Review – Dead Men’s Boots

Title: Dead Men’s Boots

Author: Mike Carey

Series: Felix Castor

Publisher: Grand Central Publishinng

Publication Date: September 6, 2007

ISBN-13: 978-0446618724

Available at: Amazon – Barnes and Noble

Summary:

Felix helps stop a lawyer from cremating a friend’s body. His widow says he was acting strangely before his death and now that he’s dead he’s ghost has gone berserk.

He also takes on a case where a man was brutally murdered with a claw hammer. Only the hammer was never found. Where’s the hammer? Why was a woman’s voice heard in the room when no one saw a woman enter or leave?

Felix tries to puzzle his way through all of this and more.

Review:

There were a lot of pieces to this book. There was the matter of Felix’s friend who has killed himself in mysterious circumstances. Leaving a  widow who didn’t want his body to be cremated, but with a will that specifically stated he be cremated. It was a mess!

Then there was the other mess with the accused murderer. Was there a third party or wasn’t there? Were the two cases connected? There were a lot of moving parts. It took a lot of time to get them moving. By the time they did I kind of lost track of what was what. Well, not really. But I did lose a lot of my ability to care.

One thing the book did have going for it was the development of Julia, the succubus. She was one of the central figures in this book and it was great! I always liked her and I liked seeing her more fully fleshed out. Hopefully she’ll continue to remain in the books as one of the cast of characters that plays if not an essential, but a substantial role.

The book did get stronger as it moved along. I will say that. It gained momentum and it finished strong. So in the end I was fully invested in it. It just took too long for that to happen. There’s something to be said for a strong finish though.

It had some great sub-plots too. There was a custody battle between Pen and Jenna-Jane over Raf, Felix’s college friend who is demonically possessed. It was a good diversion.

In the end I did enjoy this book because it had such a good end.  I can forgive a slow start for a really satisfying conclusion and great character development.  This book had all that and then some.

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