The Devil You Know

It's not often I read urban fantasy that tackles "big" questions. Generally there's some handwavium about magic or viruses or secrets and tah dah we have werewolves on we go. But what happens when people can do "magic" in this new world, but nobody really understands how anything works? In this novel, Mike Carey presents a world where the dead have started to come back (as zombies, as ghosts, etc) and no one knows why it's happening. More importantly for exorcist Felix Castor, no one knows what, exactly, ghosts are... or what happens when you exorcise them. If ghosts are the spirits of people, that means banishment is basically murder. And where do ghosts go when they're banished, and why? Castor starts out with the typical hard-bitten show more noir detective's attitude of "who cares, I get the job done and get paid" but in the world Carey's built that's just not good enough.

There's a lot of really chewy questions raised in this first book in a series, and I've got enough faith in Mike Carey as an author to read on in the belief that they'll eventually be some satisfying answers. show less

Felix Castor is an exorcist/spiritual private eye, who works with ghosts in and around London. You either will read the book now, or run screaming the other way reading that description. Felix is an anti-hero along the lines of Mike Hammer, and Spenser, but with a twist. His clients usually want him to help with people already dead. It’s a great hook.

In The Devil You Know Felix is called to The Bonnington Archive to weed out a reclusive specter. Naturally things are not what they seem, and Felix finds himself getting trapped deeper and deeper in trouble. The delicious parts of this novel are when Felix is cornered, and has to think his way out of the box.

Couple this with the fact that his best friend is host to a demon from hell, show more and his landlady is a practicing naturalist/shaman, and you have all the ingredients for a novel you will have trouble not finishing in one, or two, sittings. It is a strong, fun, scary read. 9/10. show less

Freelance exorcist Felix Castor is hired to rid a London museum from an aggressive ghost, but when Castor starts his investigation, he finds that the ghost may have right on her side and he ends up having to find her murderers in order to placate both the ghost and his own conscience. It isn't very surprising that the author also writes John Constantine as he and Castor have quite a few things in common. That said, Castor does manage to become his own character mainly because his moral compass is quite a bit truer than Constantine's. The story started a bit slow, but once it became clear where the plot was going, it was fascinating to follow its twists and turns to the satisfying resolution. The characters are well written and enjoyable show more to spend time with as well, so I will definitely continue the series to see what happens with them all. show less

I loved the character Felix Castor. He is the perfect mix of sarcastically witty, doggedly persistent, self-deprecating, and smart. This is the first book in the series, and I also think this character has room to grow.

I love a good ghost story - and this book delivered a great ghost story. Felix is an exorcist, who plays a tune on his trusty tin whistle, a song for a ghost, one that captures and twists their existence into non-existence, like a pied piper of the spirit world. I thought this was a neat way to have Felix perform his craft, without the traditional idea of exorcism. We learn that Felix is an atheist, performing these exorcisms without the blessing of the church- therefore creating some questions about where they spirits show more go once Felix plays them into oblivion. I am sure this theme will be popping up in the following books, since it is a question that Felix has as well.

This is a world not just of ghosts, but of werecreatures and succubi. Felix is nearly done in a few times by Juliet, an enchantingly beautiful succubus, who was instructed to kill him. The end holds some surprising twists with this demon! The wereanimals in this book are created by spirits invading the bodies of animals, and forcing them into bizarre creatures of their making. Another creative twist by Carey. The world he has created is definitely new and different. And I like it.

This central plot of this book is fairly simple- Felix take a job he does not necessarily want, because he needs the money. The job: Exorcise the ghost that is haunting an archive building. This ghost speaks Russian and has even attacked one of the employees. Felix is told by an old friend with an unfortunate problem, that he will die on this case. And he very nearly does. The mystery kept me guessing until the end, the whodunit and how why.

This book is a fabulous supernatural mystery, and I think if you like that kind of thing, then this is a series for you. I am definitely going to read the second in the series very soon. show less

Solid three and a half stars. I'm rounding up in Carey's case, because I think his hero is suffering from comparison to Carey's own Constantine, and Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden. I too thought of Harry Dresden while I was reading, but I found Felix Castor to be more likeable, and the overall story more enjoyable. It is clearly a "first book in a series," meaning that there is a great deal of world building. I felt it was worthwhile, and not excessive to me, but I enjoy a well-thought out world and the investment is worth it as I plan to continue with the series.

The worldview itself isn't that unusual, but it's set up nicely, so that we are gentle immersed in it, feeling it build around us. I prefer that over the "throw you in the deep show more end and let you figure it out" mentality. London geography has me lost, but I don't mind.

Felix is a thoughtful hero, and I appreciate his ability to reflect on his values and perhaps even change. His self-reflection lacks the self-indulgent, whining, "why-me?" tone that some heroes have (I'm talking to you, Harry Dresden). Humor is present in daily interactions, but it is not so ever present that storyline and character are sacrificed for the witty response.

An interesting comparison to Dresden that no one seems to mention is that there is really very little supernatural politics to date. The plot is along the lines of a "resolve the mystery and figure out how the pieces fit together" with a fair amount of action keeping the pace going. However, Castor doesn't take beating after beating until he's so battered you wonder how he is still standing (Harry? You again), which helps sustain a more believable pace. show less

'The Devil You Know' has a lot to recommend it: great world-building, a twisty plot, a fresh take on the supernatural and a strong sense of place.

I liked Carey's take on the ways in which the dead return and the impact it had on everyday life, not least of which was to provide a living for freelance exorcists like Castor. I was impressed by his re-imaging of Loup Garou, making them scary and deeply repulsive and by the idea that Castor's exorcism depended on music rather than the Catholic bell, book and candle ritual. I particularly liked the way the supernatural world was grounded by and integrated with the very human depravities of organised crime and people trafficking and that the action all occurred in a London that I recognised, show more making it easier to believe in.

At this point, I would normally be recommending 'The Devil You Know' to anyone who would listen and wondering how long it would be before I could get to the next book in the series. Instead, I'm wondering whether pr not to bother with the next book.

What got in the way of this becoming a book that I'd recommend?

Michael Kramer

Well, firstly it was the choice of narrator. For reasons best known to themselves, the publishers picked Michael Kramer as the narrator. He's a fine narrator with more than a hundred audiobooks to his name but he was entirely the wrong choice for this book.

'The Devil You Know' is a first-person account by Felix Castor. Felix is English. He's a long-term resident of London, although we know he originally came from somewhere a couple of hundred miles north. The plot is entirely London-centric and is full of local references and observations of English culture and class. So why pick an American as the narrator? Were there no English narrators available?

When I first started listening to the book, I struggled to place Castor's origins and class. His vowels were all over the place. I realised what was bothering me when, in the first chapter, Kramer narrated the London AtoZ as the London 'Eh thru Zee'. No Englishman would ever say zee when reading a zed. The problem isn't that that Kramer's English accent is awful but rather that it's only almost right. To me, this is more distracting than having the narration in a straight American accent. It produces an Uncanny Valley kind of dissonance that becomes more disturbing the longer you're exposed to it.

I'd get used to it but I found that all the taken-for-granted information that a character's accent would normally give me about their class and level of education was blurred or conflicted this what the text told me. Then he'd completely mispronounce something (like describing a boy as sniffing glue from an A S D A bag. For a moment, I didn't know what that was, then I realised he meant an ASDA bag. ASDA is the UK's second-largest supermarket chain. No English person would treat it as an acronym) and I'd be thrown out of the story.

So, if I do continue with the series, I'll be reading the ebook version.

The second problem is Felix Castor himself. Maybe it was the distortion of the accent but I couldn't get a clear fix on what made Castor tick. I could see that I was meeting him at his nadir when he was broken and isolated and in denial about the nature of the work he did but I couldn't picture what an unbroken Castor looked like and I couldn't work up much empathy for him. He was clever, brave and persistent. He was also a pain in the arse, totally up himself and had been emotionally distant for so long that he couldn't hear the echo of his own feelings. But apart from that... Maybe a character that annoys me that much is worth learning more about? Maybe not.

I'm going to give it a while before deciding whether to read more of this series.

If you'd like to hear Michael Kramer's narration for yourself, click on the SoundCloud link below.


https://soundcloud.com/hachetteaudio/the-devil-you-know-by-mike-carey show less

A well told urban fantasy, with a mundane crime at its center.
In a world where the dead are increasingly refusing to move on, the conflicts that arise between the living and the dead are usually solved by calling in an exorcist.
The setting is a gritty London whose mundane population is greatly augmented by ghosts, zombies and demons, and showcase inventive reinterpretations of mythical creatures. In this world Loupe-garous (or werewolves) are animals possessed by human ghosts who rearrange the host body into a human shape.

Felix Castor is a retired exorcist whose landlady’s lack of funds forces him to pick up his old trade. He gets hired to exorcise a ghost who has attacked an employee at a map museum. In order to exorcist the ghost show more he has to know it. While working on that, he uncovers a number of puzzling facts, and gets entangled in power games and political in fights. As a genuine Don Quixote he feels driven to figure out how the ghost died, and resolve her responsibilities.

With a minimum of words Carey manages to present a cast of real characters whose actions defines them clearer than any amount of descriptive passages could.

The novel does not avoid or softens the harsh realities of the crimes it describes, but neither does it wallow in them. The matter of fact way the most degrading treatment is described is disconcerting. Fortunately the 'bad guys' get their just rewards.

This is clearly the start of a series - there is the opponent who got away swearing revenge, the dangerous for-now-ally who has the power, but currently not the motivation to kill Felix as well as a whole host of other supporting characters whose further development will hopefully be charted in forthcoming books. show less