Review: Dead Beat, by Jim Butcher

I still refuse to accept this CGI uncanny valley abomination as my Harry.

Rating:

💀💀💀💀💀

Initial Response:

POLKA WILL NEVER DIE!

One Sentence Summary:

Harry is blackmailed into locating the grimoire of a particularly notorious necromancer-- unfortunately, the necromancers disciples are also looking for it.

Tell Me More:

This is the best one yet! Every book in the Dresden Files has gotten 5 emojis-of-choice, but I wish I could give this one even more. The stakes go up! The magic gets stronger! Hellfire! Zombies! Phantoms!

This book continues the pulpy, hardboiled tradition that we've come to love from the Dresden Files; but what really makes this book shine is the character work. Harry is tied up in an intense moral quandary in this book, and constantly has to ask himself if he's doing the right thing. And is he doing it for the right reasons? Faced with magic practitioners far stronger than any he's ever faced, Harry has to decide if he's willing to draw on the power of Hellfire. Having drawn on the power of Hellfire, he has to decide if he'll make a deal with a demon. Farther and farther down the slippery slope Harry slides, looking back over his shoulder with every step. By the end, even Harry is questioning if he'll live up to his epitaph.

This book made me feel things for Morgan. Remember him? The warden who seems to have it out for Harry? Towards the climax of the book, Harry has a flash of insight and empathy that allows him to see Morgan as more than just his fanatical jailer-- he's a burnt out cop. Watching Harry wrestle with this revelation is the most emotionally arresting moment in the book. It completely reframes Harry's (and our) entire perception of Morgan.

There's so much that goes down in this book I can't even begin to cover it all. Harry's living with his half-brother now, and Thomas is struggling to adapt. Harry is racing the disciples of an insane necromancer to find said necromancer's last (forbidden) book. Butters, the polka-obsessed medical examiner, is on the run from same necromancers Harry's racing. There's a ghoul who eats people! There's a body-swapping eldritch being! There's a wild fairy who wants to hunt everything and everyone! THERE'S A PHANTOM TYRANNASAURUS!

There's also an adorable puppy with paws too big for his body. His name is Mouse.

I'm curious where Dresden will go from here. He's made major decisions in this book that seem as though they'll have far-reaching consequences for his relationships, his working life, and even his immortal soul. I've tried to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, trafficking in tantalizing tidbits rather than outright spoilers. Like I said at the top of the review, this one is easily the best one yet. I wish I could give it more than 5 💀 (because it's the one with necromancers, get it?), but I don't want to undermine my own rating system, so I'll relunctantly concede.

Dead Beat gets 5 💀 out of 5.