Death Masks, by Jim Butcher
Death Masks is the fifth novel of The Dresden Files by author Jim Butcher. The story
revolves around Harry Dresden, a wizard living in present day Chicago.
Dresden is hired by a priest from the Vatican to find the missing Shroud of Turin, the cloth Jesus was wrapped in after the Crucifixion. Meanwhile, Ortega, Duke of the Red Court vampires, has challenged Harry to a duel. If Harry wins, Chicago will henceforth be deemed neutral territory, where nothing bad can happen while the war between vampires and wizards is still going on. But if he loses, Ortega kills him and therefore brings the war to an abrupt halt since Harry's death is what the vampires want out of the war. Harry already has a lot on his plate when Susan suddenly shows up out of nowhere to give one last goodbye. Harry meets new villains in this book: Ortega, Nicodemus, Deirdre, and Snakeboy. We are also introduced to Ivy, the Archive, aka: the one who holds every bit of information in the known universe. She's 7. We meet the other two Knights of the Cross as well, Shiro and Sanya.
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Warning: Spoilers follow
here.
The book opens up with a man who has been murdered, by what seems like several diseases at once, and cut up grisly along his chest. Harry accompanies Murphy to the morgue where we are introduced to Butters, the medical examiner. After determining the cause of death to be the Plague and noticing a faded tattoo on the dead man's arm that might help later, Harry heads out down a dark alley. He gets attacked in the alley by a bear-demon and is rescued by the three Knights of the Cross. After the bear-demon is beheaded, a coin falls to the ground. When Harry goes to pick it up, Michael stops him and explains that these coins hold Fallen angels, evil angels, that possess people and turn them into terrifying demons and make them do bad things, aka: the Denarians. If you touch a coin, the process for possession begins for whoever is touching it. Michael pockets the coin by use of a cloth and everyone heads over to the church of Father Forthill. Susan shows up with a man named Martin, whom she's totally not involved with thank God, and tells Harry that she's been down in Peru for a while and is going to end up staying in Central South America to help the people. This is of course hard for Harry to accept, but he does because he knows that Susan is doing what she feels in her heart is right. After failing in his attempt to not screw up all the machinery on a local TV show, Harry agrees to the duel with Ortega. He is required to choose a second, and originally wants Michael but Shiro ends up enlisting on his own when Michael is out of town and Harry is out of time. Before Harry and Shiro can make it to the duel, however, Nicodemus - the leader of the Denarians - scoops Harry up and trys to Darth Vader him into the dark side. Harry refuses, and just as Nicodemus is preparing to take him out for good, Shiro shows up and takes his place. Harry escapes with Susan in tow and heads to the duel. Susan acts as his second, and the duel is set in motion: Ortega and Harry stand on either side of an anything-devouring orb. The first man to push the orb into the other man, using only will extended through their right hand, wins the duel, since the other man is eaten. Things go wrong, and Ortega had originally intended all along to cheat and kill Harry. Ortega pulls a gun, but is shot down instead by an unseen gunman. After Harry makes some quick attempts to finish Ortega off, several other Reds emerge from the outskirts and try to overtake everyone. Susan is flung into the stands of the stadium where the duel is taking place and Thomas, who was acting as Ortega's second, rushes over to help her. Kincaid, Ivy's assistant, and Ivy duck for cover and start taking out Reds with fire guns. Once Harry, Kincaid, and Ivy have succeeded in taking out the Reds, Harry rushes over to Susan, who is unconscious but alive. Martin tells Harry that he had intended to come and take Ortega out from the very beginning, using Susan as an ulterior motive. Martin assures Harry that he will take care of Susan and implies they are leaving immediately. After noticing a familiar tattoo on Father Forthill and realizing that Father Vincent, the client who hired Harry to find the Shroud, is actually Snakeboy masquerading as Father Vincent, Harry beats information out of him regarding where Nicodemus is taking the Shroud. Afterward, Harry hurries over to meet Michael and Sanya in the parking lot at O'Hare airport, where Nicodemus is bringing the Shroud to act as a vessel through which he can make the Plague virus airborne, infecting the entire world since O'Hare is one of the most famous international airports there is. They arrive at the chapel, where Shiro's body is found on a sacrificial table, his blood having been used as paint to write insignia on the walls of the chapel. His body is also sliced like the body in the morgue. He is not completely dead, however, and tells the three where Nicodemus planned to take the Shroud. Marcone shows up and uses a helicopter to lift Harry, Sanya, and Michael over the train where Nicodemus is holding the Shroud. After a long battle with Nicodemus and some lackies, Sanya is dealing with a hurt leg, Michael is down with four bulletholes in his chest, and both swords have been kicked off the train. It doens't look good. But when Marcone and Harry decided to rush Nicodemus by themselves, Marcone grabs a knife and cuts the Shroud free, taking it with him to the water below as the train crosses a bridge. Harry grabs Michael and jumps off, too. Murphy comes to the scene not too long afterward, and Harry eventually wakes up in the Carpenter's guest room. Michael is saved by his Kevlar vest, and gives Harry an envelope and Shiro's sword. Inside the envelope is a letter from Shiro and a medical report, stating that Shiro was already suffering from terminal cancer. That's why he so willingly took Harry's place with Nicodemus. Harry is given his sword to keep until he knows who to give it to. At the end, Harry is over at Michael's and playing with Little Harry, Michael's son, in the front yard. A silver coin is flicked into the grass in front of the baby and Harry beats him to it to find out it is a Denarian coin. He looks up to see Nicodemus in a car in the street, saying he'll see Harry again. Harry buries the coin inside a circle, covered by concrete in his lab. He hears from Susan one more time on the phone, and starts to accept that they can't be together.
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I had this storyline already formed in my head. When Harry and Susan are at the duel and Harry takes Ortega down, Susan is overcome with blood lust and drinks Ortega's blood. Then we are supposed to find out that drinking the blood of another Red reverses the condition if you haven't given in and fed yet. Then she was going to be saved and she and Harry could get married. But NO. We have to put up with yet another ending where they don't get together and it's sad. BOO. Other than that, I liked this one. I really enjoyed the arc of religion throughout the book, and the new characters that were introduced. I didn't go into a lot of detail above, but this book made me love Marcone even more. He was already my favorite character, and now I love him all the more. I can't wait to see what else he does in the series. Ivy is awesome. My future daughter will be Ivy. As usual, the fight scenes were well-orchestrated and lasted appropriately long. I'm a fan. Sad Harry and Susan arc, though? I give it 4/5.
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For Next Time:
Blood Rites, by Jim Butcher
Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, takes on a case as a
favor to his friend Thomas-a vampire of dubious integrity-only to become
the prime suspect in a series of ghastly murders.
-barnesandnoble.com
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