Stars: 4

Author: Jim Butcher

Title: Grave Peril

Publisher: Roc

Year: 2001

ISBN: 0-451-45844-3

Distribution: MMPB

Pages: 378

Series: Dresden Files 3

Wisecracking wizard Harry Dresden is back, and so are the vampires, plenty of them, in this third installment of the series that got its inspiration from Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels. Something is stirring up the spirit world, so that Harry is bouncing from crisis to crisis putting wayward ghosts back where they belong. And trouble is brewing in this world, too: Bianca St. Claire has invited Harry to attend the reception celebrating her elevation to Margravine of the Vampire Court. Since Harry is the local representative of the White Council of Wizards, failure to attend could have serious diplomatic repercussions. Since Harry is one of Bianca's least favorite individuals, attending could have fatal repercussions. Ultimately, however, there's no real choice but to go: the local spirits are getting increasingly feisty, and a gathering of supernatural movers and shakers is Harry's best chance to get to the bottom of the disturbance before Chicago's postal ghosties tear the town apart.

Of course, events at the party complicate rather than simplify his life. Harry escapes in one piece despite several vampires' best efforts, but his main squeeze, tabloid journalist Susan Rodriguez, isn't so lucky. The Nevernever, the spirit road between places, offers a route for a rescue mission, but one nearly as risky as the front door: it's the stomping ground for another supernatural being who can effectually end Harry's career if their paths cross. And of course, making it into the vampires' stronghold doesn't guarantee that he will be able to make it out in one piece, or that he will be able to rescue Susan in the process.

Harry has some interesting allies in this one: not only Bob, the smart aleck skull-dwelling familiar spirit, but Michael Carpenter, a humble knight who wields a sacred sword; Thomas of the House of Raith, who may not strictly qualify as a good-guy vampire but isn't an irredeemably bad one either; and, briefly, himself, in just one of the truly death-defying acts it takes to run the gauntlet of ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties in this novel of love and war and a decided twist on the term fairy godmother.

Reviewed by Catherine B. Krusberg