The Devil You Know...
Sep. 23rd, 2009 03:07 pmJust 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 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