Grave Peril: The Dresden Files, Book 3

In the first book of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, Harry makes an immortal enemy in Bianca, a well-known and influential madame in Chicago. Bianca is also a vampire of the Red Court, a sect that has no compunction against killing the humans on whom they feed.In the second novel, Bianca is conspicuous by her absence. Harry has little time to consider this, however, as he is busy subduing a demon under the control of Kravos, a sorcerer with a demented hate for Harry. With the considerable help of Knight Templar, Michael Carpenter, Harry dispatches the demon and Kravos is arrested.Now, in the third book, Bianca is back, with her plans for revenge against Harry in place (think Kravos). Having been elevated to a position of power on the Vampire Council, Bianca plans a masquerade ball as celebration for her Court, with invitations also being sent to the designated representatives of each supernatural group within the Nevernever. Thus, Harry, as representative for the White Council, is invited, along with a guest of his choosing, to the ball.Harry has no plans to attend that event. First of all, he really doesn’t want to walk into the lair of a vampire who has sworn to kill him, even if the “rules” of the Nevernever grant him safe passage. And secondly, he and Michael are up to their eyeballs in ghosts who have been slipping through a weakened wall in the Nevernever to wreck havoc, mayhem and death upon those who may, in some way, represent a contribution to their demise.When one of the ghosts escapes them, Harry and Michael are forced to pursue her into the Nevernever. With his Sight, he discovers that the ghost is under the influence of a torture spell – ice cold barbed wire embedded in her neck and wrapped in coils about her body until it embeds itself again in her ankle. The tortures attached to the wire are for the purpose of causing deep emotional grief, unbearable pain and insanity.Then, whoever or whatever is causing this spate of ghostly violence turns its attention to Harry. The entity, dubbed the Nightmare, first attacks one of Murphy’s former detectives in his sleep, wrapping the torture spell about him in his dreams. Then the entity attacks Harry while he is dreaming, but no barbed wire spell is included. Instead, within the dream, the entity guts Harry and consumes the organs, thereby removing the majority of Harry’s magic. The entity would have gotten it all save for Harry’s cat and the Bob skull managing to awaken him just before death would have been certain.Now, virtually incapacitated magically, Harry cannot save Murphy when she is attacked by the torture spell. Continuing the rampage, the entity kidnaps Michael’s pregnant wife, and Harry must, for all practical purposes, sell his soul to save her. At this point, it appears that attendance at Bianca’s ball is going to be necessary if he wishes to find the perpetrator, retrieve his powers and end the carnage.Just as in the previous books of the series, this one is non-stop mayhem, violence and angst. At least three supernatural entities want Harry destroyed, first mentally and physically tortured and then killed. Another creature wants him alive, but only so that she can possess him entirely in body, mind and soul. And through it all, Harry feels that he alone bears the responsibility for the safety of his friends. Even though these villains freely and purposefully choose their own actions, Harry still feels that he has forced them into their choices.Sometimes you just want to slap Harry silly. But Jim Butcher has the character of Michael help him to get back on track with one of the most succinct and memorable pronouncements I have ever read:“What goes round comes around. And sometimes you get what’s coming around. And sometimes you are what’s coming around.”This urban fantasy series falls into that category where most of the supernatural creatures have an innate predatory and vicious nature. There is no compunction not to kill what they eat or not to cheat whom they bargain with or to ever tell the truth. Suspension of disbelief is simply a requirement from the opening words as far as dealing with the mental and physical stamina and the skills that these magical creatures, both human and not, possess. But in this third entry, Butcher drives home the strength of Harry’s character, his innate goodness and the forthright moral compass of his soul in such a manner that no belief need be suspended to accept.DEFINITE SPOILERS FOLLOW:The one major character that I have not yet mentioned is Susan Rodriguez, pulp news journalist and Harry’s girlfriend. From the very beginning of the series, I have disliked this character. Whether Jim Butcher means for the reader to dislike her, I do not know, but she has always come across to me as selfish and egotistical, a user. I have never doubted that she cares for Harry as much as she is able, but she always seems to place her wants and her needs first with no real concern for what Harry might need.And finally, in this novel, her ego and her career goals do her in. Angry with Harry because he doesn’t want her to go to Bianca’s ball and because he won’t stop in the middle of a major spell to talk to her on the phone, she defies Harry’s warnings and slips into Bianca’s ball without an official invitation. Thus, she is also without official protection against attack. While there, she also bargains with a faerie to get part of Harry’s magic back without listening to Harry’s warnings about the “fine print” of the bargain.As a direct result of both acts of stupidity, she loses her memory of what Harry means to her and she loses her humanity. As Michael said: “What goes round comes around. And sometimes you get what’s coming around.”Using much of his little remaining magic, Harry helps Susan get the memories back and gets her away from Bianca’s lair alive. And, upon getting those memories back, how does Susan repay the man she swears that she loves? She leaves him in the hospital, poisoned almost unto death by vampire venom and mushroom toxin. She leaves him without a word and moves away from Chicago without a forwarding address.When Harry is well enough to track her down, she tells him that she loves him, kisses him to sexual distraction, gets ups and walks away, saying “Don’t call me; I’ll call you.” Bianca may not have been able to kill Harry’s body, but through Susan, she has killed his heart. Harry is now a disheveled and broken man.I have not researched the series far enough to know if Butcher brings Susan back, but I certainly hope not. With the vampires calling for war unless the White Council hands him over for execution, Harry deserves better than Susan. He deserves someone at his back, not at his throat, literally or figuratively.

For me, this is where the Dresden Files novels really start to pick up. I think this -- of the four I've read so far -- had the best climax, and we also started to see some better character development over previous novels in the series.We get a few more supernatural elements introduced in this volume; while we've seen vampires before, we get a look at their internal politics here. We also see the introduction of faith or religious magic/power in the character of Michael, Harry's sidekick for most of this book. We encounter ghosts. And, we interact with Harry's godmother, the fae Lea, extensively. It bordered on information overload at times, and I don't necessarily feel that I got the best understanding of the faery realm, but have patience, because that will be remedied in book four. I do find myself wanting to see Lea come back because I am curious about her relationship with Harry's mother, so I'm fine with putting up with her idiosyncrasies for now.I'm not necessarily thrilled with the non-linearity of the storyline in this book. Early on, a lot of references are made to a past battle between a demon and Harry/his allies (including some cops and Michael). At first, I wondered if I'd mistakenly opened book four of the Dresden Files instead of book 3; there was definitely missing background information. On the plus side, you're able to get up to speed with Michael's story pretty quickly, and it may be that the author didn't feel he had enough material for an entire novel leading up to the demon battle. In which case he made exactly the right decision, to start this book with something exciting that introduces the new character (i.e., Michael) and gives some hints as to what will come.There's not a lot I can say about the setting or writing style that hasn't already been said. I think the first-person POV is particularly important here, because we're finally seeing more emotions from Harry, not just action, and we can really get inside his head. This improvement in characterization is a welcome change. Chicago is still Chicago, although a lot of this book takes place in rather otherworldly locations (the "Nevernever," which is actually not in this world, and vampire Bianca's home which is in Chicago but which has so many supernatural visitors it might as well be somewhere else). I like that not a lot of time is wasted on description of Bianca's place, with the exception of features that will figure prominently later on.Reporter Susan Rodriguez and police officer Karrin Murphy are back, although Murphy doesn't figure as prominently as she has in some of the other books. Harry and Susan are an item now, although I could never quite shake the feeling that they wouldn't be together if they weren't in their respective lines of work (Harry being a wizard detective and Susan working at a paranormal, tabloid-type newspaper). I suppose there had to be some shared connection to draw them to one another. I'm honestly a little indifferent to both Karrin and Susan at this point. Perhaps because I read the first three books in this series in a week or two, I don't have much of a sense (in my head) of time passing, so the relationship between Harry and Susan seems rushed. However, I probably wouldn't feel that way if I'd read these when they were first published, with months or years between books.Considering the fact that there are numerous other volumes in this series, we know from the beginning that Harry Dresden is going to make it out alive. That being said, I still worried about him during the final confrontation, and I definitely think there were serious consequences to his actions -- he felt a great deal of guilt, even though he didn't perceive himself as having a lot of choice in the matter. (His reaction to these consequences spills over to the fourth book.) It was really the events of this book that made me start to relate to Harry a lot more; it was this book where the character development picked up. That was one thing that made me like this book a little better than the previous two.I'm of two minds on a second aspect of this book that seemed different to me compared to the previous volumes. Harry displays a huge amount of power near the end of this book. On the one hand, it seems a little too convenient. On the other hand, a foundation was laid in the story for Dresden to get back some power he had lost, and he was in peril at the end. One thing we've learned from past books is that extremes of emotion can be sources of energy for magical workings. And Harry's situation near the end of the book was, indeed, dire, which would logically lead to extreme emotions.I liked that events of the previous two books (the sorcerer and the drug he was making, as well as the werewolves) were mentioned in the context of something larger. Something was hinted at that I think will become more apparent and important in future books. I think the slow build-up is pretty good; after all, it's a long series.Enough of this book is taken up by characterization and connecting to a larger story arc that it's almost easy to forget that this book includes a self-contained story, as well. At the beginning of the book, malicious ghosts are terrorizing the city (including a hospital nursery), and the dreams of certain characters are haunted by a demon called a Nightmare. This, too, is resolved, and there is a mystery aspect to it as there was in previous volumes, although, by the end of the book, this kind of takes a back seat to worries about impending future events.In the end, there was a lot going on in this book, but I really feel like we're starting to get somewhere. We get inside Harry's head a little more, we learn a little bit about his past, we're able to connect past events to an overall story arc, and there was a good deal of action. I think Butcher started to find his voice with this novel and I see a marked improvement in quality. Looking forward to reading more in this series.

I greatly enjoy the Dresden series. Probably one of best series of science fiction available hands down. I am rereading this series for the second time (some of the books I have already read two or more times). Read it, enjoy it, take your time while doing so, you will be amazed.

... the plot is too clunky. It's like I can sense the blocks of plot stitched together like a patchwork quilt. Step by step he wades deeper and deeper into trouble. When all looks lost something that hasn't previously been hinted at will be possible, and Harry will reach down deep inside himself - deeper than ever before - and in one bound he is free.It's a bit like... well, imagine JK Rowling hadn't hinted at the connection between Voldemort and Harry until the scene in the forbidden forest when Voldemort used the killing curse on Harry but it didn't work... and then just rolled the whole explanation out at that moment to explain Harry's survival...It doesn't make it a bad book, just frustrating that it could be so much better with a bit more work and forethought.

I have read the previous books in this series and really enjoyed them but I don't think that you have to have read them to enjoy Grave Peril. Butcher weaves any pertinent information expertly into this book, without causing any detrimental effects to pace or plot.This story has everything that I look for in a great read; some really great characters, a good balance between the various aspects - mystery, crime, thriller, horror, detective and paranormal - and blends them with well written dry humour ensuring that it doesn't got too heavy: Butcher even managed to include a sprinkling of romance. This story surprised me a few times, left me breathless on the edge of my seat but I loved trying to second guess where he would take us next!I added the narration too and I alternated between reading and listening to the tale. I feel that the narration by James Marston helped to bring our hero, Harry Dresden to life. His obvious acting skills added a further dimension to the various scenes and I liked his tonal variations when reading the dialogue.

I quite liked the first two Harry Dresden books, they are not 5* for me, but every bit good enough to read the next one.The third book was generally quite good and very much along the lines of earlier outings. I can’t quite put my finger on it other than to say that the book seemed to stall at times with a lot of words that did little to advance the narrative, and for me it dragged at times. The book could have been 20% shorter without losing much.I still liked it overall and will still read book 4 at some point.

I've started reading through the series and if I weren't reading them in order I'm not sure I would have bothered any further if I came to this one first.So the lesson is ....read them in order !!!There are lots of summaries of the plot already posted so no need to go there.This one is certainly a drop after the first two,the humour is there and the magic is there but there is a lack of oomph somehow. There is a feeling of narrowness in the storyline. That is once you realise that you haven't actually missed a book out....because it gets just a bit confusing. On the bright side Michael is great and carries the story for me, I was more interested in him than Harry (not sure that's a good thing though) and the Vampires were fascinating. (Love a good world build for a vampire ..have to say his world building for the 'bad guys' is excellent,)So,all in all it's ok. Not as good as the others and roll on the next book.

The adventures of Harry Dresden have been going for a couple of books now, and Butcher's talent as a writer has been growing even as the world of his creation has been evolving and deepening. Now, with the third in the series, the full potential of both the character and the setting is realised.It was inevitable that a supernatural fantasy series would have a title dealing with vampires sooner or later, and with the species already making a brief appearance in Storm Front, here they come to the fore. Butcher being Butcher, however, he throws a hell of a lot more into the mix, including a recent demonology case of Harry's, his holy knight friend Michael, and his literal fairy godmother, amongst others.This is an excuse for the regular blend of detecting intrigue and massive action setpieces, but the crucial difference here is that the characters are richer, and their relationships are more important. Harry's inability to admit the depth of his feelings for his girlfriend Susan is just as important as his trying to halt the destructive hauntings plaguing Chicago.The mark of a great series is that every successive title stands on its own while adding depth and maturity to the wider picture. With this latest release, Butcher is succeeding admirably.