“The Ghost in Bone” by Mike Carey

I really cannot express how delighted I am that Mike Carey (of the Lucifer and Hellblazer comics, and also known as MR Carey of the Book of Koli and The Girl with All the Gifts) has returned to the Felix Castor series.

Let’s go ahead and get the Dresden comparison out of the way. Castor is an exorcist, and serves as a sort of supernatural PI for the people of London while also consulting for Scotland Yard. He’s a snarky loner whose principles get him in trouble regularly. He even has a big coat that he wears in all weather and his friends make fun of him for.

But there are some important differences that make, in my opinion, this series the superior one. The humor is here, as in Dresden, but Dresden tends towards the slapstick; Castor is all dry British wit. The Castor series sticks much close to its noir roots, which the Dresden Files moved away from early on. Dresden is basically a superhero; Castor is a lightweight. (“Please don’t eviscerate me while I play my tin whistle at you for a few minutes” isn’t much of a battle strategy.) And the Castor series lacks the ever-present male gaze of the Dresden Files.

So all that was for the lucky people who haven’t read the Felix Castor books, and now get to do so. What follows is for those of us unlucky people who have been waiting for more since 2009.

The Naming of the Beasts left Fix in a good place, and wrapped up the overarching Asmodeus plotline. That’s where this picks up: Fix is in something approximating domestic bliss with Trudi, even while he still is behind on cash to pay the bills.

This novella (which features a case that, naturally, is More Than It Seems) is all about this big dangling plot thread left unresolved after the first 5 books: Why did the dead suddenly start rising? Why did exorcists suddenly appear? What is this Thing that Juliet absolutely refuses to talk about?

We get answers to none of those questions. But we do get hints that leave me thinking that, assuming Mike Carey is working on the next book (please, Mike, be working on the next book), answers are coming.