drags things out a bit and continues to investigate what's been happening at the archive to try to figure out why the ghost is haunting that location in the first place.
In so doing, he runs afoul of the seamier, seedier side of London. He's dragged to a meeting with the proprietor of a whorehouse, ostensibly to sweep it for ghosts, but actually more so the owner can take his measure. Fix suspects the man is somehow involved in what's going on at the archive, but can't quite make the connection.
Things get dicey for a bit, but it all falls out well in the end, at least for Fix and most of his friends. Interesting almost anti-hero, twisty plot, and a good bit of dark urban fantasy here, folks. Worth the read, and worth keeping an eye on Mr. Carey and his pal, Fix.

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