The third volume in the Dresden Files series continues to expand the story universe set up in the first two. The adventures of Harry Dresden, a professional wizard, hiring himself out to investigate and handle all kinds of magical and malevolent cases in contemporary Chicago have so far involved evil sorcerers, demons, faerie and werewolves. This time around we add ghosts, vampires, and some visits to the supernatural dimension called “the Nevernever”. At Dresden’s side is Michael Carpenter, a Knight of the Cross who wields a magical blade; Bob, a spirit bound to a human skull who acts as Dresden’s magical wikipedia; Susan Rodriguez, Dresden’s girlfriend and an investigative reporter specializing in the weird and supernatural. When an incident with ghostly possession at a hospital children’s ward suggests that the barrier between our world and the Nevernever is getting breached, clues start to point back to an earlier case that first brought Harry and Michael together.

This story moves at a pretty brisk pace. When the good guys aren’t chasing after a lead (usually some kind of lower-level baddie) they are being chased or attacked by some kind of potentially upper level baddie. It is a lot of fun for readers who like a good mix of supernatural monsters and urban investigative work. However, it’s not a mystery solving kind of book. More often it’s Dresden putting together the clues in a way that we readers didn’t know went together. Even with the magical stuff, we don’t know how any of it works ahead of time, so it almost feels like he just makes the rules up as he goes.

This time around, there is much less involvement of the Chicago police. Karyn Murphy, Dresden’s police detective contact and ally still makes some appearances in this volume but this story is also less of a crime investigation than previous stories. Mostly Harry and Michael try to stop who is causing these malevolent events before harm comes to their own families and loved ones. Nevertheless, the two of them make a pretty good team, so it was nice to have Michael introduced in this volume. Michael is strong, faithful, unwavering and noble and makes a wonderful counter-point to the cynical, weary Dresden. 

While I enjoyed that the Dresden Files series has already established a number of secondary characters who return in this book to help or hinder Dresden, I also found it a bit frustrating that they kept coming back. It gave me a bit of a “small world” feeling where they keep running into certain character no matter where they go. Why would this character show up again where Dresden was meeting with some other characters? The plot of the book started to lean into being a series of encounters and confrontations with a repeating handful of characters until their schemes are all revealed. I am torn because on one hand I like the idea of recurring characters adding to the wider world of the story; but on the other hand, I don’t like continuity characters playing such a large role in the plot of a single story. I feel like it’s better that they just make cameos until the volume when their big endgame moment arrives.

Similarly, I was disappointed that this story involved a typical plot cycle where the hero (Harry) will tell someone to stay away from the dangerous conflict, for their own good. Then that person will reply with something like “I can take care of myself”, only to need Harry’s rescue because they underestimated their peril. Then things get really messy, and Harry feels guilty for allowing them to get put in harm’s way. It’s such a cliche in these kinds of stories, and I was disappointed that this book included that. Author Jim Butcher probably wanted to show that Harry is caring, and would do anything to protect and save people, but I think doing it this way is a bit of a crutch.

I enjoyed this book overall, especially the vampire stuff, but as I mentioned, I have some quibbles with the way the story was told. The closing events of this book lead to bigger consequences in the broader Dresden Files world, which are clearly to be continued in subsequent instalments in the series. Rather than being just “monster of the week” style episodes, I look forward to reading more about the wider universe that these stories will create.

3.5 stars

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