Butcher - Death Masks review

Death Masks is the fifth volume in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. If you're familiar with the series, just skip ahead to the next paragraph. The series is urban fantasy taking place in modern-day Chicago, featuring the character Harry Dresden. Harry is a wizard and openly promotes his services. He's in the Yellow Pages in Chicago under 'Wizard' and his services are much like that of a private investigator. Except he can throw his magic into the mix. He's the only openly practicing wizard. The others prefer to remain hidden. There's a White Council that governs the actions of wizards. Wizards aren't the only supernatural things in the world. There are also multiple types of vampire, werewolves, demons, fairies, etc.

Harry has gotten himself into a lot of trouble. He killed a noble of the Red Court of vampires, and they've declared war on the White Council of the wizards. Another Red Court noble, Professor Ortega, challenges Harry to a duel that could stop the war. Harry agrees to the duel, but has to find a second and propose the method for the duel. The problem is that Ortega can refuse the obvious method of magic, forcing a different choice.

Harry also takes a job to find the Shroud of Turin, which has recently been stolen and taken to Chicago for a sale. However, Harry's friend Michael and the two other Knights of the Cross (Shiro and Sanya, whom we meet for the first time in Death Masks) want Harry to stay off of the Shroud case for his own good. To make matters worse, a group of Denarians (fallen angels allied with/possessing mortal hosts) are after the Shroud and perhaps Harry as well. To make matters even worse, it appears that local mafia boss Johnny Marcone is after Harry as well, though they had an agreement to stay out of each other's business. Finally, Harry's friend Karrin Murphy of the Chicago Police's Special Investigations unit is on a forced vacation and can't really get involved.

This was probably the most enjoyable of the Dresden Files books I've read so far. Like the previous books, it's very fast-paced, with action from the beginning to the end. It has a bit more humor than the previous books, but is certainly not a comic story. The new characters introduced - Shiro, Sanya, and Ivy in particular - are interesting and add to the overall feel of the series. The earlier books are good, too, so it's well worth starting from the beginning of the series to get to Death Masks.

/ [Viking]

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