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Title: Dead Men’s Boots
Author: Mike Carey
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 06 September 2007
Price: £7.99
Review Copy

Felix Castor, exorcist, doesn’t like funerals and at the start of Dead Men’s Boots that’s exactly where he is when a lawyer turns up to exhume the deceased (a former exorcist and someone Castor avoided before he died) so he can be cremated and it’s only the start of his problems. His new client is the wife of a man who is accused of murder only she’s convinced that he didn’t do it and it was done by a woman that’s been dead for forty years.

Told in the first person we follow Castor’s investigations as he figures out clues left by the deceased and wonders how a ghost can wield a hammer though the poor fella doesn’t know what he got himself into. Trouble finds Castor like a drunk finds a chippie. It’s part of the deal when you take that first drink.

As I said in my review of Vicious Circle, the second book of this series, Carey is a master plotter. His plots are focused and well planned though with enough clues that you mentally kick yourself when you start to see the connections.

Dead Men’s Boots is a stand alone title but it’s probably better to start at the beginning as you get to see more of Castor’s make-up as well as the history behind the some what’s going on and his history to some of the other characters. And there are some great fully formed secondary characters.

The subplot from the previous books is kept ticking over quite nicely with a few teasers that I hope are going to make an appearance soon.

It’s a great read. You can’t help yourself from wanting to know how deep in shit Castor can go before he drowns.

If I have one negative I’d say that some things are a little too neatly tied off at the end but I don’t really care as it’s a great read that keeps you thinking and guessing all the way to the end. And it’s left me wanting more.

Tags: 10/10, Fantasy, noir, reading lists

Title: The Electric Church
Author: Jeff Somers
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 20 September 2007
Price: £9.99
Review Copy

Normally I put down books that I don’t enjoy, stick it on the little list on the sidebar and move on. But there has been a lot of hype for The Electric Church so I can’t really just let it drift off.

It all comes down to a question of style (examples of Somers writing can be found here and here) and a matter of taste (mine and not Somers). And Somers prose style is not to my taste. I found it a little cold and more tell and little show.

But it’s probably just me because as mentioned in a previous post it has already got some good reviews.

I’m afraid I didn’t get past the first 30 pages so I there is not a lot more I can say but it’s not for me

Tags: noir, Scf-Fi

Title: Already Dead
Author: Charlie Huston
Publisher: Orbit
Published:
Price: £6.99
Review Copy

There are writers you slip into and writers you have to work at and Charlie Huston is as smooth as warm butter. I was hooked from the opening line, ‘I smell them before I see them’. That’s how we’re introduced to the Vampyre and P.I. Joe Pitt though he doesn’t have a licence and I don’t think they have a licence for what he does.

In this series opener, Already Dead, he has to find a missing girl who just happens to have very rich parents and likes hanging out in places where 14-yeard old girl shouldn’t go. He also has a mess to clear up. And people aren’t making it easy for him.

It’s a compulsive read. He’s created a believable underworld of Manhattan where Vampyre clans have carved-up the island and have ways of keeping their existence out of the sunlight. One of those ways is Pitt.

Huston doesn’t let up with the action but still manages to slip in moments of reflection from Pitt’s recent and not so recent history. For a blood feasting Vampyre Pitt has a quite a heart.

I sucked this book dry and I’m craving my next fix.

Tags: 10/10, noir