Grave Peril, by Jim Butcher
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Warning: Spoilers follow
here.
In this book, we are introduced to Michael Carpenter, a friend of Dresden's who is a Knight and carries a sword containing one of the Crucifixion nails melted into the blade. Michael believes in God and is a very religious man, which makes for great banter between him and Dresden, who is not so religious. Dresden remembers that he, along with Michael, Murphy, Malone (a fellow police officer), and others from the SI unit, caught a sorcerer by the name of Kravos who had unleashed a demon into the world. Kravos was successfully apprehended and put in jail, and the demon was stopped. After Dresden and Michael actually venture into the Nevernever to fight off a vengeful ghost named Agatha who escaped through some of the aforementioned wall turbulence, they realize she has a length of barbed wire attached to her, poking into her skin and torturing her. Not too long after that, Dresden is called to investigate some scary goingson at the Malone house. Officer Malone has been handcuffed to his bed by other police already on the scene, and looks to be possessed. Dresden enables his Sight, and sees that Malone is also being tortured by the barbed wire serpent poking into his skin. Dresden manages to unwrap the serpent from Malone, and incinerates it with his Fuego spell. After that, Malone is back to normal, but Dresden still needs to figure out why/how mortals are being targeted from something in the Nevernever. Eventually, Dresden realizes that everyone who was present for Kravos's capture is being targeted. He hurries to Michael's house to warn him, only to learn that Charity, Michale's wife, has stepped out to the store. They hurry but are too late, and see Kravos's ghost carrying Charity into a graveyard. After a long and hurtful battle, Dresden's godmother Lea comes to help. Lea is a deceitful faery who is constantly trying to claim Dresden as her own. She offers to help a badly-wounded, concussion-suffering Dresden in exchange for ownership of him, and he accepts. After the ghost is defeated in the cemetery, Dresden takes Michael's sword and attempts to off Lea right there. Michael warns Harry, too late, that since that's not the sword's intended purpose, there will be bad consequences. The sword falls from Harry's hands and Lea is able to pick it up since it was used for a bad purpose, and takes it with her. Michael is now without his weapon, and his wife is going into labor in the graveyard. Charity delivers the baby, but the baby isn't doing so well. Dresden and Michael, still without his sword for protection, crash a vampire ball, only to realize that they were duped into coming in the first place. Lea makes an appearance at the ball and does her deceitful business by conning Susan, who also crashed the ball to get a story, into giving up a year of her memory to save Dresden. Lea takes a year's worth of memories that only hold Dresden in them, so Susan has no idea who he is. After going up against the vampires, and trying to reclaim Michael's sword that showed up at the ball thanks to Lea, Michael, Dresden, and Lydia, a victim of the vampires and former customer of Dresden's, flee the scene but are forced to leave Susan behind. After battling Kravos's ghost again at his apartment, Dresden heads into the Nevernever with Bob the Skull, Michael, and Thomas, a helpful vampire. The wander through, intending to use the Nevernever as a secret passage and slip into the vampire castle unnoticed. Lea catches up to them but this time they are able to trick her into leaving Dresden alone (at least for one year) and Dresden heads to the door that leads to Susan and the vampires. He is ambushed by vampires and beaten, then left for dead in a laundry room with another victim, Thomas's love interest, Justine. After a long time in the laundry room, Dresden hears noises coming from a corner and finds out it is Susan, and that she is okay. But she has been bitten by a Red Court vampire. If she doesn't feed, she won't turn completely, but she is very thirsty for blood. She tries to bite Dresden, but he tell her he loves her, and in doing so breaks Lea's memory spell, and brings Susan back to the surface. She is still in vampire limbo, but she can seemingly turn it off when she needs to. Dresden and Susan work out a plan for Dresden to fall asleep and meet Kravos in his dream, then defeat him. This plan works, and in killing Kravos in the dream, Dresden gains his power. He rounds up everyone in the laundry room and busts down some doors, takes out a few vampires, conjures up some spells, releases a whole mess of ghosts to help him out, reclaims Susan from the vampires, and escapes. In the end, Dresden doesn't hear from Susan for a long time since she's still dealing with her vampire urges. He uses a spell to find her, and proposes to her, but she declines because she doesn't feel like she could control herself around him. She tells him to stay away, and that she will be the one to stay in touch with him. She doesn't call or visit anymore at the end of the book, but sends Dresden a card on his birthday (Halloween) with "I love you" written in it. Michael's baby, who he and his wife name Harry, survives, as do all of the other victims of the vengeful Kravos, who is finally put to rest.
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Wow, there's a lot in this book. For my first critique, which I will admit has nothing to do with the story, the publisher of this particular book apparently didn't want to pay money for an editor. The typos in this book drove me crazy. Now for the story. At the end, I had a lot of questions, but I feel like a lot of this story is continued in the next book, so I'm holding out hope for that. Some questions I have: Is Stallings actually a bad guy? Totally got that vibe from him. Same with Thomas. Will Harry find a cure for Susan? There was a brief mention at the very end that Harry was working on one, but to no avail. Definitely want more details there! I want (read: NEED) Harry and Susan to get married. Something tells me that they don't, and that's really sad. What tugged on Harry's duster in the Nevernever as he was storming the vampire castle? Seemed like a deliberate setup that wasn't resolved. Is Bianca still alive? Why was Agatha chosen to torture? Was she just that big and bad of a ghost that Kravos knew that provoking her would set her off? Seems like such a random decision. What was the deal with the barbed wire, and who was doing it? If Bianca or Marva were the ones doing the barbed wire (I think I remember Harry saying he felt like Marva was the guy, but Marva was teaching Bianca some dark magic, so it could have been either one), that would explain how it was being done in the real world, since a ghost wasn't actually doing it as originally thought. Why doesn't Bob just tell Harry stuff? It feels like Bob treats Harry like a little kid and keeps giving him clues so he can find out the answer "by himself," rather than just tell him something and save valuable time. Lastly, what's the this spirit radio in Dresden's office? There was never mention of it before, and I feel like it should be used more frequently. The end of the book really hooked me, and I was dealing with a pacing heart and an overdue bedtime trying to finish it last night. I'm enjoying all the new characters, but I really hate the evil ones. I know, you're supposed to hate them. I love Michael and the perspective he gives Dresden on religion sometimes. I am, however, unsatisfied with the neat little bow Butcher has put at the end of the book. I felt like it was a really weak and half-assed attempt to wrap up everything and I need to know more. Until I read the next one, which hopefully wraps everything up nicer, this one get a 4/5.
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Summer Knight, by Jim Butcher
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