SUMMER READING

The Devil You Know
By Mike Carey (Warner Books, $24.99)

Felix Castor's London isn't all that different from the real one -- except for the fact that ghosts can be found around every corner and werewolves stalk the streets. For someone like Castor, who can see and sense the dead, it's fertile ground for an occupation as a freelance exorcist. And he's pretty good at it, too, until a tragic mistake shocks him into an early retirement.

Years later, Castor is still fighting his personal demons (literal and figurative), mechanically turning away job offers from his former life. The latest call presents a brand-new wrinkle, however: It's immediately followed by an unignorable prophecy from one of those literal demons: "You're going to take this case, and it's going to kill you."

For Castor, it's hard to see how. It looks like it'll be a piece of cake to rid the Bonnington Archive of its docile, red-veiled ghost. But the more time he spends at the Archive, the more complicated and disturbing the case gets. For one thing, more and more people keep trying to kill him, from a brutish were-thing to a sleazy crime boss to a gorgeous and deadly succubus, as Castor is gradually pulled into an underworld not only of spirits and ghosts but also of very human monsters.

Part crime mystery, part urban fantasy, Castor's world sucks in the reader from the first few pages -- an accomplishment considering that, all in all, it's place where you really wouldn't want to actually live. Readers who enjoy "Devil" will be pleased to find that it promises to be the first in a series of books starring Castor, who's finally back in business. ¦

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(c) 2007 King Features Synd., Inc.