I’m sure many of you are familiar with Mike Carey at this point. He’s been experiencing phenomenal success in the comics’ industry of late, beginning with his exceptional Sandman spin-off Lucifer and then moving on to the best run of Hellblazer the book ever saw, and while he has recently become the go-to man for many huge, mainstream titles (including Marvel’s mega-franchise X-Men), those early books demonstrate a fondness for the dark occult mysteries.
While many of you may have read some of Carey’s comics work, though, it’s entirely possible that you’ve missed his novels. I had. Recently, however, after my review of Faker, one of Carey’s recent Vertigo projects, Miriam Parker of the Hachette Book Group USA contacted me and asked if I would like to try out Carey’s newest novel, titled Vicious Circle. I accepted with gratitude, and a week or so later, the book arrived in the mail. With apologies for her for taking over a week to finish the book, it is now done, and so I begin my review.
Vicious Circle is the second book in a series of supernatural noir novels that hearken back to Carey’s earlier big comics, and it stars Felix Castor, a London-based exorcist in a world in which exorcists are in high-demand. I had never read Carey’s first novel (The Devil You Know), but Carey did a fine job of filling me in on all the relevant backstory I needed to know about Castor as the story progresses, ranging from his past encounters with fellow exorcist/succubus-in-hiding Juliet to the not-quite-as-pleasurable demonic problems of his old friend Rafi. There was never an instance in the novel in which I was left confused because I hadn’t read the first story.
If you are familiar with the genre, you know what happens next. There is a primary case – in this instance, the abduction of the ghost of a little girl named Abigail Torrington by a rival exorcist – and a few other bizarre goings-on – a massive spree of mayhem sweeping through London and a possessed church, to name a few – and they will invariably become tangled up together in the same web as the story progresses, the connections slowly untangled both by you and by the protagonist.
But while the conventions of the genre have become predictable (and believe me, this novel is rarely an exception to that – if you want a mystery, you’d best look elsewhere), what’s important is the skill with which the author pulls it off, and Carey proves to have considerable skill. Like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, Carey can make throw-away phrases come back hauntingly late in the book, and he isn’t afraid to damage his hero – or his supporting cast.
The other strength of the book is world-building, though there are some bizarre choices Carey makes to keep the universe unified. As I mentioned, exorcists are much in demand. Well, that’s because the dead have begun to rise in mass, and people are understandably freaked out about it – ghosts and zombies both exist, and it seems as though demons followed them out of Hell, because every so often, you’ll find one of those kicking about as well. Were-creatures exist as well, in one of the more forced-feeling aspects of the setting, as human ghosts possessing and partially reshaping animal bodies. The government is trying to pass a bill that offers some semblance of rights to the recently risen, and exorcists have their own bar in London. What it boils down to is a familiar supernatural setting with just a slight twist to mark it as Carey’s own.
Ultimately, if you enjoyed Lucifer or Hellblazer, you really should be reading Carey’s novels. Similarly, if you’re a fan of books like The Dresden Files, or the supernatural noir genre in general, Carey offers an entertaining entry with Vicious Circle. It’s interesting and well-paced, and hero Felix Castor fits well into the wise-cracking noir hero mold.
Tags: Mike Carey, Novel, Vicious Circle
