by Carrie Schutrick

Created on: February 23, 2009

The "modern-day paranormal" genre is taking off, and Jim Butcher's Storm Front, the first of his bestselling Harry Dresden series, is a great example of why.

Harry Dresden is in the phone book, under "wizards". Not surprisingly, he's the only one. And don't think he's the kind of guy you hire to play your kid's birthday party, either; Harry is the real deal. He really can do magic. Of course he's also essentially a private eye, and as we all know private eyes are required to be broke.

Fortunatly, Harry has an ally in the police department. Karrin Murphy runs Special Investigations, the department charged with looking into the "weird ones" that Chicago PD collects. She hires Harry as a consultant, when she needs some expert help with the supernatural.

Storm Front starts with Murphy calling Harry in to a bizarre double murder that can only have been accomplished by magic: two people, alone in a room, whose hearts have been ripped from their chests. (A warning to the squeamish: this is all described in fairly graphic detail.) One of the victims worked for Chicago's biggest crime boss, Gentleman Johnny Marcone.

Marcone, of course, wants to pay Harry to NOT look into it; meanwhile, the representatives of the wizardly White Council think that Harry is the murderer, and the only way for him to clear his name is to find out who dunnit-and HOW-before Marcone, the White Council, or the murderer can make sure he never investigates anything again.

Though Storm Front starts off slow, as Butcher establishes his world and something about how magic works there, once the action picks up it never really stops. Harry takes a lot of punishment, and dishes it out as well, in the course of finding out who's using magic to such deadly purpose. The book's climax establishes what will become a motif of the series: Harry, tired and sore, goes into the lion's den because, well, it's just the right thing to do.

Indeed, Harry himself is what sets off the Dresden Files from a lot of the "witch-fulfillment" books out there. He's a wizard, and a genuinely good guy, but Harry Dresden is not without flaws. He's stubborn, for one thing, and he's got a bit of a temper on him. Still, as told in the first person the book lets the reader get into Harry's head and enjoy spending some time there. An assortment of supporting characters, most of them deftly drawn in a few sentences that let you know exactly what they're like, rounds out a book that promises a fast and entertaining read, and doesn't disappoint.

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