The Naming of the Beasts

Mike Carey

Chapters (0)

MIKE CAREY

Hachette Digital

Praise for Mike Carey:

‘Entertaining, well-paced, intelligently plotted and full of memorable characters’ The Times

‘Imagine an unholy cross between Buffy, Jonathan Creek and hardboiled noir, set it in the sleazier bits of London . . . Fast, fun and furious’

Guardian

‘Witty, deadpan and shudderingly noir . . . You’ve heard the rumour that Londoners are never more than a few feet from a rat - Carey will persuade the same is true of the undead.’

Daily Express

‘Extremely impressive - entertaining and assured. You’re left with the eerie feeling that Felix Castor will be haunting us for a long time to come.’

SFX

‘Simply brilliant novels . . . One of the best books series around right now’

Forbidden Planet International

‘Carey’s writing is nimble and witty, his dialogue believable . . . quirky, dark and imaginative’

Kirkus

BY MIKE CAREY

The Devil You Know
Vicious Circle
Dead Men’s Boots
Thicker Than Water
The Naming of the Beasts

The Naming of the Beasts

MIKE CAREY

Hachette Digital

Published by Hachette Digital 2009

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

eISBN : 978 0 7481 1214 2

This ebook produced by JOUVE, FRANCE

Hachette Digital
An imprint of
Little, Brown Book Group
100 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DY

An Hachette Livre UK Company

To Ade - for music, Brick Lane curries,
Bunhill Fields, Masonic temples, Old Brewery
and attendant conversations

Acknowledgements

All my knowledge of the Rickety Twins comes from my wife, Lin, and from the Theatrelands section of the London Metropolitan Archive’s website. I’m grateful to both. For the internal geography of the Paterson Building, and my own visualisation of Jenna-Jane Mulbridge’s little empire, I have to thank Ade Brown: he took the time and trouble to give me a guided tour, and fed me background information as I needed it. Castor’s comments on alcoholism carry echoes from the same source. Thanks also to my agent, Meg, for unfailing support, and to my editor, Darren, for a Spiro Agnew joke that’s better than the one I used.