Book 3 of The Dresden Files
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher is an entire series (currently at 13 volumes) of Books I Should Have Read by Now. Grave Peril is the third book, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the ride so far.
Harry Dresden, in case you have yet to meet him, is a wizard. His services are for hire in modern-day Chicago and he is a special consultant for the police force there. He is very skilled at his chosen profession, though he rarely looks the part, opting for sweatpants instead of flowing robes and carrying magic potions around in sports bottles. Skeptical? So, apparently, is just about everybody else, because Harry is perpetually broke.
Harry isn’t short of difficult supernatural situations in which to be embroiled, however, and in Grave Peril, he goes up against ghosts, vampires and his own faerie godmother. This time he’s got a working partner named Michael, a positively paladin-esque soldier of God, who is a wonderful compare-and-contrast tool for Harry. While Our Harry is occasionally morally confused and/or ambiguous (especially compared to Michael), he’s never a jerk to anyone who doesn’t deserve it and we can always trust him to do The Right Thing. In fact, even his bitter enemies count on him doing The Right Thing.
Grave Peril is wholly enjoyable to read, although I recommend reading the books of this series in order. (They’re relatively quick reads, so you could easily catch up.) Along with the usual action and adventure you might expect from an urban fantasy story, Butcher provides a great deal of humor, largely straight from the mind or mouth of Harry Dresden himself. I like his treatment of ghosts and vampires in this particular volume (a treatment that’s not the least bit sparkly, if you know what I mean), and I’m looking forward to finding out what happens with some of the unresolved situations left on the final page.
A Year of Books I Should Have Read by Now
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