Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A violent ghost in a world where spirits are rarely mean-spirited is a clue to a deeper mystery in this engrossing dark fantasy debut from comics-writer Carey. Felix "Fix" Castor is an itinerant exorcist who (like a certain famous group of Hollywood ghost-evicters) alternates between dispatching spooks and doing stage magic at ungrateful children's birthday parties. When he's summoned to end a haunting at London's prestigious Bonnington Archive, he finds a vengeful specter with a blood-veiled face that resists methods for extirpating the usually docile dead. When Castor begins probing more deeply, he quickly finds himself harassed by a ravenous succubus, a belligerent fellow exorcist and a slimy Eastern European pimp. The resolution of this ingeniously multilayered tale will satisfy fans of both fantasy and detective fiction. Fix Castor's wisecracking cleverness in the face of weird nemeses makes him the perfect hardboiled hero for a new supernatural noir series. 10-city author tour. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Freelance necromancer Felix (known as Fix) Castor sees dead people. In an alternate London dead people-zombies, ghouls, loup-garous and vampires-abound. Fix can bind them using his tin whistle. But when he binds a demon to his best friend, Fix's life is never the same. Now broke, he has to take on a new job, exorcising a ghost from an archive. The longer he works on the exorcism, the more he realizes he has to solve the murder that created this ghost. VERDICT Bleak, saturnine, and wry with shades of horror and dark urban fantasy thrown in, this series debut is a very noir mystery. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Comic-book writer Carey (installments of Hellblazer, X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four are among his credits) pens his first novel (released in the U.K. in 2006), a funny, frightening, thoroughly absorbing thriller set in an alternative London where ghosts and other supernatural things go bump in the night--and day. Felix Castor, reluctant magician and exorcist, lives with his long-time friend, Pen, in her ancestral family home. Castor is burdened by the unwitting exorcism-gone-wrong that placed a close friend in a mental institution. Flushed with guilt over his failure, Castor no longer has his heart in the exorcism business. But when Pen confides she needs money soon or will lose her home, Castor reluctantly takes a commission to rid an enormous government archive of an odd ghost--a woman whose face is partially obscured by a red mist. Castor receives a warning against taking the case, but what does an exorcist really fear? Certainly not the ghost haunting the archive, nor the sleazy owner of a house of prostitution who tries to make Castor an offer he can't refuse, and keeps as his henchman an enormous and vicious lope-garou (werewolf) that would like nothing better than to take a bite out of Castor. Carey's writing is nimble and witty, his dialogue believable. The exorcist's sardonic observations and personal sense of tragedy make him an unlikely, likable hero. There is tons of action and an interesting assortment of characters and creatures that will make readers want to sleep with one eye open. American readers may feel somewhat hindered by the British expressions and references to London geography, including underground stations and streets, but those who buy into the premise of the British capital being overrun by ghosts and demons will find this to be one wild ride. Carey transcends his comic roots in this quirky, dark and imaginative tale that compels readers to keep turning pages long after they should have gotten to sleep. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
