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.