FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Move over, Gandalf and Merlin, here comes Harry Dresden, a Chicago-based wizard with a decidedly twisted sense of humor who uses his extraordinary magical abilities to solve supernatural-related crimes in the Windy City. In the eighth installment of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (Dead Beat, Blood Rites, et al.), the sardonic practitioner of magic has his hands full when infamous motion picture monstrosities start coming to life at a horror movie convention!

After years of being vilified by the White Council of Wizards, Dresden has reluctantly become part of the "establishment" -- he is now a Warden for the Council. The wizards' ongoing war with the vampiric Red Court isn't going well, and Dresden is dutifully doing his part in the conflict. When he's tasked to find out why the Sidhe haven't yet joined the wizards in their battle against the vampires, Dresden's investigation is complicated by a phone call from a friend's 17-year-old daughter, who, while working a horror convention aptly called Splattercon, witnesses brutal killings that Dresden suspects were committed by a phobophage (a spiritual entity that feeds on fear) -- but the gruesome clues lead him to some unlikely suspects?.

Put Tolkien's staff-wielding Gandalf in a blender with Stuart M. Kaminsky's tenacious Chicago detective Abe Lieberman, and throw in a heaping helping of offbeat humor ? la Paul Di Filippo or Cory Doctorow, and you've got yourself Harry Dresden, the hard-boiled, magic-slinging detective featured in Butcher's action-packed supernatural saga. Readers who enjoy a diversity of genres in their escapist literature should definitely check out this utterly readable amalgam of mystery, fantasy, and horror. Paul Goat Allen

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Elevated "into the front rank of urban fantasy heroes" (SF Site), professional wizard Harry Dresden is pledged to fight crime, banish evil, and outwit the masters of dark arts in the shadowy corners of Chicago.

Harry, the only wizard in the Chicago phone book, is drafted to look into rumors of black magic in the Windy City. And if that wasn't enough, he must help the daughter of an old friend, whose boyfriend was the only one in a room where an old man was attacked. He insists he didn't do it. And what looks like a supernatural assault straight out of a horror film turns out to be-well, something quite close to that, as Harry discovers that malevolent entities that feed on fear are loose in Chicago.

FROM THE CRITICS

Cinescape

"A great series-fast-paced, vividly realized with a hero/narrator who's excellent company."

The News-Star

"Butcher is definitely among the best."

Green Man Review

"Take Sam Spade and give him a deadly Faerie Godmother, then add Harry Potter and put him on the wrong side of town while you're at it. All you'll get is a pale shadow of Harry Dresden."

Publishers Weekly

Harry Dresden, Chicago's only consulting wizard, takes on phobophages, creatures that feed on fear who attack a horror film convention, in the diverting eighth installment of Butcher's increasingly complicated Dresden Files series (Dead Beat, etc.). Harry finds that fighting monsters is only the prelude to maneuvers amid the warring wizards of the White Council and the vampire Red Court. Less and less V.I. Warshawski with witchcraft, Harry aims his deductive powers at political intrigues rather than crime solving. The body count from the magical melees, however, would do any hard-boiled gumshoe proud. Butcher's believable, likable set of characters go for the jocular much more than the jugular. Deeper fears do run through the book, and Harry, taking on an apprentice, has to face up to the consequences of his all-too-human failings. Look for the series to really take off with the debut of a two-hour pilot on the Sci-Fi Channel this summer produced by Nicholas Cage. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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