Felix Castor Books in Order: How To Read Mike Carey’s Series?

Coming from the British writer Mike Carey (aka Adam Blake, M R Carey), Felix Castor is a series of urban fantasy novels set in an alternate version of London where supernatural beings, such as ghosts, demons, and zombies, exist alongside humans.

Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist who specializes in banishing these supernatural entities. He has to confront his personal demons while he battles the literal ones he encounters in his line of work and gets drawn into larger, overarching conflicts that have far-reaching consequences.

How To Read The Felix Castor Series in Order?

Each novel in the Felix Castor book series offers a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one book to the other.

1. The Devil You Know (2006) – Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stomping ground. It may seem like a good ghostbuster can charge what he likes and enjoy a hell of a lifestyle, but there’s a risk: sooner or later he’s going to take on a spirit that’s too strong for him. When Castor accepts a seemingly simple ghost-hunting case at a museum in the shadowy heart of London, what should have been a perfectly straightforward exorcism is rapidly turning into the Who Can Kill Castor First Show, with demons and ghosts all keen to claim the big prize.
2. Vicious Circle (2006) – Felix Castor has reluctantly returned to exorcism after a successful case convinces him that he really can do some good with his abilities — “good,” of course, being a relative term when dealing with the undead. His friend Rafi is still possessed, the succubus Ajulutsikael (Juliet to her friends) still technically has a contract on him, and he’s still dirt poor. Doing some consulting for the local cops helps pay the bills, but Castor needs a big private job to really fill the hole in his bank account. That’s what he needs. What he gets is a seemingly insignificant “missing ghost” case that inexorably drags him and his loved ones into the middle of a horrific plot to raise one of hell’s fiercest demons.
3. Dead Men’s Boots (2008) – A brutal murder in the heart of London bears all the hallmarks of a long-dead American serial killer, and it takes more good sense than Castor possesses not to get involved. He’s also fighting a legal battle over the body — if not the soul — of his possessed friend, Rafi, and can’t shake the feeling that his three problems might be related. With the help of the succubus Juliet and paranoid zombie data fence Nicky Heath, Castor just might have a chance of fitting the pieces together before someone drops him down an elevator shaft or rips his throat out.

4. Thicker Than Water (2009) – Names and faces he thought he’d left behind in Liverpool resurface in London, bringing Felix far more trouble than he’d anticipated. Childhood memories, family traumas, sins old and new, and a council estate that was meant to be a modern utopia until it turned into something like hell. . ..These are just some of the sticks life uses to beat Felix Castor with, as things go from bad to worse for London’s favorite freelance exorcist.
5. The Naming of the Beasts (2009) – They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but if you ask Castor, he’ll tell you there’s quite a bit of arrogance and reckless stupidity lining the streets as well. He should know. There’s only so many times you can play both sides against the middle and get away with it. Now, the inevitable moment of crisis has arrived and it’s left Castor with blood on his hands. Castor drowns his guilt in cheap whiskey, while an innocent woman lies dead and her daughter comatose, his few remaining friends fear for their lives, and there’s a demon loose on the streets. But not just any demon — this one rides shotgun on Castor’s best friend’s soul, and can’t be expelled without killing him.
6. The Ghost in Bone (2023) – Brierley House is the home of Russian oligarch Gavril Ustinov, now missing, his driven daughter Ksenia Ustinova, and their staff of taciturn, sinister domestics. It also hosts an invisible force that attacks exorcists and negates their abilities–a force that seems to be centuries old. Ksenia wants Felix Castor to locate her missing father, alive or dead. Castor wants to find out who set a trap for exorcists back in the late Middle Ages and what else they were up to. 

If you like our article about the Felix Castor reading order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in the Rivers of London series, Hellblazer: John Constantine or The Dresden Files.