Storm Front, by Jim Butcher
Paranoid? Probably. But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that there isn’t an invisible demon about to eat your face.
Paperback: 384 pages
Rating:
Series: The Dresden Files (book 1)
Harry Dresden is a hardboiled private investigator, sometimes employed by the Police for his special talents. You see, Dresden is also a wizard. The only one listed in the Yellow Pages under Wizard, actually. When a couple is killed using means the Police cannot identify, Harry is called in to assist with the investigation. Eager to help (on account of having no money for this month’s rent), Harry soon discovers that there are forces at play that go way beyond the capabilities of the Police, and that he may be in over his head.
Storm Front, first book in the Dresden Files series, stood on my shelf for quite a while before I finally got around to it. Had I known just how entertaining it is, I would have picked it up a lot sooner. With a perfect blend of mystery, humor, magic and action, this book does not want to be put down. The quick pace and no downtime also have this effect.
Harry is the classic antihero – dark, sarcastic, a loner; an average Joe interested only in paying his rent and solving his cases with as little fuss as possible. He lives in a basement apartment together with his enormous cat Mister and a human skull inhabited by an air spirit, Bob. Harry’s wicked sarcasm and wisecracks get him into trouble more often than not, and when his adversaries include vampires, demons, giant scorpions, mobsters and thugs, trouble really does come often to our hapless hero.
The novel is written in first-person, with Harry as the narrator. Now, writing in first-person is difficult, perhaps even more so in detective fiction because, although the writer knows exactly who did it, the main character must find out on his own and the reader must be privy to all the information the detective possesses in order to have a fair shot at solving the mystery herself. Therefore, the omniscient author must be careful not to let his knowledge mix in with the detective’s. Back in 1928, S.S. Van Dine published the Twenty rules for writing detective stories. Excepting the supernatural elements and some pretty big dei ex machina which I will not spoil for you, Jim Butcher is pretty faithful to the list, making Storm Front an interesting detective novel as well as a fantasy one.
I’d made the vampire cry. Great. I felt like a real superhero. Harry Dresden, breaker of monsters’ hearts.
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