Vicious Circle

Vicious Circle (2006) Mike Carey

Felix Castor can’t stay out of trouble. He’s taking some consulting work for the police, to bring in some money, but when parents as him to find their daughter–who is a ghost–Felix gets in bigger trouble than even he expected.

There’s just something about the writing in these books. Felix is snarky as all get out.

I wasn’t wasting any sympathy, because you never know when you’re going to run out.

(A) hangover of the spirit. How the hell do you cure that? A hair of the god that bit you?

(T)his thing was all dark red wood and elegant curves. No gun that dolls itself up as pretty as that ever gets asked out to an actual battle.

But it’s the other bits that I love. The random phrases and facts that are dropped in.

Laying the doll down on the steering wheel like a tiny Ixion…

Early Gothic, very early, taking its shape from Abbé Suger’s original prescription…

Non sibi sed toti, usually translated as “I hope you brought enough for everyone.”

(R)ight then I felt like one of those poor guys in Plato’s cave

I signed the day book as Frederick Cheney LaRue, a name that had stuck with me after I read that Woodward and Bernstein book about Watergate.

I mean, how can I not love a book with references like that?
Rating: 8/10

Published by Orbit

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