Best Mike Carey Books
Mike Carey brought genuine noir grit to urban fantasy with the Felix Castor series — a run of London-set novels where the dead have started walking and a freelance exorcist with a tin whistle and bad judgment takes the cases nobody else will touch. The Devil You Know and Vicious Circle are tight, atmospheric, and darkly funny, with a protagonist who drinks too much, owes everyone a favor, and still manages to be the most morally interesting person in the room. Carey writes with sardonic wit and a hard-boiled rhythm that keeps the supernatural grounded in consequence — his world feels dangerous because the rules are real and breaking them costs something. Readers who want urban fantasy with the texture of crime fiction, and don't mind their heroes making genuinely terrible decisions, will find Castor essential.
Where to Start with Mike Carey
- Best entry point → Nights of the Living Dead: An Anthology
- Best standalone → Zombies: More Recent Dead
- What readers keep coming back to → Vicious Circle
- Highest rated by readers → The Naming of the Beasts (Felix Castor #5)
Best Mike Carey Books
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The Naming of the Beasts
Felix Castor • Book 5
by Mike Carey
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Exorcist Felix Castor's double-dealing finally backfires spectacularly, leaving him with blood on his hands and a crisis that forces him to confront the inevitable consequences of his moral compromises.
★ 4.19 Goodreads (5.7K ratings) - 2
Dead Men's Boots
Felix Castor • Book 3
by Mike Carey
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A serial killer's methods match those of a long-dead American murderer, pulling Castor into both a legal battle and a supernatural mystery. Third Castor novel deepens the mythology while ramping up the personal stakes.
★ 4.00 Goodreads (8.0K ratings) - 3
Vicious Circle
Felix Castor • Book 2
by Mike Carey
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When Felix Castor's fellow exorcists start turning up dead, his investigation pulls him deeper into London's occult underworld. Sharp supernatural noir with genuine menace lurking beneath the cynical humor.
★ 3.98 Goodreads (9.3K ratings) - 4
Nights of the Living Dead: An Anthology
by Jonathan Maberry, George A. Romero, Brian Keene, Carrie Ryan, David J. Schow, David Wellington, Isaac Marion, Jay Bonansinga, Joe R. Lansdale, John Skipp, Max Brallier, Mike Carey, Mira Grant, Neal Shusterman, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Ryan Brown, John A. Russo, Craig E. Engler, Chuck Wendig, Brendan Shusterman
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Celebrating the 1968 film that launched zombie culture, twenty horror masters contribute new stories expanding on that original farmhouse nightmare. Essential for understanding how one movie changed horror forever.
★ 3.86 Goodreads (1.8K ratings) - 5
Zombies: More Recent Dead
by Paula Guran, Mike Carey, Neil Gaiman, Kathleen Tierney, Stephen Graham Jones, Joe R. Lansdale, Jonathan Maberry, Carrie Vaughn, Carrie Ryan, Matthew Johnson
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Literary horror's finest writers use zombies to explore survival, society, and what makes us human in the first place. The anthology avoids shambling clichés by focusing on character-driven stories that happen to feature the undead.
★ 3.63 Goodreads (212 ratings)