Title: Grave Peril
Author: Jim Butcher
Series: The Dresden Files #3
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy, Wizards
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Orbit
Year: 2001
5th sentence, 74th page: I began to compel it by the Holy Word, and it went quite mad.

Harry Dresden – Wizard
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden has faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you’re the only professional wizard in the Chicago-area phone book.

But in all Harry’s years of supernatural sleuthing, he’s never faced anything like this: The spirit world has gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble – and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone – or something – is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn’t figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself….

I swear that this series just keeps on getting better and better. Every time I open the page on a new Harry Dresden adventure, he seems to have stuck his foot further into some mess, found some new and incredibly enemies (and sidekicks), and just generally managed to work out a way to get himself into deeper shit.

Normally in crime books you can see where the red herrings come up, even when you can’t quite see who the real villain is. And, I thought that I had figured out where the red herring was in Dresden’s newest trials. Boy was I wrong. Boy, oh boy, oh boy. Which, for me, is the best possible thing. After all, who wants to actually know where the story is going every single time? Who wants to be able to guess what happens next all the time?

There was also the blooming romance between Susan and Harry that made this story so intriguing. I’m still convinced that Murphy and Dresden make the perfect couple, but Susan and Harry work fantastically as well. His inability to tell her his feelings have unforeseen and really severe consequences, but it is also a great glimpse into Harry’s twisted past. The combination of a love interest, ghosts gone world and a vindictive fairy godmother have left me searching through my book room (I really have to get myself a bookcase) for the next book… now where did I put Summer Knight?

Image source: Shastrix

Title: Fool Moon
Author: Jim Butcher
Series: The Dresden Files #2
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy, Wizards
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Orbit
Year: 2001
5th sentence, 74th page: Both of us looking for the killer?

Harry Dresden–Wizard
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn’t been able to dredge up any kind of work–magical or mundane.

But just when it looks like he can’t afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise.

A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses–and the first two don’t count…

You know it’s a good book when you stay up until 2am just to finish it. Alright, I might do that a little more than is healthy. But, basically, I was so desperate to see where Harry was going to find himself this time that I just couldn’t put it down. And believe me, I tried.

Following the events of Storm Front, Dresden and Murphy aren’t quite friends, Harry has no money and he is still contemplating the true depths of the darkness of his soul. And honestly, for a while, it doesn’t get any better from there. Chasing werewolves, trying to protect Murphy and dealing with a major conspiracy theory leaves poor Harry running around injured, exhausted and, to add insult to injury, making deals with demons. Although, his deal with the demon does kind of hint at some very interesting future storylines about his ancestry… certainly something that I can’t wait to delve further into.

Really, I should have clicked from the title that this novel would be about werewolves. But I didn’t, and it was a fun little surprise in the opening scenes. So was Butcher’s take on how they operate. It wasn’t the straightforward, repetitive werewolf that you see in most stories, but as with the practice of potion making and just magic in general. I love that the Dresden Files world is so well thought out with laws and natures that govern magic, as with everything else. And the unique way in which Butcher does this… yummo.

Fool Moon took me from enjoying the Dresden Files to feeling insanely compelled to keep reading the and kind of desperate to find more time and money to immerse myself in the rest of the stories.

Image source: Mobile Read

Title: Storm Front
Author: Jim Butcher
Series: The Dresden Files #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy, Wizards
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Orbit
Year: 2000
5th sentence, 74th page: I planted my feet and faced him, without meeting his eyes.

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he’s the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—well, whatever. There’s just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks.

So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get interesting.

Magic – it can get a guy killed.

There’s nothing like a sassy, slightly left of centre main character. And when the story is told from their point of view? It’s fantastic! It’s little wonder that I loved this novel so much.

I’m a fan of both crime and paranormal fantasy books. After all, I love the wonders of the paranormal world. But I also love trying to figure who-done-it in the crime novels. Butcher hits on the combination of these two genres perfectly. Dresden runs around the streets of Chicago trying to find a missing man, solve a murder, and dodge killer demons. Honestly, what more could you want in a story?

Harry Dresden is a gangly, slightly awkward, attitudinal lead. Which, as with all good books, gets him in more trouble than anything else. Add to this a council member who wants him dead, and a talking head (literally) that is more than a little twisted, and it is ensured that Harry is going to have a dreadful time trying to solve his two crimes. Yet, everything is relevant – there isn’t a moment in this fantastically crafted novel that doesn’t serve a purpose, and I kind of love this fact. It doesn’t make it any easier to piece together who the baddies are. And it doesn’t lead to a predictable end to the story. But it does mean that I’m not let wondering why some random act happened, with no real answer.

The only problem that I have with this novel is the fact that now I have to wait until Fool Moon arrives in my bookshelves… it was just too good and the wait is a little too long!

Image source: Muneer Huda