Fool Moon | ||||||||
Jim Butcher | ||||||||
Roc Books, 350 pages | ||||||||
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A review by Victoria Strauss
Things have not been good lately for Chicago's only professional
wizard. His previous case, in which he worked with the Chicago PD
to solve a series of gruesome murders committed by a mad warlock
turned druglord, brought him a lot of publicity, but not the
helpful kind: the press has dubbed him a charlatan, and his
contact on the police force, Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, has come in
for some heavy criticism for using public money to hire him. To
make matters worse, he's been linked with Gentleman Johnny Marcone,
the city's top crime boss -- at whose behest, it's said, he
terminated the warlock-druglord.
When another set of brutal killings comes to light, Karrin is the
only one who makes the connection between the timing of the
killings and the full moon. Realizing she has something
supernatural on her hands, she turns to Harry, though she's
reluctant to trust him after the near-debacle of their last case.
It turns out that werewolves are alive and well and ripping out
people's throats in Chicago. But where did they come from? Are
they lycanthropes, Hexenwolves, or loup-garou? And why are so many
of their victims connected to Johnny Marcone? The search for
answers pulls Harry and Karrin into a terrifying world of
shapeshifters and supernatural curses, and brings them face-to-face
with some very ugly human magic -- which they won't survive if they
can't learn to trust each other again.
Storm Front was one of the most enjoyable books I read last
year, and Fool Moon is even better. Butcher keeps the
thrills coming, with plenty of mystery, suspense, and edge-of-your-seat action scenes. The subject matter is very dark, with a
compelling evocation of the dehumanizing influence of shapeshifting
magic, and a tragic figure in the form of the central werewolf, a
man labouring under the influence of an ancient curse, whose efforts
to contain his supernatural savagery are foiled by people whose
entirely human motives are much uglier than his involuntary evil.
But Harry's wry narrative voice provides a nicely-judged contrast
to grim events he chronicles, interjecting welcome notes of humour
throughout.
Harry is developing into a memorable character -- honest and
honourable enough to be likeable, flawed and unpredictable enough to
be interesting. He's entirely believable both as a man and as a
wizard. In fact, Butcher's intelligently-crafted explanations of
the whys and hows of Harry's wizardry are one of the best things
about this series, an unusually convincing portrayal of the power
of magic, and its limitations.
Fool Moon wraps up its story in a satisfying way, while
sowing seeds of mystery for future volumes. Dresden
Files fans can rejoice: in addition to Book Three,
Grave Peril, coming in 2001, Butcher has sold two additional
installments in the series. It looks, happily, as if Harry Dresden
will be around for some time to come.
Victoria Strauss is a novelist, and a lifelong reader of fantasy and science fiction. Her most recent fantasy novel The Garden of the Stone is currently available from HarperCollins EOS. For details, visit her website. |
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