Book Review: Blood Rites

Blood Rites, by Jim Butcher

Blood Rites is the sixth novel of The Dresden Files by author Jim Butcher. The story revolves around Harry Dresden, a wizard living in present day Chicago.  Dresden is asked by Thomas, the vampire we first meet at Bianca's shindig in book 3, to help solve a couple of really weird murders that are happening around a friend of his, Arturo Genosa.  Genosa, a skin flick director, is experiencing odd and deadly attacks on all the women in his life, and wants to know why.  Harry agrees since Thomas has saved him so many times in the past.  While on the set acting as another stagehand, Harry comes across several clues - with Murphy's help, of course - that give him a better understanding of Genosa's history.  Meanwhile, Harry realizes the Black Court is in town and enlists the aid of Kincaid, Ivy's helper, to take them down.  Evenutally, the White Court comes in and doesn't make things any easier, either.  Also, Murphy wears a dress AND pink underwear with white bows on them.  Also, puppies.

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Warning: Spoilers follow here.

Dresden saves puppies and ends up keeping one by accident, the newest addition to the Dresden clan: Mouse.  After agreeing to Thomas's favor, Harry find out that Genosa had three ex-wives.  Murphy tells him that each of the ex-wives are entitled to a large sum of money indefinitely through Genosa's will.  The operator of the money was supposed to be Genosa's mother, but she is deceased at this point.  If Genosa marries again, that woman will then become the operator.  That gives all three ex-wives a motive for murder, but the murders are being done by really powerful magic, which none of the three seem to possess.  After some more searching, Harry finds out that Lord Raith, the King of the White Court of vampires, is out for Genosa because Genosa once worked under him, but has now decided to go do his own thing.  And to boot, if Genosa's latest movies do well, he'll be in better and higher power in the field that Raith.  So Raith has motive, too.  Turns out, Raith was the one giving the motive to the three exes.  None of them knew about the clause in the will.  So the four of them worked together to conjure up a massive ritual spell to take out any and all women around Genosa, hoping to finally land on the right one since no one knew who #4 was going to be.  That would leave Genosa vulnerable, and more able to be controlled once again.  Harry originally agreed to help out Genosa only if Thomas would tell him why he's saved him so many times.  At Raith House, Thomas takes Harry down to the bottom floor, to a painting gallery.  Thomas explains that Lord Raith took it upon himself to have a painting made of each woman who bore him a child.  After Harry looks at the paintings for a few minutes, he notices the one second to last looks familiar.  He reads the name underneath, Margaret Gwendolyn LeFay, his mom.  Thomas yanks a pentacle out from under his shirt and reveals that Margaret is his mother, too.  Harry and Thomas are brothers.  Kincaid comes around, as does Ebenezar, and along with Harry and Murphy as a foursome, they storm the homeless shelter to bring down the Black Court.  Mavra is leading them, but after a long battle of quick thinking and charred limbs, Harry takes her down with a paintball gun full of holy water and garlic.  The four heroes escape with the hostages in tow, a bunch of children, and take the kids to Father Forthill.  Afterward, Harry and Murphy make arrangements to meet back up in an hour to storm Raith House and save Thomas, who is being used as the sacrifice with which the huge ritual spell will use to kill Harry, to get him out of the way of letting all the baddies be exposed.  During that hour, Ebenezar tells Harry a lot of stuff.  Like, how he and Kincaid know each other.  They know each other because they were both formerly assassins during the same time.  Eb tells Harry that Kincaid is only half-human but doesn't tell him what the other half is.  Then Eb tells Harry that he knew Margaret, his mother.  Turns out Margaret was Eb's apprentice and that Eb was really hard on her, so she ran away to be defiant.  She took up wrong crowds just to be rebellious, but after a while she couldn't stop or turn back.  Eventually this led her to Raith, where she had Thomas, and then to Harry's dad.  Raith killed Margaret the night Harry was born, using an entropy spell.  Margaret cast her death curse on him, which now means he can't feed until both lines of her blood, Thomas and Harry, are killed.  Killing them will douse the bloodline and release Raith of the curse.  When Harry and Murphy show up at Raith house to defeat Raith once and for all, Raith ambushes them and takes them down to the cave where Thomas is being held and the ritual is getting ready to take place.  Ex-wife #1 begins the ritual on Thomas.  After being called away to a fake accident, Raith returns and is jumped by Murphy and Harry.  All the lights go off in the cave and Harry and Murphy are left in the dark trying to find Raith and defeat him before the ritual can be completed.  The ex-wife calls upon He Who Walks Behind, the demon Justin sent after Harry.  Harry saves Thomas, but he and Murphy can't defeat Raith by themselves since he's protected.  Lara, his daughter, comes in and starts seducing him, telling everyone else to get out.  Everyone lives.  For once.  Harry offers to house Thomas until he can find a place for himself, since Lara thought it would be better for him to go away from Raith House, and the book ends with Harry naming his new furry friend and accepting Thomas as his brother.

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Holy crap.  The stuff in this book.  Margaret was kind of a slut.  I want to know what his dad's name was.  If we've already been told, I've forgotten.  I also want his dad's story.  I want Harry to forgive Eb and they be cool again.  I love that Thomas is his brother.  There was a lot sexual tension between Murphy and Dresden in this book.  Not sure if I like that or not.  Murphy's sister is a bitch.  I started yelling when I thought Thomas was dead.  I'm really glad he's not.  We still don't know who Morgan's special someone was at Archangel.  I want the war to be over.  I don't give 5 stars lightly.  I really enjoyed this book, it is now my favorite.  So far.  5/5.

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For Next Time:
Dead Beat, by Jim Butcher

When a killer vampire threatens to destroy head of Special Investigations Karrin Murphy's reputation unless Harry delivers the powerful Word of Kemmler to her, he has no choice. Now Harry is in a race against time to find the Word before Chicago experiences a Halloween night to wake the dead.
-barnesandnoble.com

Book Review: Death Masks

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

Book Review: Summer Knight

Summer Knight, by Jim Butcher

Summer Knight is the fourth novel of The Dresden Files by author Jim Butcher. The story revolves around Harry Dresden, a wizard living in present day Chicago.  Dresden works with Karrin Murphy, a police officer with the Chicago PD, to help solve cases that seem to have happened by supernatural forces.  Usually.  This time, Dresden is enlisted by Mab, Queen of the Winter Court, to solve a murder and clear her name - all while stopping an apocalyptic battle between the Summer and Winter Courts. 

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Warning: Spoilers follow here.

In Summer Knight, Harry is a total wreck trying to procure a cure for Susan, who is still dealing with the vampire toxin.  For nearly a year, Harry has been down in his lab running experiment after experiment to no avail.  One day, Billy the Werewolf from Fool Moon calls Dresden and tells him that something wonky is happening in the park.  The Alphas have been patrolling areas of Chicago since the events of Fool Moon, and there's been a sudden "rain" of toads.  After a juvenile attempt at an assassination on Harry, supposedly due to the vampire war that is now raging since the end of the last book, and after deducing that the toads are real, Harry begins to wonder what else is going on.  Meanwhile, Billy has taken it upon himself to try and wrangle Harry's life back in order and set up an interview with a client at his office.  Harry meets up with his client, who turns out to be Mab, the Winter Queen.  Turns out the Summer Knight has been killed, and the obvious answer of suspect is Mab.  She says she didn't do it, and wants Harry to help clear her name.  In addition, Mab has purchased Harry's debt from Lea, his godmother, and now "owns" Harry.  Harry and Mab come to an agreement: after performing three tasks for Mab, Harry's debt will finally be released.  The first task is clearing Mab's name of the murder.  That same evening, the White Council meets to discuss what to do in light of the vampire war.  It is brought to light that Mab has offered safe passage through the Nevernever for the wizards, only after an unknown task is completed - Harry's case.  It is because of this that the Council can't abolish Harry, they have to keep him on the council in order to have a getaway plan for the vampire war.  So they adjourn the meeting and Harry goes to talk to Bob.  Bob tells Harry that there are six people of higher order in either Court: Winter and Summer Mother, the highest; Winter and Summer Queen, in the middle; and Winter and Summer Lady, the lowest power.  Under each Lady is a Knight who fights on that Court's behalf.  The Summer Knight is now dead, and Harry has to figure out who killed him, how, and why in order to clear Mab.  One night, Harry returns to his apartment to find it open.  He prepares a spell since he could be facing anyone inside, and opens the door to find Elaine, his first love who was thought to have burned in the fire alongside Justin, Harry's teacher.  We know Harry's side of the story: Justin tried to bring Harry over the dark side, while Elaine tried to hold him down, and Harry ran.  Lea, technically an advocate of the Winter Court, offered Harry power with which to defeat Justin and now Harry is still paying off that debt.  But there's another side.  When Harry returned with this new power to defeat Justin, Elaine ran out of fear.  She was offered protection from Aurora, the Summer Lady.  Unknowingly, both Harry and Elaine were offered some sort of protection from, and now owe a debt to, both Courts.  As such, both are put up against each other to see which side wins out.  After a lot backstabbing, and a lot of trickery, Harry, the Alphas, and two Changelings who were loyal to the Summer Knight, walk the stairs to Faerie and prepare to take down Aurora, the Summer Lady, who killed the Summer Knight.  Turns out Aurora is trying to wreak complete havoc, even though she somehow thinks she's doing the right thing 'cause she crazy, and Harry and the Gang are trying to stop her.  After lots of cool battling, they do, and Harry is returned home, his first task to Mab paid off.  Elaine tells him to stop feeling sorry for himself before skipping town, and he goes over to the Alpha's place for pizza.
 

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Whew!  This book has a lot to offer.  There's a lot of story and a lot of back story as well, which I appreciated.  I really want Harry to find a cure for Susan, or to find something that can help her.  I want her to come back in the next book and there be a way to fix her.  All the battle scenes were so well written.  The story, to be honest, was a little convoluted.  There was never a real answer as to why Aurora was doing everything, trying to ruin the Courts.  I'm sure the answer of, "She effing crazy" makes perfect sense, it just doesn't seem Butcher's style.  I like that Harry's debt now lies with Mab, because I like Mab.  We'll see if that changes.  I'm liking the return of characters with the Alphas.  I hope more characters make returns.  Simply because the story made my head hurt a little, I'm giving the book a 4/5.  But so far, it is my favorite.

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For Next Time:
Death Masks, by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden, Chicago's only practicing professional wizard, is hired by a mysterious priest to find the stolen shroud of Turin. -barnesandnoble.com

Book Review: Grave Peril

Grave Peril, by Jim Butcher

Grave Peril is the third novel of The Dresden Files by author Jim Butcher. The story revolves around Harry Dresden, a wizard living in present day Chicago.  Dresden works with Karrin Murphy, a police officer with the Chicago PD, to help solve cases that seem to have happened by supernatural forces.  In the third book, Dresden is put up against ghosts stirring up from the Nevernever, the world of the supernatural just past our world.  The wall that separates our two worlds is experiencing some major turbulence, and Dresden needs to find out who is causing it.
 

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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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For Next Time:
Summer Knight, by Jim Butcher

Private detective/wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden is suckered into tangling in the affairs of Faerie, where the fate of the entire world-and his soul-are at stake. -barnesandnoble.com

Book Review: Fool Moon

Fool Moon, by Jim Butcher

Fool Moon is the second novel of The Dresden Files by author Jim Butcher. The story revolves around Harry Dresden, a wizard living in present day Chicago.  Dresden works with Karrin Murphy, a police officer with the Chicago PD, to help solve cases that seem to have happened by supernatural forces.

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Warning: Spoilers follow here.

This book starts six months after the events of the first book.  This time, there's a full moon, and bloody paw prints and grisly murders abound.  Murphy is under surveillance from Internal Affairs after the events of the first book, seen as an accomplice to Gentleman John through a chain of misunderstandings.  To combat this, she enlists Dresden's help on a string of new murders that happen every time there's a full moon.  She hopes that Dresden can help her get to the conclusion quicker, thereby impressing IA and getting them off her back.  From the word Go, things are weird.  FBI comes out of nowhere and takes over the whole investigation.  Where there's bloody paw prints and very grisly murder scenes, there are sure to be werewolves.  Bob the Skull drops some knowledge on us when he tells us there are 4 different kinds of werewolves: Werewolves (a human being who uses magic to turn himself into a wolf - still keeps their own personality), Hexenwolves (use a talisman holding someone else's magic to turn completely into a wolf), Lycanthropes (in your mind, you're a wolf, but you never physically transform), and Loup-Garou (the deadliest - someone who is cursed to become a wolflike demon every full moon).  All four types are represented, with werewolves and lycanthropes being combined into one type of creature.  After receiving help from Tera, a lycanthrope/werewolf hybrid, Dresden is set to rescue her fiancé, Harley MacFinn, who is a loup-garou.  Since loup-garou are the deadliest kinds of werewolves, everyone's first assumption is that MacFinn is doing all the killings.  But then it's brought to light that some of the killings took place either before or after a full moon, and there's still some questions to be answered.  In the end, we find out that the FBI agents are all Hexenwolven, and that they committed a lot of the murders.  They are trying to kill off John Marcone to get him off the streets of Chicago for good, and trying to simultaneously set up MacFinn and a gang called the Streetwolves (lycanthropes) to take all the blame instead of them.  The FBI agents are all taken out, mostly while Dresden becomes a Hexenwolf for a little while, and so is MacFinn, so he can't harm anyone else during one of his killing sprees.  Murphy is off the hook from IA after news is spread of how she aided in killing the murderous werewolf, and Dresden leaves us hanging as he contemplates who is trying to kill him.

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There's something about reading about wolves that just puts me to sleep!  When I read the Twilight series, I think it was Eclipse where all the wolves talk to each other, and my eyes got tired of that real quick.  Same with this book.  Not to mention, Dresden is so physically drained for the vast majority of this book.  It made me tired to read about him being so tired!  I have a few questions at the end, like: what about those romance books for Bob?  And where did he go; after he talks about the werewolf types, we never hear from him again.  Who is after Dresden, aka, who made the belts?  Why didn't his magic work for so long?  Why is Murphy so weird in this book?  The climax of the book was too long for me.  Butcher revealed everything a little quicker in the first book, but I will say I sincerely appreciate the nice little bow he wraps everything up with at the end.  I hope he does that again in the next one.  Opening: OMG.  Ending: TL;DR.  4/5.

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For Next Time:
Grave Peril, by Jim Butcher

In all his years of supernatural sleuthing, Harry Dresden has never faced anything like this: the spirit world's gone postal. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone-or something-is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? If Harry doesn't figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself. -barnesandnoble.com

Book Review: Storm Front

Storm Front, by Jim Butcher

Storm Front is the first novel of The Dresden Files by author Jim Butcher. The story revolves around Harry Dresden, a wizard living in present day Chicago.  Dresden works with Karrin Murphy, a police officer with the Chicago PD, to help solve cases that seem to have happened by supernatural forces.

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Warning: Spoilers follow here.

The book starts with Dresden receiving a package at his door, where yet another mailman gives him grief about his sign advertising that he is a wizard.  Dresden operates out of Chicago and helps others with magic or supernatural problems.  He gets a call from Murphy ordering him to come down to the Madison hotel, the scene of a grizzly double homicide.  Both victims have had their hearts ripped out through their chests, and it looks like black magic is the culprit.  One victim is Tommy Tomm, a henchman for well-known mob boss Gentleman John Marcone.  The other victim is Jennifer Stanton, a call girl who works for Miss Bianca - a vampiress.  After several attempts from Murphy to dissuade him from looking into the case on his own, Dresden talks with Bianca and Gentleman John.

Meanwhile, a woman named Monica Sells comes to Dresden seeking help for her missing husband, Victor.  Victor has been missing for several days and Monica tells Dresden that Victor was practicing magic when he suddenly disappeared.  Monica is nervous during their meeting, and Dresden keeps asking her why she didn't just go to the police.  Monica tells him that the police would just laugh at her, hearing her excuse of magic.  Dresden takes the case, and a $500 deposit from Monica, who rushes out the door as soon as she can.  One of the leads for Dresden to find Victor was the Sells's lake house, near Lake Michigan.  Dresden heads up to the lake house and does some snooping.  He finds a red film canister.  After calling for and wrestling answers out of Toot, a faery he knows, Dresden is finally able to assess that Victor was seen having sex at the lake house just the night before.  Dresden thinks that Victor is simply cheating on Monica and decides to concentrate on the double homicide instead.  However, when Dresden calls Monica to update her on what he's found out, Monica is suddenly very standoffish, telling Dresden to keep the money and never call her again.

After a woman named Linda Randall, a former call girl friend of Jennifer and employee of Miss Bianca who now works as a driver for a rich couple named the Beckitts, is found dead in her apartment in the same manner as Tommy and Jennifer, Dresden starts putting the pieces together.

Everyone is connected in one way or another.  The Beckitts had a daughter who was killed in a crossfire between Marcone's gang and another rival gang.  Victor struggles to provide for his family financially, so he takes up Black magic and seeks out help from the Beckitts, who can give him a lot of money.  In return, he will take out Marcone as punishment for killing their daughter.  Victor needs strong energy to make his magic work, so he starts having orgies in his lake house to feed of the lust energies.  Jennifer is actually Monica's sister.  Because she is a call girl and the situation would help her sister's family financially, Jennifer agrees to be a part of the orgy scheme.  Jennifer and Linda were lovers as well as coworkers.  Linda also takes part in the orgies.  Once he had been engulfed by the Black magic, Victor started to scare Monica.  Jennifer threatened Victor with police action if he didn't stop scaring Moncia.  Victor took out Jennifer to keep her quiet, and the force of the magic was so powerful it took out Tommy as well.  After Linda figured out it was Victor who killed them, she attempted to tell the police, but Victor killed her too.

After all of this is out in the open, and since it now looks like he is the next victim, Dresden goes to confront Victor (who, in the absence of orgy participants, has had to rely on energy from a storm front) at the lake house as the next storm is starting.  After a long battle, Victor is finally defeated and Dresden is saved.

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First of all, you need some back story.  The Dresden Files is my husband's favorite book series.  He began reading it in college and has been hounding me to read it ever since.  So, this Christmas his gift was me reading Dresden.  I think Dresden is such a badass.  The scene where he goes to confront Marcone at The Varsity really had me cheering Dresden on.  The steamier scenes were written well, too.  This book really makes you fall in love with Dresden, you almost want him to protect you.  (I'm totally scouting out pentacle necklaces on eBay - don't judge me.)  He is so kind, and a badass, and a wizard.  He's the total package, and I can't wait to see what else he does in the upcoming books!  This was an amazing first book, and Justin assures me they only get better from here.  So here ya go, Butcher: 5/5.

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For Next Time:
Fool Moon, by Jim Butcher

Could a werewolf be loose in Chicago? Common sense says no. The grisly evidence says yes. So does Harry Dresden. And with his weird connections, he should know. -barnesandnoble.com

Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler's Wife is the first novel by author Audrey Niffenegger.  The story recounts the first meeting of Clare and Henry.  When Clare meets Henry for the first time, she is 6.  Henry is 36.  But in present time, Henry is only 8 years older than Clare.  How can this be?  Well, Henry is a time traveler.  In the novel, time travel is treated as a genetic disorder, as it is involuntary.  Over Clare's life, Henry comes and visits her in the clearing behind her house in Michigan.  They meet in real time in Chicago when Clare is 20 and Henry is 28.  Henry works in the Newberry Library, which Clare has visited to find a book for a college paper.  When Clare originally meets Henry for the "first time" in the library, he doesn't recognize her, because he hasn't actually met her yet.  Even though Clare has been visiting Henry her entire life, Henry has never met her, because he hasn't traveled for the first time to meet her when she is 6.  As you recall, this doesn't happen until Henry is 36.  After they meet in real time, the two form a relationship that eventually leads to marriage and results in Clare having to live in real time while Henry is still a time traveler. 

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Warning: Spoilers follow here.

All throughout her childhood, Clare meets up with and has conversations with Henry as he time travels.  He tells her things about her future and how they meet and get married one day.  Clare grows up remembering all the times Henry came crashing into the clearing behind her home and all the conversations they had.  After Henry and Clare meet in real time and Clare has to remind Henry of who she is and how she's known him her whole life, they date a little over two years before getting married.  After they have been married an additional two years, they decide to have children.  This is a scary concept because time travel is genetic (although, it's not stated in the book whether or not someone else in Henry's family ever time traveled - at least not that I remember), and Clare and Henry are afraid their baby would inherit the trait.  They endure six miscarriages before finding out what's going wrong: after a doctor finally believes Henry can time travel, he sets in motion a long plan of experiments and research to try and figure out how to keep Henry in the present.  After doing test on lab mice, the doctor finds out that when the mother mice become pregnant, their fetuses are traveling outside the womb.  When the fetuses return, the mother's body sees it as a foreign object, and her immune system treats the baby as though it were a disease and gets rid of it, internally hemorrhaging the mother and killing her in the process.  The only way to prevent the outcome is to shut down the immune system completely.  Clare sees this as another option; all they have to do is shut down her immune system, and she can have their baby.  But Henry speculates that trying anymore could kill Clare, and he does everything in his power to prevent her from getting pregnant and ultimately gets a vasectomy.  As luck would have it, past Henry who hasn't had the procedure travels to the present one night, makes love to Clare, impregnates her, and that baby ends up making it: a little girl, Alba.  Alba is also a time traveler.  As modern medicine looks deeper into the issue of time travel, however, it is suggested in the book that maybe they come to a better resolution in the future, perhaps one where Alba can choose to time travel or not if she doesn't want to; it wouldn't be involuntary like it is for Henry.  Alba tells a time-traveling Henry when she is 10 that she sometimes chooses where ("when") to go when she travels, which makes Henry envious.  Between a series of far-apart occurrences in Henry's life, he is shot badly during one trip, and as he is landing back in present time, his wound is worsened and he dies shortly after the fall.  He leaves Clare a letter telling her that he will see her again when she is an old woman, and that in the meantime, she should live and be happy, knowing they will meet again.  The book ends with the meeting Henry writes about in the letter. 

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I really enjoyed this novel.  I'm very stunned that this is her first novel, as it is so well written.  One thing I love about the book is how Niffenegger writes in run-on sentences.  I loved this aspect of the book because I think that most people's inner monologues are presented in run-on sentences, and they made the book feel true-to-life.  I love the flow of the book, and how she tells the reader how old the characters are in each sub-chapter.  I like that they get to see each other again at the end, but I would have liked a more detailed ending; a better monologue, perhaps, or a final ending paragraph.  I also didn't like how Henry died, but I was incredibly impressed by how well she not only tied that one, but any loose ends, in the entire novel.  Because of the two minor setbacks of my own personal opinion, I give the book a 4/5.  It's certainly a tear-jerker, and even more so, an original page-turner. 

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For Next Time:
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson

"This Master Hyde, if he were studied,' thought he, 'must have secrets of his own; black secrets, by the look of him; secrets compared to which poor Jekyll's worst would be like sunshine.'" —The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

When Edward Hyde tramples an innocent girl, two bystanders catch the fellow and force him to pay reparations to the girl's family. A respected lawyer, Utterson, hears this story and begins to unravel the seemingly manic behavior of his best friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and his connection with Hyde. Utterson probes into both Jekyll and his unlikely protégé, increasingly unnerved at each new revelation. In a forerunner of psychological dramas to come, Robert Louis Stevenson uses Hyde to show that we are both repulsed and attracted to the darker side of life, particularly when we can experience it in anonymity.

-barnesandnoble.com

Book Review: The Postcard Killers

The Postcard Killers, by James Patterson & Liza Marklund

 

The Postcard Killers is a story about a couple, Mac and Sylvia Rudolph, who go on a killing spree through Europe, targeting young couples that are often on their honeymoon.  Jacob Kanon, an American police officer from New York, is in Europe trying to track down the couple because he suspects them of killing his daughter, Kimmy, while she was vacationing in Europe with her fiancé.  As is their pattern, the killers send a postcard to a newspaper reporter that is local in the town the most recent killing took place.  After local news reporter Dessie gets one of their infamous postcards, Jacob teams up with her to solve the case and catch the killers.

Warning: Spoilers follow here.

After Jacob and Dessie team up, they put together a lot of information in a short amount of time.  They find out that the killers are representing art whenever they kill their victims.  The killers lay the victims out in weird positions after they are dead.  These positions are depicting actual famous paintings.  Upon further investigation back in the states, Jacob learns the couple are actually twins and not lovers (both, actually), and they both attended UCLA as art students.  They were expelled for having intercourse in public as a form of art.  Afterwards, they began their killing spree in Europe to "justify" their perception of art.  This is all happening while the twins have come forward to clear their name and are being held temporarily in prison.  Jacob and Dessie are now in a race to convict the twins before the escape for good under false innocence.  While the twins are in jail, another postcard comes to another reporter.  This only aids the twins in clearing their name, as they couldn't have done it while in jail themselves.  Jacob and Dessie eventually find out that there are several Postcard Killers and not just the twins acting alone as originally thought.  The Killers all communicate through a website the twins set up while in college, where they celebrate and showcase their killings in the name of art.  Once the site is found, the IP addresses are tracked and the additional killers are all found and convicted.  Because Swedish police found the twins innocent after the mysterious postcard popped up, they are now trying to escape before anyone gets wise again.  Dessie calls in a favor to a criminal cousin of hers and a watch is set up for the twins at the border to Russia.  They find the twins and a chase ensues.  Jacob finally gets his revenge by killing Sylvia, the killer of the two twins with Mac being her lacky, and getting a knife in his lung courtesy of Mac.  Dessie shots Mac and the killers have finally been brought to justice.  In the epilogue, Dessie is finishing her doctorate and she and Jacob have moved back to New York together, now a couple.

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This book had so much potential.  You look in the jacket.  It tells you this is James Patterson's most enthralling thriller yet and the premise is good, too.  This book didn't live up to that potential for me.  The book is in large print, which makes it easy to read, but the number of chapters drove me crazy.  The book has 140 chapters and 420 pages.  There's generally a new chapter every other page.  It helped to break up the book, but it was almost overkill in my opinion.  The cover claims the book to be "The scariest vacation thriller ever," and it really wasn't.  As a matter of fact, I didn't find the book scary at all.  I of course found it grisly, but not scary.  I didn't lie in bed at night afraid of the Postcard Killers.  The last hundred pages or so are the best part of the book.  As everything is coming together and Dessie and Jacob are exploring their relationship, the book gains some character.  Until then, I found it to be pretty dead.  It had a good ending and epilogue, but not a very strong middle.  I give it a 3/5.

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For Next Time

The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

"The Time Traveler's Wife is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals--steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable."

-barnesandnoble.com

Book Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is the second book by Seth Grahame-Smith.  It tells the life story of Abraham Lincoln, starting at his birth and ending at his assassination, revealing our 16th president to have once been a vampire hunter.  After a vampire kills his mother, young Abe decides to become their enemy and "kill every vampire in America."  He works his entire life to accomplish this goal, saving the nation and meeting some friends along the way.

Warning: Spoilers follow here.

A whole bunch of famous people from history were vampires.  Abe kills most of them, but befriends a few as well.  The book follows Abe from a very young age, all the way to his assassination.  (John Wilkes Booth is, of course, a vampire.)  Early on in the book, it is brought to light that slaves are widely accepted as vampire chow.  Once black slaves get old enough and are no longer useful, the owners feed them to vampires, apparently a well-known and accepted phenom.  Upon hearing of the bounty of slaves to feast upon, vampires made their way over to America from Europe, nearly overflowing our country.  At first, Abe decides to just go on a mass killing spree, killing any vampire that he can find with his trusty ax.  Eventually, the killing spree turns into a highly developed plan to cut out slavery altogether, which would eliminate any possible free vampire food options.  The fear is that once all the slaves are eaten, the vampires, now grossly outnumbering civilians, would turn to other things/people for food, resulting in the death of our nation.  Thus, Abe becomes president and moves to get rid of slavery, wins the Civil War, and sends a large population of the vampires back to where they came from.  Abe's best friend/vampire, Henry, plays a huge part in the book, at first offering names and locations of known vampires to Abe for killing, and then becoming the leader of the Union later on.  After Abe is killed, Henry turns him into a vampire and they are presumably hanging around to this day, being awesome somewhere.

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I give the book a 4/5.  I thought it was very well written, and I absolutely loved how Seth wove history and fantasy together.  A few times, while reading the book, I began to actually question history because the book's explanations of vampires existing through history made so much sense and fit together seamlessly.  There are two things I don't like about the book, one at no fault of the author.  I will be the first to tell you, I am pretty much the exact opposite of a history buff.  The book reads very much like a history book, and because of that, it took me a long time to read.  Despite the fact that the book was exciting and fast-paced in its own right, I just couldn't get into it sometimes.  The other thing was the absence of an epilogue.  I had really wanted there to be a more defined ending brought back to modern times, like the introduction.  I wanted to find out what Henry showed Seth at the beginning, and for Seth to confirm that Henry liked what he wrote, or something to that effect.  I really liked how the book ended, but I wanted an epilogue so bad.

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For Next Time

The Postcard Killers, by James Patterson & Liza Marklund

Finally gonna get back to this book!  I had to stop in the middle of it to read KK5, and then Abe Lincoln.  First we were on a Disney cruise, and then fighting the Civil War against vampires, and now we're back to solving a murder mystery in Europe.  Oh, I love books.