White Night

Now nine books into The Dresden Files series, the plot thickens.  It appears that someone is targeting witches and the perpetrator is trying to frame Harry for it.  Fortunately very few believe him the likely suspect, but as Harry investigates the case a lot of the evidence seems to start pointing towards his brother.  Not able to believe that possible, Dresden must go to some great lengths to find the real culprits and keep his brother off of the radar (at least until he can confront him on the issue himself).

In this volume, Jim Butcher brings back a lot of past support team including Murphy (as usual), Thomas (as previously noted), Elaine (still maintaining a low profile), Molly (still working on getting her mojo in order), and … Marcone (hey – the devil you know, right?).  The cast of bad guys also includes a number of repeat players, but the angle is far from old hat and Dresden will need to play his cards carefully.  As matters unfold, it becomes apparent that this mission is about more than just saving burgeoning magic-wielders from being whisked away in the night.  It seems that if Harry doesn’t rein things in soon, the result could be a White Court power play that could lead to the extinction of wizard-kind (and as a result, mankind would not be far behind).

Luckily Harry has a number of cards up his sleeve (including but not limited to his status as a Warden, connections within the White Court, a powerful team of loyal wingmen, oh, and there is the shadow of a fallen angel in his head).  As usual, Harry gets a slew of hard knocks and finds himself against several adversaries more powerful than himself.  But that has rarely kept him from Forrest Gumping his way into a victory (or from getting knocked out a half-dozen times on the way there).  I’ve already got book ten queued up and I’m looking forward to what adventures might come next (and after that, and after that, …).