Review of "Dead Men's Boots" by Mike Carey (Felix Castor series)

Well! I just finished "Dead Men's Boots" by Mike Carey, part of his Felix Castor series, and wow! This is definitely a book everyone interested in science fiction/fantasy should read. If you like Jim Butcher, you'll like him!

From the book jacket: " Castor's fellow exorcist John Gittings made several calls asking for help before his untimely demise, and if Castor had answered them, his friend might still be alive. So when a smooth -talking lawyer comes out of nowhere to claim the corpse, Castor owes it to John's unhappy ghost and even more miserable widow to help out. But life is rarely that simple for Felix Castor. A brutal murder in King's Cross bears all the hallmarks of a long-dead American serial killer, and it takes more good sense than Castor owns not to get involved. He's also fighting a losing battle for the body - if not the soul - of his demon-possessed friend, Rafi, and can't shake the feeling that his three problems might be related. With the help of the succubus Juliet and paranoid zombie data-fence Nicky Heath, Castor might have a chance of fitting the pieces together before someone drops him down an elevator shaft or rips his throat out. Or not... "

Well, there you go. Oh, you mean you wanted my thoughts on the book? Oh! Oh, okay, well then.. I quite enjoyed this book. But it's not the first book in the series, and if I hadn't been busy with school work, I would have gotten the others from the library and read those first. But despite it not being the first in the series, it was very easy to get into, and things were explained enough that I got it all fairly quickly. As for the book itself, Carey is very descriptive, and in fact, has problem the best description of a knee to a man's happy place I've ever read. "... I sidestepped it and kicked him in the crotch. He folded in on his pain, his universe shrinking to a few cubic inches of intimate agony" (73). As morbid as it may be, I couldn't help but snicker a little at that line.

The story itself has a very interesting premise - in the not-too-distant past, ghosts started rising in numbers people would never have guessed, and people with the exorcist gene, such as Castor, have their work cut out for them. As I said, Felix Castor is a very Harry Dresden-esque character, and he's someone you can connect with. And if not.. well, you want to know what trouble he gets into, and how he manages to get himself out of it, if he does. I loved the beginning hook, definitely caught my attention! "I don't do funerals all that often, and when I do, I prefer to be either falling-down drunk or dosed up on some herbal fuzz-bomb..." (1).

As for an official raiting, I would give this a FOUR out of FIVE. I liked it, I do recommend it, and I plan to find the other books in the series and give them a read as well.

Happy Reading everyone, and thank you to Marta Acosta for the book!!

Image courtesy of amazon.com