Fiction. Paperback, 378 pages, ISBN 0-451-45940-7. | Buy @ Amazon.Com | Author Website

Jim Butcher has spent the last few years writing about Harry Dresden, a professional wizard working as a private investigator in Chicago who specializes in solving supernatural crimes that often leave the police clueless and doubtful of his ability to solve them.  "Death Masks," the fifth book in the series, starts off in a hurry with a few loose ends from book three, "Grave Peril," and a new mystery that entangles Dresden deeper into the trouble between the physical and supernatural worlds.

Dresden makes an appearance on the local TV talk show supposedly because the producer of the show is paying him double his normal fees to talk about being a professional wizard when most people don't believe in magic.  He's really there to talk to the other guest, Mortimer Lindquist, an consultant of the supernatural, about the location of his ex-girlfriend, Susan Rodriguez, a reporter for the Midwest Arcane newspaper that reports on supernatural events.  At the end of "Grave Peril," Dresden, as a member of the White Council, was provoked to declare war on the Red Court vampires at a formal ball that they were holding when the neutrality of the event was violated by Susan being bitten by a vampire.  Mortimer informs Dresden that Susan is still alive, still human (she's not a full vampire until she has given into the blood thirst) and living in South America (which happens to be Red Court territory).  Not surprisingly, she walks back into his life a few chapters later.

There are two other guests on the show who have a special interest in Dresden.  Father Vincent from the Vatican, a leading scholar and researcher on witchcraft and magic, would later tell Dresden he wants him to track down the Shroud of Turin (the burial cloth that Jesus was laid in) that went missing from the Cathedral of Saint John The Baptist in Italy and now in Chicago.  The other guest is Dr. Paolo Ortega from University of Brazil at Rio de Janeiro, a researcher and debunker of the supernatural, who happen to be a Red Court warlord vampire who challenges Dresden to a duel to the death to end the war between the Red Court and the White Council during a commercial break.  Dresden loses control of a suppression spell that holds back his magical influences from damaging sensitive electronics, and the studio goes up in sparks and smoke as all the electrical equipment malfunction.  On the way out of the studio, Dresden and Father Vincent are set upon by professional hitmen and that leads Dresden to believe that Gentleman Johnny Marcone, Chicago's ruling crime lord, is involved with the Shroud.

On top of that, Dresden gets a phone call from Karrin Murphy, head of Chicago's Police Department Special Investigations division that handles weird crimes that are often related to the supernatural, to come on down to the morgue to check out a headless and handless male body.  According to the assistant medical examiner, the body was killed not from blood lost but of a plague of deadly viruses that shouldn't be possible outside of a bio-weapon lab.  Dresden thinks the plague might be of supernatural origns and takes special interest of an occult tattoo on the body.  After leaving the morgue, Dresden is ambushed by a member of the Fallen (the angels of Satan thrown out of Heaven) and is rescued by members of the Knights of the Cross (Michael Carpenter, Shiro Yoshimo, and Sanya) who are protecting him since the Fallen (especially one bad dude named Nicodemus) are trying to prevent him from recovering the Shroud.

Like the previous books in the series, Dresden has a full plate to deal with.  His relationship with Susan is all over the place as she struggles with not being human but having very human desires for Dresden and wanting to give into the blood thrist that could turn Dresden into a vampire if they're not careful.  Trying to avoid the duel with Ortega since he'll probably lose and his death may not end the war anyway.  He learns more about himself as various members of the supernatural community openly expresses puzzlement as to why a seemly powerful wizard would be working for the good of humanity instead of enjoying life.  There are more hints about his mysterious mother by Nicodemus when he takes Dresden captive for a little discussion in Underworld (the long-forgotten land underneath Chicago).  The discovery of the tattoo's origin identifies the body in the morgue and leads to a confrontation between Dresden, the Knights of the Cross and Marcone against Nicodemus on top of a freight train to recover the Shroud before Nicodemus can use the Shroud to spread a plague of Biblical proportion in the Midwest.

There's a touching scene when we find out why Marcone wanted the Shroud so badly and why Dresden let's him have it for three days before it re-appears at the Cathedral in Italy as if nothing had happen.  Both Dresden and Ortega survived their duel to the death, with Ortega returning to his hideout in Central America.  Dresden gets a phone call a few days later to watch the news on TV and finds out that an old Soviet (Russian) satellite fell out of the sky to destroy Ortega's hideout.  It's one less thing that Dresden has to worry about. Susan went back to Central America to leave Dresden and their relationship behind for now.  Dresden decides he can't live in the past by dwelling on his relationship with Susan.  A very good read.

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