The demon that refuses to be exorcised

The Naming of the Beasts is where all of Felix ‘Fix’ Castor’s past mistakes come back to bite him in the ass. Since book 1, Rafi Ditko has been a prisoner in his own body with a nasty demon named Asmodeus stuck inside him. Fix tried to exorcise the demon, but things went awry and Asmodeus and Rafi became permanently interwined in his body. Felix has been trying for years to find the proper tune to whistle away the demon without killing Rafi. In the interim, Rafi/Asmodeus have had extended stays in mental hospitals with Felix dropping by every now and then to put the demon to bed within Rafi. Even though this universe acknowledges the existence of demons, they prefer to imprison him than let him in the real world.

In the last novel, Fix was forced to kidnap Rafi lest a nasty parapsychologist named Jenna-Jane take control of him. He believed he just needed to buy some time to save Rafi. Unfortunately, Asmodeus pulled a fast one on Castor and broke free and killed a dear friend of his. We open in this book with him pretty down on himself, drowned in whiskey. He has no idea how to catch the wayward demon, so decides to retreat. Asmodeus has other plans and begins killing off Ditko’s ex-girlfriends one by one to taunt him and Castor. Fix tries to get help from his succubus demon pal, Juliet, but she’s not feeling very friendly to humans these days. Thus, he is forced to team up with Jenna-Jane and her band of exorcists to bring in the Rafi – dead or alive. He’s that desperate and JJ does have a ton of resources. They make an uneasy truce for use of her expense account in exchange for Fix’s exorcism expertise. She needs help clearing a giant amalgamation of ghosts in a Central London pool dubbed Super Self. While on the super self case, he befriends Trudie, another exorcist sympathetic to his situation. She still believes killing Rafi may be the only way out, but if they don’t have to murder anyone she’s up for it. Together, they play fast and loose trying to locate Rafi in the underbelly of London. They must find the demon before he finds a way to break free from Rafi and manifest himself. Then, all hell would certainly break loose including the death of everyone Castor holds dear.

I loved this final chapter of the series.This dark cloud loomed over Fix, so this book was all about his character under pressure with none of his usual allies available. He’d been scraping himself out of the fire for years. This time around friends had already paid for his arrogance. In Beasts, he certainly rises to the occasion when dead bodies appear and Pen gives him a proper telling off. But he has to do have proper pity party first. Jenna-Jane is quite the sly old bird. It was fun to see how true to her word she would be (not fucking likely). The book has a very satisfying ending. Carey didn’t quite close up all loose ends, so maybe we’ll see another book one day.

Read my other reviews, including other Felix Castor books, on my blog.