Mike Carey has a nice set-up with the Felix Castor books and could, if he wanted, keep churning them out forever. Except he’s a rather more modern writer, and therefore he has a concept of story arc. Sooner or later we knew we’d fine out why London is suddenly full of the walking dead. With Dead Men’s Boots we know a bit more. Also Carey has upped the ante a little, and the more he does so the more Castor comes to sound like John Constantine. Here. for example, he’s having a chat with a demon:

“So how was your trip?” Moloch asked, in the same tone of metal grinding against bone.

I made a so-so gesture. “Too many Satanists,” I said.

He nodded sympathetically, but his smile showed way too many teeth to be reassuring. “Our little fifth column. Yes. If it’s any consolation, they all get eaten in the end.”

All in all, however, I much prefer Juliet to Etrigan.

Mike is a GoH at the Bristol Comics Expo. I hope I get a chance to meet him.