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But that a minor point in what was a great first book in a series. Just too much happens to the character in the course of 2 days.
The "twist" is that the author takes the detective mystery genre but this time the detective is a "down on his luck wizard." It sounds cheesy but the author makes it work. I dont want to over-praise the novel but it is a fun fast read.
I have only minor complaints: the events later in the story are compressed to the point of implausibility. The writing is fairly sharp and the pacing works nicely toward an action-filled ending.
To my relief, the writing is skewed to adult readers and our main character is easily twice the age of Harry Potter. No one would be able to handle all of it unless he is superman out of a comic book.
I look forward to reading a few more.
I was already a fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files when I read this book. He has friends and enemies in both the magic and mundane world. When a woman comes to him for help, and then the police also come to him, he soon finds that all the cases seem to be entwined. He's in a bit of trouble with the Wizard's Council. There is violence and there are tender moments. He helps out the police with odd cases (read magic cases). For some reason, I had never read the 1st book of the series.Harry Dresden is a wizard. There are vampires and fairies and gangsters; magic scorpions and malevolent wizards.I like how Butcher tells the whole story from Harry's point of view.
His police contact, Karrin Murphy, of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is a bit skeptical about the whole magic thing, but can see that the case she pulls him into is definitely STRANGE.There are a lot of interesting people/characters/creatures in this book. Harry has a very large cat and an air spirit named Bob. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes mysteries & what some friends of mine call woo-woo. Harry Dresden survives and even has help from someone who is not his friend.
If they're as good, I will almost certainly read the rest. The suspense is constant, the story is clever, the world is intriguing, and the ending is very satisfying -- the last paragraph is perfect; I can't imagine a better way to end this story.
When I found out the show was based on novels, I was intrigued. I was recently re-introduced to the Dresden Files on Hulu (I didn't get the chance to watch it on Sci-Fi).
The story takes place over four very long days as we see Harry get run through the ringer by four different people who want to hurt, arrest, or kill him as he solves two cases -- a double murder and a missing person. One episode of the series was based on this book, but plenty of changes for tv keep it from being the same story.
This book introduces the reader to Harry Dresden (wizard, private eye, and professional punching bag) and his world (including demons, fairies, and the wizard police). I've got the next two books, and it's killing me that I don't have time to read them right now.
Highly recommended.
I really enjoyed the reader for this audio. I had read the book, but bought it for my husband. He enjoyed it as well. We have bought the next 2 in the series.
Wasn't it better for her to do it informed rather than blind. I still don't get why he couldn't be straight with Murphy. I really like Harry, even though he likes to make life harder for himself. On the other hand, Murphy was riding Harry pretty hard and sometimes she just went too far, she was too nasty and bitchy when it wasn't necessary, Harry wasn't the bad guy, after all. I mean, he didn't have to tell her about the White Council but there were things that he could have told her, about his suspicions and about Marcone and his man. He had to know that she would go and investigate anyway. Who I really liked was Susan. What a cool girl.
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