Just finished reading Death Masks by Jim Butcher and at the risk of sounding repetitive this series just keeps getting better.  Harry Dresden is a private investigator working out of Chicago.  The ace up is sleeve is that he’s also a wizard.  He’s a wizard who seems to be storing up more and more bad feeling between him and a lot of nasty characters – such as vampires and demons.  Death Masks is No5 in the Dresden Files so beware of potential spoilers.

In the latest instalment Harry lands himself into all sorts of trouble.  As we all know the Red Court don’t like him very much.  Neither, for that matter, do his peers on the White Council!  (Well, there are a few exceptions – thankfully).  We start off with a new job, desperately needed by our wizard PI – the Shroud (of Turin no less) has been stolen.  Interest has been sparked and it’s recovery is essential to prevent a rather dreadful prophecy from being fulfilled.  On top of that we have a dead body – sans head and hands, some rather dastardly Denarians (more about that in a moment), the return of Susan, still struggling with her semi-vampiric nature and Michael and a couple of his co-workers, i.e. two other Knights of the Cross.

Firstly, the story.  Loads going on this time around that all comes together very well at the end.  There’s the theft of the Shroud, and the investigation to find the thieves and the intended buyer.  Something is going on with the Knights of the Cross who all seem to have descended – scenting trouble somehow.  And, Harry has been given a resolution to the impending conflict between the White and the Red – a challenge to the death with one of the Red Court Warriors – Ortega, with a promise that the war will be called off if Dresden accepts the challenge.

The characters.  We literally have the good, the bad and the ugly going on this time around.  These Denarians are some bad ass critters who I don’t want to meet, ever, thank you very much.  They’re incredibly powerful, very difficult to get rid of and can shapeshift into some pretty terrible nastiness.  We have a reappearance of Susan who has become a lot more clued in during her absence.  She can look after herself now and on top of that instead of being a bit ‘yippee here’s a life threatening situation lets have some fun’ she now seems to realise that the ‘life threatening’ bit is actually quite serious!  She has a man in tow and the sparks of jealousy coming off Harry could cause some serious damage.  We have two new Knights of the Cross – a Russian guy – who actually doesn’t believe in God – and Shiro who is like some sort of Japanese master – now, I don’t know why but I just kept picturing Master Shifu out of Kung Fu Panda – yes, I know, different countries and a whole other load of stuff that makes that wrong but the picture was there anyway.  And, is this crazy, but I liked the role that Marcone had this time round – could it be possible that I’m starting to like him??  Surely not, but he had a good bit of banter going on with Harry this time round and on top of this he jumped straight into the fray when needed, even if it was a little self-serving.

On top of all that Butcher continues with his world building and the world he is imagining is becoming a very easy place to imagine. The circle of friends and acquaintances who Harry mixes with is expanded upon each time with old characters sometimes taking a bit part or sitting out the story completely but resurfacing for a later instalment.

What else can I say.  I really enjoyed it and have no hesitation in recommending this series.