Vicious Circle

Writer Mike Carey, known to comic fans for his work on HELLBLAZER, brings the same kind of chilling writing to his novels. VICIOUS CIRCLE follows the career of freelance exorcist Felix Castor in a scary world in which the barrier between the living and the dead has thinned so much that the government is considering a dead person's "Bill of Rights." Narrator Michael Kramer, who established himself as the very British voice of Castor in THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, once again proves adept at translating the dangers and quandaries facing an exorcist who is wondering if he has the right to banish spirits to oblivion. Kramer meets the challenge of giving voice to the deadly erotic demon Juliet, a creature of irresistible sexual allure, by making her sound a bit like Faye Dunaway. It works. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

May 26, 2008
In Carey's fine second supernatural thriller (after The Devil You Know
), FelixCastor, an exorcist with paranormal abilities who lives in a near-future England where ghosts and zombies are an accepted reality, is suffering from guilt after an attempt to separate a master demon, Asmodeus, from a friend, Rafi, ended with the evil spirit gaining even more control over Rafi. Fortunately, a new case provides distraction. Melanie and Stephen Torrington, who believe that their young daughter's ghost has been kidnapped, hire Castor to uncover some last trace of their child. The investigator soon finds that his employers haven't been fully truthful with him as he starts crossing paths with lycanthropes and other undead beings. Carey's imagined universe has some nice satiric touches (the term “zombie” has been designated a form of hate speech), and the well-developed main character appears more than capable of carrying a series for many books to come.