Note #1: Third book is called Grave Peril. Description is otherwise on point.
Note #2: I gotchu

Book 5 is Death Masks

This is where the engine really starts running.

After accidentally ruining a TV show loosely based on Jerry Springer, Harry gets hired to find the Shroud of Turin, which has been stolen. At pretty much the same time, a smooth latino Red Court vampire dude challenges Harry to a duel to settle the war Harry may or may not have started over Susan. Within a few moments, he is attacked a ridiculous monster with two sets of eyes.

Enter the Denarians, probably the best villains in the series, consisting of Fallen Angels possessing human hosts.

Harry gets saved by Michael and his bestest buddies, Shiro and Sanya, who also have SuperSwords and ask him to leave shit be, but Harry being Harry is all like, "Nah," and carries on. Murph, his favourite cop (who he's totally not in love with) asks him to look into another weird dead body because that's his jam (and he's big on paying his rent). Murph introduces him to a dude named Butters, who is a medical examiner and notices when weird shit happens, and doesn't like sweeping it under the rug. Good for him, I'm sure that habit will lead to a rewarding career.

Harry finds the shroud, but Deirdre, who we will come to know and lovehate, shows up and has a bad hair day all over the place, killing and making a mess. Anna, the only one of the three professional thieves involved to live through the kerfuffle, makes a break for it. We'll probably never see her again.

Susan shows back up, only now she's SuperSusan due to her half-vamp infection. She tries to help Harry find the shroud again, but there's another fight involving flying appliances and Harry and the shroud both get tooken. (Sorry, that should be taked.) Harry finally gets to meet Nicodemus, a BMF who runs the Denarians and the coin-collecting club. Nic offers Harry a chance to sign up, but Harry being Harry is all like, "Nah," and Nic goes to kill him, but Shiro pulls a superhero landing and takes his place, handing Harry the SuperSword he had telling him to run. The Sword will also likely never be important again. Susan assists in Harry's escape, and he figures out the dude who hired him to find the Shroud is also a Denarian, having killed Murph's DB.

Using some not-by-the-book methods, Harry gets some info out of faker boy. I'm sure this, too, will not return to bite Harry in his ass.

Dresden shows up to his duel, which is overseen by a little girl more powerful than damn near anyone, who goes by Archive (soon to be Ivy thanks to a certain unnamed wizard's habit of nicknaming the shit out of everyone - yet another harmless habit, certainly) and wins because smooth vampire dude breaks the rules. Susan's new bud Martin - also totally a one-off guy - kills vampey boy and splits. Harry and Michael and Sanya chase down the Denarians at the airport, but find Shiro doing his best Rocky 4 impersonation, and points them at a train. One train-roof fight later, they get the shroud back and Nic escapes.

Harry shortly finds out Shiro had cancer, so he shouldn't feel too bad about the whole dying-in-his-place thing, and asks him to take care of his SuperSword, and Harry being Harry is all like, "Yeah." Harry's wizard guardian McCoy wipes out smooth vampire's whole home and bestest buddies, by dropping an old satellite on them, and Harry finds out Marcone was the one who arranged for the shroud to be stolen in the first place, to heal a little girl about whom we know nothing and likely never will. She's probably not important.

And on the last few pages, Nic makes a final appearance, tossing one of his SuperCoins at Michael's house. Michael's son goes to grab it, but Harry does first. And that is also likely not important.

@Anarchy Ask, and ye shall receive.

Blood Rites

Beginning with the most iconic opening line of the series - "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault." - we just right in on Harry's rescue of a litter of puppies. A monk hired him to do it. Nice guy. We never see him again. Anyway, Harry's buddy Thomas - the Whampire we met in Grave Peril, who turns out to not be a *total* dick, gave Harry a ride tonight. He regrets it instantly, as the things guarding the puppies are demon monkeys who throw flaming shit at people. Anyway, Harry gives the dogs to the monk, but discovers one of the pups - a runt who growls at the shit monkeys - slipped out of the box and hid in Harry's car. With the monk long gone, Harry just adopted a dog. This will likely be a terrible, onerous thing. I mean, it does warn him when a Black Court vamp tries to kill Harry, but otherwise, a totally bad omen.

Anyway, Thomas gave him a ride - and bought him dinner - to butter him up before asking a favour. He wants Harry to investigate a few strange deaths surrounding a porn director. Cool. He also wants to get the blampies before they breed like hell's own rabbits, so he calls up McCoy the satellite dropper and Kincaid, Ivy's bodyguard and totally not her surrogate father.

Harry sets up a few magical defences on the porn site (heehee), but someone fucks with them (sorry, bad phrasing) and further bad pornomojo happens. However, a new actress shows up on set to cover for the injured - her name is Lara, and I'm not even going to joke about it; she's gonna be the greatest frenemy Harry ever has. After she decides not to kill him, that is. After a weird ambush by more blampires that involves a frozen turkey, our intrepid hero bravely runs away with Lara and Thomas back to their family manor - yeah, turns out they're related (half bro and sis) and Thomas, who took the bad end of the beat sticks (and Lara's aim) in the melee, needs healing. That means he needs fuckenergy, so he's gonna be busy for the rest of the night.

His other sister, inari, was also in the fight, and also got hurt. While Lara invites Harry in, and offers him her protection, it turns out her dad is also home, and he makes no such offer. He sends Inari to Harry that night to both kill him and give her in-born demon a jump start. This fails pretty spectacularly, because Harry is still in love with SuperSusan, and love is shield against fuckfeeding.

Thomas drops by, now rife with fuckenergy, and shows Harry some paintings and explains that - surprise! - he's also Harry's half-bro. Harry being Harry is all like, "Nah," so they soulgaze and Harry gets to hear his mother's voice for the first and only time. It's a weepy moment, but now he trusts Thomas.

Next day, Harry finds out the director is getting married this very week. One of the porno actresses pulls a gun on Harry and fucks with his defences again, explaining that she and the other ex wives are killing every woman in the director's life to keep whoever it is from inheriting his shit when he dies - he's had 3 other wives, all of whom had prenups. She kills another actress and frames Harry. Harry escapes and goes after the blampires with Murph, McCoy and Kincaid. Turns out, they answer to Mavra, who we met at THE PARTY in Grave Peril. McCoy and Kincaid turn out to have a history, and they hate each other. And want to kill each other. Probably won't be a problem.

Anyway, they wipe out the blampires, and rescue a bunch of kidnapped kids, but Harry burns the ever loving shit out of his left hand. Kincaid takes off, leaving behind a large invoice and a word - "Blackstaff". McCoy, feeling guilty over Harry's girlfriend being set on fire, McCoy admits to being the Blackstaff - the White Council's black ops hitman who is allowed to break the Laws Of Magic - a living Necessary Evil. Oh, and Harry's mom was his apprentice. Oh, and Lara and Thomas' dad killed her. Oh, and Lord Raith is basically magic immune.

Harry kicks McCoy out and goes in search of Thomas - Lara tells him Thomas has been taken by the Porno Ex Wives Club, who are cooperating with her father. Crazy how that all comes together. Anyway, turns out they're going to kill Thomas to power a curse to kill Harry, because Big Daddy Raith is unable to fuckfeed - Harry's mom's deathcurse locked him down, so he's been low on fuckenergy for years. Harry interrupts the curse, but the ritual involves summoning He Who Walks Behind - an Ur-Demon of ridiculous power. It kills the Ex Wives Club cause Walkers ain't nobody's bitch, and Lara mentally breaks her dad. Then to avoid any sign of weakness, banishes her brother who everyone sees as a sissy. He moves in with Harry, pays Kincaid's bill, and basically bros it up.

 

Good thing you kept hold of those notes.

 

can you do that for the next book as well so i dont actually have to read it?

 

I’m planning to relisten to these... but If I do t get around to it this will do. Maybe I’ll start with book 4. First three aren’t too memorable.

 

Alright. I can't sleep, so the write-up continues, in all probability making even less sense this time around.

Blood Rites

The building was on fire, and it may at least partially be Dresden's fault.

This book has two different plots going on. One features the arrival of a the Black Court vampire Mavra, who tries to kill Dresden. To deal with this, Dresden calls up assassin supreme, Kincaid. Murphy wants to bang the guy. Dresden has some wicked sexual tension going, too. Must be the cheekbones. The vampires end up dead-er, Harry's hand is half-melted by a flamethrower, and the day is saved.

Meanwhile, Harry also gets asked to check in on the set of a porno by sex-vampire Thomas Raith. Turns out there's a cult of pornstar sorceresses wreaking havoc with a curse. Dresden vows to stop them - and he'll get to it in a moment, trust me - he just can't stand up just this second. Lara Raith is introduced here and she is tied with Kincaid as the best thing about this book (and all books she features in). Turns out there's a struggle in the White Court for power. Daddy Raith has been controlling his daughters via his hunger demon (which is to say, mindrape and actual rape, which kinda needs to be stated even when it goes against the tone I've been trying to set with this post).

Daddy Raith wants Harry dead and he wants Thomas dead, because - plot twist - they're brothers. That's right, slashficers, they're brothers. You can stop writing now. I SAID STOP!

Daddy Raith killed Harry's and Thomas' mom when she broke free from his will and with her deathcurse, she made him unable to feed. TO break the curse, he needs Thomas and Harry to die. Lara decides, fuck that noise, and feeds him to her hunger demon, effectively making him her puppet.

Dead Beat

Mavra reappears and blackmails Dresden to find the Word of Kemmler. What's that, you may ask? Pretty sure she refrains from telling him that. The bitch. Either way, Halloween is around the corner and necromancy is afoot. On his hunt for The Word, Dresden runs into a bunch of necromancers, each their own shade of crazy. Turns out Kemmler is essentially Voldemort, only way cooler what with having had a nose, and his old apprentices are out looking for his bible of necromancy which is said to contain a ritual called a Darkhallow, which would turn someone into a God.

Badly outclassed, Dresden ends up summoning The Wardens, who come and tell him they've just had their asses handed to them by the Red Court, so he's now also a warden. They suit up and head off to kick Necromancer ass. Dresden goes sidequesting a little, runs into an old Denarian who guts him just a little before Mouse rips him throat out. As is canon, Mouse is a good boy.

Dresden does the most badass thing anyone has ever done, or ever will, and reainimates the skeleton of Sue the T-rex, rides that into battle, and proceeds to win the day. Luccio, the captain of the wardens, gets bodyswitched into a younger body, Morgan is still a surly wanker. He gives Marvra the book (which we still don't know what she plans to do with, though I should totally use that for a fic) and tells her to gtfo.

 

For me at least it isn't the wait that has truly taken a toll on my enthusiasm for the series, though it didn't help, but more the fact that I found pretty much all books after Changes lacking to a significant degree.

I think I complained about it before but I don't like a lot of the trends/decisions that Butcher made in the last three or so books and I don't think I have re-read the series since the last one came out, which is saying something because I once religiously re-read the series every few months.

Didn't help that the side-stories became more prominent and the less said about the Aeronaut the better because the only thing that book really did for me was serve as a perfect illustration of all the things I started to dislike, perhaps even hate, about Butchers writing. I normally don't abandon a series, especially not this far into it, but if this is the quality I can expect it will be real chore to finish the series...

 

My hope is that the quality of his writing was synonymous with the quality of his life.
Being optimistic, perhaps both will have improved this time around.

 

It's fairly obvious that things with his wife were in the gutter when Murphy got shanked.

This is why it's been building towards Molly. Molly is the new young wife. I'm almost certain a big part of the delay was Jim figuring out how best to deal with this shift in Dresden's perspective.

There'll be at least one monologue where he internalises a debate and says that as a mortal, he and Karrin had a shelf life and Molly isn't a young girl any more.

More likely, he'll be refusing to think like that but Thomas will be the sounding board for that idea so the pure protag isn't tainted by risky exposition.

Iunno, that's how I'd do it if I was writing a two decade long self insert.

 

I'm mostly ambivalent towards her in general. Fun character sometimes, annoying others.

 

Call me kooky, but I'm enjoying doing this.


Proven Guilty

Okay, so the zombie dinosaur is dead. Again. Cool.

Any way, we start with Harry watching a kid get his head cut off, and after angsting a bit at Murphy, admits it was for the best. YOUNG WIZARDS WITH NO GUIDANCE ARE DANGEROUS. Quite the lesson, which hits rather close to home, as Harry was once unguided young wizard himself before McCoy came along. Speaking of McCoy, he has a request. Harry’s still not 100% down with McCoy’s Blackstaffing, but the request is look into why the Fae ain’t making vampires go splat, so Harry’s all like, “Yeah.”

Then he gets a call from Molly, who needs him to post bail for her BF. Harry gets dragged into a Con – SplaterCon!!! To be precise – where Crazy Shit is Going Down. Harry figures out some phobophages – fear eating demons – are behind it. He works up some magical bouncy castle, and sends those phages phaging back at their summoner. Sweet.

Then he meets with the Summer Knight, who’s a bit of a bro now, and Maeve and Lily, who tell him Mab may or may not be off her fucking rocker, and the Courts won’t help against the vamps because they’re locked in a cold war standoff. Swell.

Then Thomas’ cousin, Madrigal pops up for a cameo, giving Thomas and Mouse an opportunity for Big Damn Heroes moment, and shortly thereafter, Harry realises Molly herself is the reason the phages have been phaging. What with his bouncy spell, they turned around and snagged her off to the Nevernever. Dicks.

To get her back, Harry grabs Murphy and Charity (Michael’s off SuperSwording elsewhere) and pulls a raid on Arctis Tor – a scary place at the Heart of Winter that I’m sure we’ll never see again. Also, they have an oddly easy time getting inside because some more Crazy Shit Went Down before they got there. Wow.

Tracking down the biggest, baddest muthafuckin’ phage of all, Harry and Charity find it’s about to kill Molly, but Harry being Harry is all like, “Nah,” and kills it, setting off a little Summer Bomb in the middle of Winter. This… is a Bad Thing. Angering the Fae – literally, with no exaggeration, all of them – creates a bit of an incident, but also frees up some Summer troops to help out the White Council – for a while. Harry and the others make like Biff Tannen and get out of there. Cool again.

Next thing we know, Molly is on the same trial that the kid from the opening chapter is – oh, Dramatic Irony, you cold hearted bitch! Things look bad, but a last second intervention by Michael, the gatekeeper, and McCoy, saves Molly, by placing her under Harry in much the same way harry was saved when he was placed under McCoy. Wow again.

Molly gets some naughty ideas as a result, which Harry shakes her out of with a well placed jug of ice water. Chilling.

Then, Harry and McCoy talk, agreeing that enough Crzy Shit has Gone Down, that there must be some rogue actors making it happen. Calling these BAMFs the Black Council, they realise there might even be a high-placed traitor on the White Council. Oh-No!


White Night

Harry’s been teaching Molly for a year. It’s going… well, it’s going. Anyhoo, Murph calls Harry up because there’s been a “suicide” and she thinks those quotation marks are there for a reason. Turns out, she’s not a cop for nothing, and Harry soon realises there’s a serial killer in town targeting practitioners.

Harry stumbles upon another wizard in town – Elaine has scheduled a guest appearance and forgot to tell him. She’s been hired to protect a bunch of potential victims; Harry then finds out Thomas has been following the same women – and they are all women – who have been targeted. He also finds another potential killer – Grey Cloak (Oh no, not a Warden!) and tracks them into Undertown and a rendezvous with Cowl. DUN-DUN-DUHHHHHH! (He also learns offhandedly that a family of Whampires – House Skavis – feeds on despair. But that’s probably not important.)

Harry tracks down Thomas. Hilarity ensues, especially when he finds out that Thomas has been protecting the women, rather than victiming them. However, Mad ol’Madrigal shows up with a cadre of ghouls, and every scatters to the winds. With a bit of deductive reasoning, Harry figures out that one of the women is actually a whampire in disguise, and using a old Vulcan mind meld trick he aand Elaine mastered in their childhood, he manages to make her aware that the Skavis is targeting her next, and she fries it, accidentally giving a motel owner a reason to remodel in the process.

Harry calls up Carlos “The Virgin” Ramirez to help him clean up. They head to the Raith property, and the same cavern that Big Daddy was using with the Ex Wives Club in book 6. The find a massive gathering of whampires, unmask Grey Cloak – he’s a Malvora – and Harry metaphorically slaps him across the face for breaking the Unseelie Accords. Malvora and picks Maddy as his second, and Harry happens to have Carlos, so a magical melee ensues until Malvora starts losing and cheats by calling in back-up. It’s Cowl. DUN-DUN-DUHHHHHH!

Harry then calls in his illegal back-up, a bunch of mercs with heavy weapons and Marcone. A lot of folks escape, but not Harry, Thomas, Lara, or Marcone. Lash – who I just realised I haven’t mentioned much, but who’s been hanging around in Harry’s head since he grabbed that coin, and has been slowly beginning to understand – and, dare we say, love – him, can’t get him to take up the Coin, so goes all sacrificey for Harry, allowing him to free everyone, though Cowl locks down Harry and Lara again. But Marcone’s explosives explodize, and Harry shields himself and Lara inside a shield bubble, and they go flying.

In the aftermath, Harry figures out that Lara was the one who got the ball rolling on the murders in the first place, all in an attempt to get the White Council – or at least Harry – to land a massive blow on Houses Skavis and Malvora. Which he did. In exchange, Harry extracts a promise that this shit never goes down again, and a weregild for the victims, which he and Elaine will shortly use to create a magical internet.

He also reveals what Marcone got for his help; supernatural recognition under the Accords. Harry wraps up by giving Lasciel’s coin to Forthill and playing a little guitar.

 

Small Favor

We start with Harry hanging out with Charity, Molly, and the rest of the Carpenter brood in the back yard, having a snowball fight. Molly’s shields are taking practice, and longer than Harry’s training did, he theorises, because his teacher used baseballs, rather than snowballs. First lesson today: Justin DuMorne was a dick.

Anyhoo, a bunch of Gruffs – the troll-slaying billy goats, you may have heard of them – show up and cause a fracas, and Charity goes SuperMom, and no one gets hurt. Turns out, these Gruffs are working for Summer, and they heard a rumour that Harry is working for Winter, so they decided to pull a First Strike on his ass.

Of course, Harry has not heard the same rumour, so he’s confused as fuck. Mab then makes a cameo appearance, telling him that she’s cashing in one of those 3 favours he owes her, and making him her Emissary. Echoes of Book 4 go off in Harry’s head, but he wants Mab off his back, so he’s all like, “Yeah,” and accepts. His job? Protect John Marcone. Second lesson today: Marcone is in some deep shit.

Harry finds out, after much shenanigans, that Nicodemus and his coin-collecting club have returned, and snagged Gentleman Johnnie for Nefarious Purposes. But, since GJM is now a lord under the accords, some rules apply to sorting this shit out, and a third party must come in and mediate.

After more shenanigans at the train station, Harry and Michael discover Ivy, Kincaid, and Luccio – still sporting her borrowed body from Book 7 – and they all crash at Harry’s for a spell. Third lesson today: Do not fuck with the Archive.

Ivy sets a meet up at a giant aquarium, and Harry realises too late that the whole thing is a misdirect: Nic just wanted Ivy on the field so he could give her a coin. Despite a rescue attempt and a glorious display of Angel-killing, (and a strange, super-charging effect on his spells that Harry doesn’t quite understand) Nic gets Ivy and makes off for a creepy island.

So, Harry makes a desperate offer: all the Coins Nic just lost, plus Shiro’s SuperSword, for Ivy. Nic grins, as he’s a great lover of the long game, and allows the meet up on the creepy island. Fourth lesson today: Even Nic can be played.

At about the same time, Michael asks Harry an Armor-piercing question: what happened to your blasting rod? Just thinking about it almost makes Harry’s head ‘asplode, but at least he now realises someone’s been playing him, too.

Harry, Michael and Sanya get to the island, do some awesome stuff, and save Ivy and GJM. Harry pulls his trump card, bringing in helicopter support, but Michael gets shot in the rescue attempt, and Harry is left alone. One last encounter with a Gruff – the Eldest, smallest, and most powerful – leads to a bizarre scene where they both just start laughing their asses off, then Harry cashes in a gold-plated favour that Summer owed him to allow both he and Gruff to walk away. Lesson the Fifth: Harry can play the long game, too.

Still trying to avoid Nic, Harry actually lands a crippling blow on him, turning his best defence into something rather more offensive, and gets rescued by Murphy in a manner that spawned a *lot* of fan theories.

Michael survives, though it’s touch and go, and Charity finally starts her thaw towards Harry. Harry learns from a not-so-Fallen Angel that the whole night could have gone worse – Michael was originally supposed to die, but Harry’s handling of the situation means he gets to just retire.

Mab also shows up again, and returns his blasting rod, telling him that using fire on this mission would have opened the door to much worse things… so she prevented that. Also, looks like that Angel has given Harry a gift. She does not elaborate. Lesson six: Everybody is playing Harry.

Feeling manipulated and sick of it, Harry says fuck it, accepts guardianship of both the Sword of Faith and the Sword of Love, and takes Luccio out for dinner and test run of that new body of hers.

 

You're not the only one, this is bringing back a lot of shit I'd forgotten.

 

Okay, I took Xmas off. Back at'er.

Turn Coat

Possibly the apex of the series, for many readers, adventure #11 is the last of the 'classic' Files, before everything Changes. But we'll get to that.

Anyway, we start with Harry - who's been meditating to deal with a right royal bitch of a headache, but we'll deal with that in about four books - opening his door and Morgan - the Warden who hunted him and taunted him and would have cut Molly's head off if Harry hadn't stood up back in Proven Guilty - falling inside and asking Harry to hide him, because the Wardens are coming, the Wardens are coming!

Yeah, turns out Mr. Goody-Twoshoes has been accused of murdering a Senior Council member. This is Bad.

Now, a lesser person might have just turned the grumpy ol' bastard in and washed their hands of it, but Harry being Harry is all like, "Nah," and sets about shit-sorting. First stop is getting medical supplies to keep Morgan not-dead.

This action all by itself sets off a shit-storm of epic proportions, as Harry is being chased. He zips off for help from the Alphas, everybody's favourite werenerds, and a Naagloshii - a skin-walker - which happens to be a super-evil, super-strong, super-asshole shapeshifter, swoops in and kills Kirby, one of the five named wolves.

This leads to much gnashing of teeth and regret in Harry's soul, and a new understanding between him and Will - Will is no longer a junior associate, and he can't protect his friends if he doesn't know WTF is going on. So, Harry's going to being sharing.

He heads home, and find the first of many bizarre tableaus, wherein Molly has stumbled across Morgan and is therefore now a legal accessory to harbouring a fugitive. Brilliant.

Hilarity ensues as the playbill expands, and Luccio comes to town, and Harry bumps into Madeline Raith - Madrigal's sister, and just as fucking loony as her bro - and a guy who I head-cannon as looking exactly like Bob Hoskins, but calls himself Binder. Murphy also gets swept in and provides a voice of reason, while Thomas provides distractions. We meet a PI named Vince Graver, who seems pretty cool, even though we've never seen him again.

Harry visits and mouths off to Lara, but the Naagloshii swings by and fucks shit up (not to mention breaking several vampires and their security guards in half) and reveals that he snagged Thomas - but is willing to trade him for Morgan.

A visit to the White Council doesn't help things - the scene of the crime supports the official story, and for political reasons, getting a new Senior Council member might actually be a good things, long-term. Everybody is oddly chill, except Peabody, a clerk who manages to spill ink everywhere except on Harry. But that's probably not important.

Anyway, realising he needs crazy amounts of firepower in his corner, what with a skinwalker to the left of him and vampires to the right, Harry gets stuck in the middle with the creepy island from the last book, and using Soulfire - the little gift he picked up from Uriel, also in the last book - Harry bonds himself to the island's genius loci, which he totally not-creepily calls Demonreach.

Calling up all the interested parties and laying a few traps, Harry gathers everyone on the island. He toasts Madeline and Binder, but Listens-to-Wind, a pretty awesome Senior Council member, has to intervene to get the skinwalker to fuck off. Bonus, he dropped Thomas on the island before he left; minus bonus, Thomas is pretty messed up and feral. Lara takes him away.

The plan doesn't completely work, and the real killer manages to escape. Morgan being Morgan, has had enough crazy and people getting fucked up for him, and surrenders just to calm it all down.

Literally nothing calms down. Harry appears at the trial, and using Mouse as a witness - because everyone agrees, Mouse is more trustworthy than Harry - he manages to prove that Peabody is the traitor whose been feeding the vampires info and screwing things up in general - and that ink he spills everywhere leaves the stained open to manipulation. He summons a Reaper - sorry, I mean a Voidfiend, a living chunk of Deathstone - I mean mordite, which it takes the whole Senior Council to contain.

Harry chases Peabody down, and Morgan, still wounded, follows. Morgan manages to kill Peabody, and, in a way, apologise to Harry for his lifetime of persecution, and explain that he took the fall on this because Peabody actually made Luccio - once, a very long time ago, Morgan's teacher - commit the murder. With echoes of Molly ringing in his head, Harry watches as Morgan dies of his wounds.

In the clean up, the new political appointment to the Senior Council happens, and Luccio breaks up with Harry, suspecting that her feelings for him were planted by Peabody. McCoy walks Harry back to the road home, and makes it clear that he agrees that the White Council is under attack, and he's recruiting allies. If the White Council won't stand against the Black Council, then this new Grey Council will have to.

 

Changes

Okay, this is either the Beginning of the End, or Where it Gets Good, depending on your feelings.

Susan - you remember Susan, who used to be a reporter, then almost became a vampire, but is just SuperSusan now, and whom Harry started the vampire war over? - Well, Susan gives Harry a call which informs that 1) she has a daughter, 2) he's the father, and three 3) said daughter's been kidnapped.

Harry being Harry doesn't know wtf to think, but then his internal family issues rear their head, and he's all like, "Grrr," and decides he's saving the kid, no matter what the details are. He goes to White Council headquarters, where a Red Court vamp is offering peace - peace, of all things! Well, Harry being Harry is all like, "Nah," and metaphorically slaps her. He's not allowed to do anything about this, though, and McCoy heads the whole thing off. Turns out, Harry's challenge is kinda poetic - this vamp - Arianna - is the widow of a certain satellite-flattened vamp we used to know a few books back.

Angry but better informed, Harry heads home, just in time to see his office blow the fuck up. Turns out the Red Court was his landlord all along. (Rubbing salt in the wound, they timed this right after he sent in his rent cheque.) He ends up under investigation by the FBI, but they can't hold him. There is a side quest involving the Erlking, the dude who runs the Wild Hunt (sorry, Geralt) and some vamps and goblins, but Harry and SuperSusan come out on top.

Back home, he meets up with his godmother, Lea, who has convinced Susan - and Martin, that vamp-sniping sneak - to shut off their vampiric sides. Harry wishes he knew how to do that, but Lea is feeling silly, so won't share.

He does deduce that she's there for a Very Good Reason, though, and asks her a direct question about it. Lea smiles and hands over something Harry's mother asked her to hold on to until Harry asked for it - a fancy little gem, which acts like a magical GPS. It is chock full of Mama Dresden's Nevernever Lonely Planet notes. Lea also points him to Odin, a nice old God who is also an information broker. Turns out, he also has a soft spot for Harry. He tells him what is happening to Maggie, his daughter, and where she will be, for free - an unheard of gift from a supernatural entity. Of course, it turns out the vamps are going to use Maggie as a tuning fork for a super blood curse that will kill her, Harry, McCoy, and anyone else related to them - who is older than her, remember that part - by blood.

Next time he heads home, it has the bad taste to catch fire, and Harry literally breaks his back getting everyone out. Fortunately, Sanya, he of the SuperSword, shows up out of nowhere (as the Knights are wont to do) and saves Harry and the others.

Hiding out, desperate and alone, Harry has an odd blackout - which I'm sure won't be mentioned again - and makes a devil's bargain. he accepts the Winter Knight's mantle to gain the power to save Maggie, and absolve him of any more favours to Mab.

Harry gathers all the allies he can - 8 of them, plus himself, giving rise to a seriously ridiculous number of Lord of the Rings references. He can't get McCoy to come along, but does get his blessing.

Using his mom's shortcuts, Harry guides the group to Mexico, where, after a few demonstrations of his new upgrades, Harry and the Red King are able to speak. He gets that duel he wanted with Arianna, with the prize to be Maggie. Well, Harry kicks her ass (and smears the remains all over the place for good measure) and the Red King reneges on the deal - gasp! Totally did not see that one coming.

A melee ensues, in which Murphy, using that SuperSword that glowed for her a couple books ago - carves a path through vamps, and McCoy and 11 of his greyest friends show up to help. Turns out, he brought a back up staff, too, since Harry got snapped earlier. His back up is Black, FYI.

Harry has another confrontation with the Red King, wherein much is revealed. Turns out, Martin has been playing everyone for a fucking century - he had loved the Red King, but became disillusioned, and wanted to destroy him. Recognising that the war Harry started was the best hope for this, he leaked the location of Maggie to the vamps, bringing Harry and McCoy into the fray, finally setting the king up to be checked. Allowing himself to be killed by Susan - turning her into the youngest vamp. Harry then kills her and suffers another blackout, presumed to be due to the massive energy feedback from the super-charged curse finally triggering.

All the Red Court - like, literally, all of them - die.

Realising what he has become, and knowing he can't give Maggie a good home, Harry gives her up to Father Forthill to place somewhere safe. With his apartment still smoldering, Thomas loans Harry his boat. Harry, everything in his life having changed in the last 48 hours, stands on the deck of the boat, and feels a strange twinge in his chest. Looking down, he sees a hole that wasn't there before, slowing filling with blood. Then he falls over the side of the boat. The End.

OR IS IT?

Yeah, it actually is.

 

These summaries have been awesome, like now I want to reread the whole series.

 

Okay, so my Ghost Story summation vanished... like a ghost, if you will. Let's try that shit again.

Ghost Story

And now, the contentious shit. Harry, having just been killed, is still aware. Yanked off the ‘southbound train’ tracks by Carmichael, the cop who died back in Fool Moon, he’s taken to visit Det. Murphy in a strange, eerily mirror version of Chicago. Murphy the elder, BTW – Karrin’s long-deceased dad.

Seems Harry did die, but there was a cosmic hiccup in the happening of that, and as such, his departure to the real afterlife has been delayed. He’s caught on Mobil Ave, and the only way out is to go investigate his own death. Harry being Harry is all like, “Yeah,” and gets dropped with Mort Lindquist, his old ectomancer frenemy. Mort doesn’t want anything to do with him since every time they meet, Mort’s life blows up in his face, but when a bunch of ornery afterlifers attack Mort’s house and Harry helps out, he agrees to drop him at Murphy’s – Murphy the younger – and deliver a message. With everyone now aware that Harry is sort-of back, she lets him know the consequence of killing ht eRed Court – power vacuum. And since nature abhors a vacuum, the Fomor – a bunch of supernatural cast-offs, has-beens, and never-wases – have made a move, attacking and taking practitioners. He also finds out that Molly has been living on the street in a pitiable state, and seems to be off the proverbial deep end, and no one can shake her out of it.

Harry’s adventuring about leads him to a runaway named Fritz, who is a sensitive without being a practitioner, and the Fagin he answers to, who is a practitioner and grade-A asshole. Harry manages to drag Father Forthill into that, and the poor priest tries to sort it out himself, getting his ass kicked. Butters and Daniel, Micheal's eldest son and Molly's brother, impersonate Wardens to help out, and it goes... badly. Harry spends most of that confrontation freaking out because an Angel of Death shows up to possibly escort Forthill to the next stage in the game. This turns out to be unnecessary, as other events intervene, and Fagin ends up dead instead - and Harry gets to see his soul dragged into the darkness, just as his own would have been had Carmichael not been there.

Anyway, it turns out the whole mess is caused by the Corpsetaker - the necromancer who played body-hopscotch with Luccio back in Book 7 - and she's been hanging around, waiting for a chance to get a new body.

Harry spends a day hanging out with Lea in his still-open grave (his present, if you remember, from THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTY EVER back in Book 3) and, as a pure spirit (distilled, if you will) is able to go through his memories without any of those pesky filters and defenses we living folks build without realising it. He remembers his first encounter with He Who Walks Behind - the Outsider that the ex wives club tried to summon back in Book 6 - and how he blew the bastard up by setting a gas station on fire. He also recalls stopping the murder machine dead in his tracks by throwing around a nickname - something Uriel has pointed out is Dangerous.

Anyway, Harry leads a bazillion ghosts in an assault on the Corpsetaker's lair, and it's awesome. Big C's lackey, incidentally, is Evil Bob - a piece of Bob he lopped off himself after book 7 to keep himself from ever remembering the Kemmler stuff - at Harry's order, no less. (You'll note an interesting pattern emerging.)

Anyway, during the assault, Harry ends up bumping into - and then inside of - Molly. In her head, which looks suspiciously like the bridge a certain nameless starship, Harry opens a cupboard labeled Do Not Open, and finally sees a memory - his own memory. Turns out, that blank spot in his mind from the last book, just before he sold his soul to Mab, he called Kinkaid up and asked him to put him out of his misery as soon as Maggie was safe, then asked Molly to perform some psycho-surgery to remove that memory.

With the mystery solved, and shortly there after, Corpsetaker put down for good, Harry gets a tour of his loved ones to make sure they're okay - Thomas is getting laid, Maggie is safe with Mouse, Molly is getting her shit together, and Murphy has purpose - and he decides to move on.

This turns out to be a Bad Idea. He wakes up in his body, in Mab's arms, underground on Demonreach. She's equal parts impressed and annoyed that Harry tried to get out of the deal, but he can't get out of it that easily. She tells him that he's her bitch and she's going to break him - and Harry hears a friendly voice. Turns out that cosmic hiccup was actually a foul play, and the penalty shot is Uriel whispering some encouragement - this is the FF7 "Golden Thread of Hope" Harry needs to stay sane, and we finish with him laughing in the face of the Queen of Winter.

Cold Days

We start with Harry nearly being smothered by the Queen of Winter. Serves him right.

Turns out, he was only 'mostly dead' in the last book, more displaced than lost. Having been slowly recovering in Arcis Tor under the care of Mab's BFF Sarissa, he has slowly been coming back to himself. For the next 77 days, he undergoes extensive physical therapy while also dodging murder attempts by Mab, sharpening his skills - he no longer appears to need foci - and his body - he eventually can lift nearly an imperial ton (400 KG). This brings him to his birthday, and a gathering of Fae and Sidhe, which goes badly, of course. He and Sarissa are nearly killed by the Red Cap (and others) under direction from Maeve, the Winter Lady. Harry outsmarts and outdoes them, establishing a badass rep and making enemies left right and center. Mab loves it. Taking him for a dance, she whispers her first mission to him: Kill Maeve.

Recoiling from the WTF nature of this, Harry gets some help from Cait Sith - the Optimus Prime of Malks, and a fucking badass himself - Harry gets back to Chicago, and after a weird encounter with Andi, who is now living with Butters (who is now my fucking hero) takes Bob for a bit and asks to know how to kill an immortal. Turns out, having this info is why Bob is so terrified of Mab, because it's sensitive shit. But Bob eventually reveals that immortals can be killed under certain circumstances - such as on Halloween night, because reasons.

Avoiding a bizarre assassination attempt by some Little Folk, Harry is saved by Molly, who has her shit together (mostly). They meet up with Thomas, who has also put all his shit in a bag and taken it to the museum, and scurry out to Demonreach. You see, Molly has had a premonition that the island is going to have a bad case of explosion, and that would be a Bad Thing.

Harry and Bob meet with the personification of the island, and get a history lesson. The island itself is a prison for the worst of the worst of the worst, and a few things more awful than that. It was created by Merlin himself, the most powerful mortal wizard to ever live, across at least 4 dimensions. Because Harry was Harry enough to invoke the genius loci, it now considers him the Warden of the island, so this is his problem. So, yeah. Awesome.

Harry has no idea what to do next, so after dodging another murder attempt by the Red Cap and cronies, he consults with a few different superfriends, including the Mothers, the Ladies, the gatekeeper, and even Odin himself. Mother Summer shows Harry the Outer Gates - the literal border of reality. Outsiders, it turns out, are constantly battering those gates, trying to get in and destroy everything. Occasionally, they sneak in, or get summoned by some idiot. Titania, after venting her rage at Harry killing Aurora back in Book 4, tells him the name of the Outsider that has been at the heart of most Harry's trouble over the lest several years - Nemesis. And Lily and Maeve tell Harry that Mab has lost ever-lovin' mind, and that's why she wants Maeve dead. And since she also controls the armies at the Gates, she could also allow in the Outsiders anytime she chooses. So, balls.

And he also realises that, due to the 4 dimensional structure of the prison, the thing that causes the big kablooey might not have been done yet - but the effects could stretch back through time. So, that's helpful.

Dodging yet another attack by the Red Cap, Harry ends up with a wound that won't close - which is a problem for all kinds of reasons - but also pulls off a really cool trick with ice that saves a lot of people he cares about, so cool.

Anyway, the night of a thousand fuck-ups comes along, and the Wild Hunt returns. Scenting Harry bleeding, it comes at him, hundreds of spectres, the Erlking, and Kringle - who is totally not Odin - chasing him and Murphy down on her motorcycle. With a lucky shot from his gun of shooting, Harry takes the Erlking of his mount, and claims the Hunt - which he then takes across the lake back to Demonreach, and discovers an army led by another Outsider - He Who Walks Before. The Hunt does a lot of damage, but not quite enough. Harry manages to pull a few more ice tricks - the Winter mantle really proving its usefulness - and stops the attack. But the real craziness is at the top of the hill, as it always seems to be on this fucking island, so he heads up with a few friends.

Lily and Maeve are breaking shit, and the genius loci is standing there, slowly getting eroded. Harry intervenes (losing his clothes along the way) and manages to convince Fix that Maeve truly is mad one, corrupted by Nemesis, and able to lie, something no Fae is able to do. She thinks of this as true freedom - but it is actually the breaking of the natural order. Unable to completely stop everything on his own, Harry summons Mab, who has her worse fears confirmed in a confrontation with Maeve, who kills Lily; besides breaking Fix's heart, this also knocks her mantle lose, which seeks out the nearest 'prepared' vessel - Sarissa, who is Maeve's twin sister who had forgone power all this time, having never chosen a mortal or Sidhe life.

Maeve thinks this will undermine Mab's plan to replace her, but Mab enables Murphy to finally get a shot off and kill Maeve. This releases her mantle, too, which also seeks out the nearest prepared vessel - Molly.

With all of this shit weighing on him, Harry elects to stay on the island for now, carve a new staff, and learn about his duties as Warden.

 

Glad for the write up on Ghost Story as that and Fool Moon are the only books I doubt I will ever read again.

 

Our of curiosity, is there any mention as to why there was such delay between his novels? I remember him as being incredibly prolific, but according to his wikipedia entry there seems to bea cut off after 2014 in terms of his bibliography (except for a recent collection of short stories).