Someone once told me that in starting Jim Butcher's Dresden
Files series, one had to read the first three books simply
as good solid stories. Just three good books that were
enjoyable and nothing more. They said that one couldn't
read the first books with the expectation that they would
set the tone for the epic that is the Dresden Files.
Rather, the series does not truly become the intricately
woven (let me just go ahead and say it ) masterpiece that it
is until a few books into it. I can agree and disagree with
this view- to me, Harry Dresden is the kind of literary
character, the kind of person, that from the first
wise-cracking joke in the face of darkness, I know that I
want on my side.
The Dresden Files are a popular paranormal crime-fighting
series, featuring Harry Dresden, Professional Wizard and
Private Investigator, doing his best to kick evil's ass. I
know, I know- this could describe half the supernatural
genre right now. It's Harry himself that makes this series-
he's a right, true, honorable man, with a penchant for Star
Wars references, a soft spot for his pets and his possessed
skull sidekick and a love for Chicago so deep that it has
even the casual reader wishing that they too could go patrol
Hyde Park for ghouls or summon some fairies on the shores of
Lake Michigan. When something goes bump in the dark,
Dresden is the one who shows up, cloak flowing in the wind,
to punch it, set it on fire, and bring it to a swift and
painful end. In his more mundane moments, he's the
down-on-his-luck PI in a world that doesn't believe in
magic. He's an everyman hero who has saved the world at
least a couple times but can't even get hot water for his
apartment's shower.
GHOST STORY is the thirteenth novel of the series and the
number "thirteen" is quite fitting for it- it's a black
sheep of a novel. Harry's dead. I repeat, the main
character has died. Luckily, death isn't a one-way street
for our beloved wizard and he's back to solve the mystery of
his murder. This is not the novel to start with for
newcomers to the series- hold your excitement and start at
the back of the line with STORM FRONT (and thank me when you
do!). For those familiar with the series, GHOST STORY will
be an anxious read. Harry's basement apartment (and all
its second hand books and that Elvis rug)is gone. Bombed.
The trusty Volkswagon, the Blue Beatle, is no more. Harry's
office? Long gone. Harry's body? Missing although,
really, it's not going to be very useful to him anyway, in
his current state. With Harry manifesting as a
mostly-impotent specter, the pace of the novel is noticeably
different from Butcher's earlier works but it's as much of a
firecracker as your local bookstore can safely sell.
When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden,
he wasn't doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an
unknown assassin.
But being dead doesn't stop him when his friends are in
danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him.
And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago
shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.
To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull
off the ultimate trick without any magic...
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