White Night (The Dresden Files, #9) by Jim Butcher

Someone is killing people in Chicago and leaving clues that only a person with magical ability, like a wizard named Harry Dresden, could see. Why would they do that?

Meanwhile, most everything else in Harry’s life is going spectacularly wrong. He has an unruly apprentice who had an unfortunate brush with dark magic awhile back. The White Council is still at war with the Red Vampire Court which was Harry’s fault to begin with, but we don’t need to go into all that.

He’s still got a fallen angel’s shadow in his head, trying to convince him to wield a coin that will give Harry unimaginable power but also consume his soul. Thomas, the vampire, has been acting really weird and he’s probably eating people again which, vampires do, but it’s kind of a problem because Harry is supposed to be protecting people.

And now this, a serial killer. Perfect.

The Dresden Files, as a series, is really starting to come together. I like how Jim Butcher starts to layer the books on top of each other, each plot line leading to more complications and depth.

Normally, Wardens existed to police wizards, to make sure that they didn’t use their power against the rest of humanity in violation of the Laws of Magic. Things weren’t normal.” pg 59, ebook.

Harry has to juggle the politics between the wizards, the vampires, humanity, the faeries… and also keep his sanity when someone from his past shows up and he has to rehash some old wounds.

Real fright isn’t like the movies. Real fear is an ugly, quiet, relentless thing. It’s a kind of pain, and I hated seeing it…” pg 129, ebook

And we can’t forget Bob the Skull, one of my favorite characters. He seems to always get a few good lines in, no matter how busy the plot is.

“What’s up, boss?” “Evil’s afoot.” “Well, sure,” Bob said, “because it refuses to learn the metric system. Otherwise it’d be up to a meter by now.” pg 154, ebook.

Though I had some difficulties with the way Harry behaved in the latter part of the last book, I feel like he’s more of the flawed character I’ve come to know in this entry. Yes, he still makes mistakes sometimes and can be an idiot, but it makes more sense. There are circumstances beyond his control that are acting on his mind in ways he may not be aware of yet. But he’s learning about that, and his friends won’t let him get too out of hand.

Or, at least, they’ll all go down together… probably spectacularly and in flames. Highly recommended for urban fantasy readers.

Here are more reviews I’ve written for this series:

Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) by Jim Butcher

Fool Moon (The Dresden Files #2) by Jim Butcher

Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3) by Jim Butcher

Summer Knight (The Dresden Files #4) by Jim Butcher

Death Masks (The Dresden Files, #5) by Jim Butcher

Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6) by Jim Butcher

Dead Beat (The Dresden Files #7) by Jim Butcher

Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files, #8) by Jim Butcher

And thanks for reading!