THE DEVIL YOU KNOW: First in Felix Castor series - Mike Carey

I can't remember if it was on a blog or on Shelfari on the Pararnormal Mystery group....I am very glad to have seen the review for this one. I don't necessarily like comparing one writer or character to another, but if I did, I'd compare this to Jim Butcher and his character, Harry Dresden. Harry is a wizard who helps people in need and Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist who helps people in need of getting rid of ghosts.....comparison over....
Felix has gone on ghostbuster sabbatical after an exorcism has gone wrong. Now he is in need of ready cash and a job falls into his lap to rid the Bonnington Archive in London of a ghost who has gone from passive to rather aggressive and is scaring the clients and worker bees. Felix figures a quick in and out, get the cash and move on with his life. Instead he stirs up a succubus, a white slavery ring, a were-something and a stronger-than-he-thought spirit. What has he gotten himself into this time?
What made me really enjoy reading (and really looking forward to reading more)
Felix Castor's adventures was Mike Carey's turn of phrase. ex: ...Pen doesn't cook much, but when she does, three things happen. The first is that the kitchen becomes a sort of domestic vision of Hell, complete with roiling smoke and acrid smells, in which pans have their bottoms burned out of them, glasses are shattered by casual immersion in boiling water, and gravel-voiced harpies (or Edgar and Arthur, anyway) mock the whole endeavor from the tops of various cupboards while Pen curses them with bitter imprecations. The second is that you get a meal that emerges from this Vulcanic stithy looking like a photo of Good Housekeeping and tasting like something Albert Roux would knock up to impress the neighbors. The third is that Pen herself is purged by the ordeal, refined in the fire, and radiates a Zen-like calm for hours or even days afterward.

Five smokin' ghost beans...