Dresden Files Book 1: Storm Front by Jim Butcher

Performed by James Marsters
Buzzy Multimedia, Inc
Urban Fantasy
Unabridged MP3 Audio Book
Rating : 4

Harry Dresden is probably the only publicly practicing wizard out there with an ad in the phone book. Even so, money is scarce and he needs a job. His sometime consulting work for the Chicago PD just doesn't quite cut it.

When a young woman comes to him for help in finding her husband, Harry gets a lot more than he bargained for, especially when LT Karrin Murphy at the PD calls him in to help with a pair of gruesome murders. As Harry investigates, he begins to find connections between the two cases they make him suspect that his client's missing husband is practicing sorcery of the most dangerous kind, and now he wants Harry dead.

Storm Front is a great start to the Dresden Files series. Action starts on page one and carries us through at an unceasing pace until we reach the conclusion. We have a little bit of everything here. There’s plenty of mystery in Harry’s search for a missing man practicing black magic and the LT Murphy’s case trying to find the perpetrator of horrific murders. We even have a run with the mob and a brush with death at the fangs of a rather angry and gorgeous-in-female-human-form vampire. There is still even more unfolding events and character introductions to keep our interest. How all of these details fit together provides a very compelling thrill ride.

What’s not to love about Harry Dresden? He’s an average guy who just happens to be a wizard. He has his flaws and he often fumbles his way through his cases, often finding success in rather unlikely ways. He has his dark side, for which he is now on probation with the council overseeing all wizards, as a result of giving into his desire for revenge and using dark magic to get it. He struggles to pay the rent and buy groceries just like so many of us. And he isn’t exactly the most debonair of men when it comes to relationships with women.

I've been wanting to try the Dresden Files for a long time and just never got around to it. I thoroughly enjoyed the short lived television series so I was familiar with the story in Storm Front. One of the episodes was based on it, though it was changed a bit to fit in the time frame allotted for the show. I love Harry and his acquaintances from all across the board between straitlaced and serious police detectives to deadly vampires, a skull with an attitude and all manner of characters.

James Marsters does a brilliant job performing Storm Front. His voice is perfect for Harry with his dark and dry humor and he does just as well portraying all of the roles. He has an excellent sense of timing in his reading, knowing just how to string out his words or speed them up to perfectly fit the mood of the scene. I look forward to trying more audio books in the series, especially if Marsters continues to do as wonderful a job as he did here.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, May 2008. All rights reserved.

The D2K Paranormal Junkies

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