The Devil You Know

The Devil You Know (2006) Mike Carey

“I don’t know what I want to read.” Peruses bookshelves. “I remember buying The Devil You Know, why haven’t I read it yet?” Reads first paragraph. “Hmmm….” Hours later. “Wow!”

First off, I believe this was shelved in the mystery section, which is part of why I put off reading it. It wasn’t what I wanted when I was in the mood for a mystery. This isn’t to say it isn’t a mystery–it is. However, first and foremost it’s supernatural fantasy. I’m pretty sure if I’d pigeonholed this differently, I would have read it much sooner; this wasn’t what I wanted to read when I was in the mood for another Victorian or Forensic mystery. However, it hit the sweet spot for supernatural mysteries.

Also, the synopsis on the back of the book seemed unrelated to the book I actually read.

Felix Castor is an exorcist. For the time being he has walked away from his job and his calling after an exorcism more than a year ago went terribly wrong. But he’ll do anything for his friend and landlady, which is how he ends up taking a gig as a stage magician to help make ends meet.

Felix Castor’s London isn’t quite today’s London. Ghosts are real and everyone knows about them–even if not everyone truly believes in them. So Felix’s job as a freelance exorcist is unusual, but not unheard of–he’s not the only exorcist in the phone book.

Felix has all kinds of problems. He’s suffering tremendous guilt after his last exorcism, he’s struggling to make ends meet, and he’s tired of being single. Unfortunately, all these problems come together in one unholy mess to make his life miserable.

I have to admit that–especially at the beginning–Felix reminded me quite a bit of Constantine. But relatively quickly Felix picked up his own personality and quirks and thoughts of Hellblazer faded into the background. Felix has his own problems and issues, as well as his own strengths and weaknesses. So although a comparison to Constantine is inevitable (especially as Mike Carey has done some writing for Hellblazer), I don’t think I direct comparison is justified, since they are very different characters.

I particularly liked the slow discovery of who Felix is and how he does what he does. Since his world isn’t quite our world, there is a fair amount of world building that needs to be done, but that world building is tied to our discovery of Felix’s past, so it’s not noticeable as world building as I was eager to learn about Felix’s past and how he became who he was.
Rating: 7/10

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