by Simon Wright

Created on: May 19, 2008

Storm Front was American sci fi/fantasy author Jim Butcher's first published novel and is the first in a series of novels that collectively have been called The Dresden Files.

It follows the trials and tribulations of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Harry is a wizard and lives in Chicago with a sex-obsessed skull called Bob and a large cat called Mister. He has an office but mostly gets crank calls. It's difficult to be taken seriously as a wizard when most people don't believe in magic. At least the Chicago cops have cottoned onto the fact that there are supernatural forces at play in some of the crimes they investigate.

Hard-as-nails lady cop Karrin Murphy calls Harry to a crime scene. Two lovers have been viciously killed and there doesn't look to be any normal logical explanation. She wants Harry to tell her who committed the murders and she wants this info now if not sooner.

Added tension is provided by the fact that Harry is one false move away from being executed by the White Council who regulate all magic activity. Harry has an arch enemy from the White Council, Morgan, who is spying on Harry and is just itching to be able to report that Harry has broken one of the Council's rules. That would mean that a previously commuted death sentence would be carried out and Morgan would get to cleave Harry's head from his shoulders.

The story then follows poor Harry's plight as he tries to figure out a way to both help the police and avoid being killed. As well as the White Council, he also has to worry about a drug-lord gangster, a vampiress and an evil wizard. And as if that's not enough, he's agreed to a date with Susan, a sexy reporter who he knows is keen to (ahem) pump him for information. He's never been much good with women and Bob's advice may turn out to be more of a hindrance than a help.

So that's the background but is it any good? Well, when I first heard of the premise of a wizard helping police in real life Chicago, I was sceptical. However, my wife had read it and been laughing all the way through it and she insisted that I try it. We agreed to a compromise, I would read Storm Front if she would read Arthur C. Clarke's excellent novel, Rendezvous with Rama.

I'm very glad that I agreed to read Storm Front as it is very well written and extremely funny with a fast moving plot. Butcher has got a talent for characterisation and I found myself loving some of the side characters any scene that had Bob in it was hilarious as well as the main character. I suppose it's a fairly well-trodden route to have a main character who finds himself in adversity with lots of bad things happening to them but it's told in a refreshing way and is a real accomplishment for a debut novel.

I can't wait now to read the follow up novels in the series!

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