I really enjoyed Carey's comic books so expected to enjoy his novels. In this first entry in the Felix Castor series Carey introduces the reader to the richly built world of a slightly futuristic London populated by ghosts and ghostbusters along w/zombies, loup-garou (ghosts that cobble together bodies out of animals), demons and regular people trying to get along in this new world.

The blurbs for this book compare it to Butcher's Dresden files. I think that's just because both have male protaginst PI like characters set in an urban-fantasy environment. You could also compare it to the Joe Pitt Casebooks by Huston. This book falls somewhere in between -- grittier than The Dresden files but not as gritty as the Joe Pitt Casebooks. The main character, Filix Castor (aka Fix) is an exorcist who returns to ghostbusting after a long self-imposed hiatus. Naturally the case is much less straightforward than initially presented. During the course of his investigation his philosophy regarding what ghosts are and how they should be treated is upended by what he learns and experiences.