The Dresden Files

I'm a big fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. These urban fantasy books are set in Chicago and follow the investigations of one Harry Dresden. Think of Harry as a spell casting Sam Spade whose street informants are pixies and whose bad attitude and sarcasm gets him into lots of trouble. Harry's ad in the yellow pages reads as follows:

HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations.

Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.

No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties or Other Entertainment

(excerpt from chapter 1 of Storm Front at Jim-Butcher.com)

Harry is always struggling to make enough money to pay his rent. Not enough people take his ad seriously. Luckily, His steadiest form of income comes from being hired as a paid consultant for the Chicago PD. Most cops think he's a scam artist, but Karin Murphy in Special Investigations has seen enough weird stuff to realize that the world isn't as pretty as we'd like it to be, and some of the creatures from nightmares actually exist.

This series is fantastic. It's dark, gritty, and humorous. The stories are inventive and gripping, the cast of characters are diverse and well fleshed out, and the fantastical elements are set in a very realistic Chicago (this coming from someone whose lived in and around Chicago for the past 17 years).

The thing that truly amazes me is that the books just keep getting better. Normally when a fantasy series reaches book 8, I'm starting to get disappointed. Either the plot gets formulaic, the character's power has grown to deity status, or the storyline has become so convoluted that I need a road map to find my way.

I can happily say the Mr. Butcher has succeeded in avoiding all these pitfalls. Each book is unique and gripping. Throughout the series Harry has grown as a person (and boy, are there some growing pains), but his powers haven't grown out of hand as a result. He merely starts using his brain a little more after realizing that brute force won't always succeed, and he starts building a power base. It's not what you know; it's who you know. Finally, the storyline has branched out through the aforementioned connections, but each branch leads directly back to the main character. It isn't a friend of a friend of a friend of Harry's whose uncle's sister's child suddenly plays an important role in the plot.

So far The Dresden Files consists of 10 books, 6 short stories, 1 graphic novel, and 1 TV spinoff series that unfortunately got canceled.


If you like either hard boiled detectives or gritty urban fantasy, you've got to give The Dresden Files a try. Start with Storm Front, and be prepared to be spellbound.