Book Review: Grave Peril

Jim Butcher's third book in The Dresden Files series is Grave Peril. This book starts, like the others in this series, with a bang.  Grave Peril is a first person narrative of a lovable, sometimes bumbling wizard who lives in Chicago.  He operates a magic shop of all things and offers his services to those who need them--but business is slow.  In Grave Peril he confronts ghosts that seem to be getting all stirred up and angry about something--or someone is causing it. 

Like every one of Jim Butcher's books in this series, Harry is a lovable character and one you definitely root for.  A few new characters are introduced including Michael Carpenter who turns out to be a Knight of the cross, Thomas Raith and Mavra--both vampires but not friends with each other, as well as Leanansidhe who turns out to be Dresden's faerie Godmother.

As in the first two books in this series, both Storm Front and Fool Moon, Grave Peril involves lots of fun twists and turns. This fast paced Urban Fantasy is most likely the most surprising to date. The inclusion of a few new characters starts to round out the world that Harry Dresden inhabits and there are enough people in the book to really capture your interest. I do have to warn, in this book something bad happens to one of the main characters. And I actually like that. It adds some reality to the series and makes sure you are on your toes as a reader.
Jim Butcher keeps a good pace, has great interaction between characters that is realistic and believable and the dialogue is great. This book is definitely one that you will want to read more than once. A great book to take on a mid length airplane ride, on vacation, or just to sit down on your couch and spend some good time reading. A delight.

Once again, not a lot bad to say about Grave Peril.  The series does stand a chance of becoming somewhat formulaic--but sometimes that isn't all bad.  This book does a decent job of breaking through what could have been a sad addition to a good series--it seems to me that third or fourth books in most series are the books that stand the highest chance of feeling like a deja vu--been there, done that type of book.  Grave Peril avoids this neatly by adding characters and adding in a few unexpected twists.  If you are looking for high literature, this isn't the book for you, but if you are looking for a few hours of fun escape, Grave Peril fits the bill. 

 Get it and read it!  I rate this a solid 8.5 out of 10.  So far, I have enjoyed The Dresden Files and this third installment in the series does nothing to change that.  It is a lot of fun.  If you haven't already got this book for your Kindle, then get it today and get reading.  Or, go to Amazon and buy the book--or the box set.  As Ferris Buhler once said, "If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. . ."