The Devil You Know...

[fajrdrako]

Just finished reading The Devil You Know by Mike Carey.

Loved it. Particularly liked the narrator/hero, Felix Castor, who calls himself Fix. It's the first of a series, so I can happily look forward to the rest. The Castor books, titles copied from Mike Carey's website, are:

1. The Devil You Know (Felix Castor #1) [UK: Orbit, US: Grand Central]
   
2. Vicious Circle (Felix Castor #2) [UK: Orbit, US: Grand Central]
   
3. Dead Men’s Boots (Felix Castor #3) [UK: Orbit, US: Grand Central]
   
4. Thicker Than Water (Felix Castor #4) [UK: Orbit]
   
5. The Naming of the Beasts (Felix Castor #5) [UK: Orbit]
   
6. Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy (short story “Face”)

Mike Carey said that he tried to make Felix Castor a copy of John Constantine, and I'd say he only partially succeeded: Felix Castor has most of the attributes I love about Constantine, and has avoided the things I don't like about Constantine. I would like to see a Felix Castor movie - with a lead actor who looks more like Sting than Keanu Reeves.¹

The Devil You Know is a harrowing whodunnit in which the victim is the central focus, as Castor was hired to exorcise a ghost, but becomes enough intrigued (and horrified) by her story that he helps her instead. Other characters include a lethal succubus, a paranoid geek zombie, a frightened archivist, a human trafficker more terrible than the demons, and an innocent serial monogamist on her third (fourth?) wedding. Not to mention Castor's flute... His series of flutes. It fits nicely with watching Supernatural - though Castor is an exorcist, not a Hunter, and he hunts ghosts, not demons, but manages to meet his fair share of them anyway.

Like all the best whodunnits, it's great at depicting various and striking characters: the good, the bad, and the bizarre.

What I liked best was the language; the use of words; the (magical?) connection between words and ideas. A few examples of passages I liked would include the first paragraph:

Normally I wear a Tsarist army greatcoat - the kind that sometimes gets called a paletot - with pockets sewn in for my tin whistle, my notebook, a dagger and a chalice. Today I'd gone for a green tuxedo with a fake wilting flower in the buttonhole, pink patent-leather shoes and a painted-on moustache in the style of Groucho Marx. From Bunhill Fields in the east I rode out across London - the place of my strength. I have to admit, though, that 'strong' wasn't exactly how I was feeling: when you look like a pistachio-ice-cream sundae, it's no easy thing to hang tough.

Or:

Someone once bullshitted me that there's a Welsh martial art call Llap-Goch, where the key to victory is to take out your opponent before he even knows you exist. I can get my head around that.

And if you want a laugh, look up Llap-Goch with Google. I did.²

Or:

The town-hall building looks like a set from an old Doctor Who episode, and to some extent that gives a fair impression of the experience you're likely to have when you go in there: meeting strange not-quite-human creatures, burning your way through vast swathes of time, that sort of thing.

And I love a book that wantonly, willfully, and even gleefully uses words I am unfamiliar with.

~ ~ ~

¹ Explanation: Alan Moore created John Constantine because he wanted to make a character who looked like Sting - and produced a character who was an occult magician. In the comics, Constantine evolved to look less like Sting as time went on, but at no point did he ever look like Keanu Reeves, who took the role in the movie Constantine. I have nothing against Keanu Reeves, far from it - I think he is an underappreciated actor and a gorgeous man. I liked the Constantine movie for what it was, but it definitely was not a movie about John Constantine.

² See The Secrets of Llap-Goch or Llap Goch. I find myself wondering what "llap" means in Welsh, if anything.