by Mike Carey
Rating: ★★★
This is one of the rare sort of crime novels that manage to hold any interest for me. That is, it's an urban fantasy novel. Felix Castor, our protagonist, is all the predictable tropes of the lovable private eye. Down on his luck, but dedicated to the job and supported by a tight cast of players who are all, inevitably, connected to the case. The police will turn on him, and the underworld is a shady business, but there's more to the story than there first appears. Blah blah. But Carey writes a reasonably interesting and consistent world of the risen dead and the return of magic, managing to feature ghosts, demons, magic and zombies as a counterpoint to the crime tropes, which livens it up a bit.
It's not great literature. The writing is well-paced, the characters are given a few touches of depth, and there is some good ironic comedy. I'm not hooked, I'm unlikely to seek out the series again, but I don't particularly regret the read either. As light entertainment, it does its job fairly well.