Death Masks by Jim Butcher on August 5th 2003
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 464
Goodreads
Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes&Noble
Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only practicing professional wizard, is hired by a mysterious priest to find the stolen shroud of Turin.
I’ll tell you one thing, the further along in the series I get, the harder it is not to run out and buy all of them and spend days in Butcher’s world. The reason I’m not is quite simple: he’s not close to being done with this series, so even if I do read them all in a weekend, I’ll be left hanging in the end. So, no matter how hard it is, I’m sticking to my one Butcher book a month.
After this one, it’s easier for me to wait. It wasn’t as crazy as the last few. It was slower and had a nice wrap up at the end. Actually, most do. Grave Peril definitely had me itching to read the next one. It had a major plot twist that I was dying to know if anything changed in the next book. The only reason I’m having a hard time waiting is because I’m absolutely in love with Harry Dresden, and I know that I’ll be devastated when the series ends, which is also helping me savor each book.
I won’t give any plot details away in case someone isn’t caught up with me. We meet a few new characters and enjoy reunions with some old ones. I will say that we get to see Thomas again, which was a thoroughly interesting character in Grave Peril. Sadly, yet again I didn’t get a lot of Murphy time. I do love Murphy and Harry’s interactions. Surprisingly, there is a steamy scene in this book that Butcher did fantastically well. Just another feather in his cap.
I’ll rave again about Butcher’s story telling. There’s all kinds of fun stuff in his books, and with each one we meet some sort of fantastical creature, either good or bad. His writing continues to ensnare me right off the bat, and I really do become perturbed when I’m interrupted while reading it.
So overall, another thoroughly engaging, entertaining, heartfelt, and insanely fun read by Butcher. I’ve got my mom hooked on these as well, and my next target is my sister.
About Jim Butcher
Jim Butcher read his first fantasy novel when he was seven years old–
the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. By the time he turned eight,
he’d added the rest of the Narnia books, the Prydain Chronicles, every
book about Star Wars he could find, a great many Star Trek novels and
the Lord of the Rings to his count.
So he was pretty much doomed from the start.
Love of fantasy, his personal gateway drug, drew him toward a fairly
eclectic spread of interests: horseback riding (including trick riding,
stunt riding, drill riding, and competitive stunt racing), archery,
martial arts, costuming, music and theater. He played a lot of role-
playing games, a lot of fantasy-based tactical computer games, and
eventually got into live-action roleplay where players beat each other
up with boffer weapons.
So, really, he can fly his nerd flag with pretty much anyone, and
frequently does.
He took up writing to be able to produce fantasy novels with swords and
horses in them, and determinedly wrote terrible fantasy books until,
just to prove a point to his writing teacher, he decided to take every
piece of her advice; fill out outlines and worksheets, and design
stories and characters just the way she’d been telling him to do for
about three years. He was certain that once she saw what hideous art it
produced, she would be proven wrong and repent the error of her ways.
The result was the Dresden Files, which sure showed *her*.
She has not yet admitted her mistake and recanted her philosophy on
writing.
Jim has performed in dramas, musicals, and vocal groups in front of
live audiences of thousands and on TV. He has performed exhibition
riding in multiple arenas, and fallen from running horses a truly
ridiculous number of times. He was once cursed by an Amazon witch
doctor in rural Brazil, has apparently begun writing about himself in
the third person, and is hardly ever sick at sea.
He also writes books occasionally.
Jim stands accused of writing the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera.
He’s plead insanity, but the jury is still out on that one. He lives in
Missouri with his wife, romantic suspense and paranormal romance writer
Shannon K. Butcher (who is really pretty and way out of his league),
his son, and a ferocious guard dog.
