Jim Butcher left his protagonist in an apparently terminal state at the end of the last novel and he doesn't cop out here, presenting us with a now dead Harry Dresden. Naturally as the reader I'm expecting that to be resolved by the time the book is over, but Butcher doesn't give his hero an easy ride.

The Dresden series of novels is what I consider "popcorn entertainment". Not because they're bad, they're consistently good actually, but because they don't require too much in the way of soul searching to read. What I get out of it is an exciting, fast moving adventure that amuses and occasionally thrills me. And that is what Butcher delivers one more time.

The nature of this story provides a little more introspection perhaps and also fails to move any of the ongoing plot elements forward at all. Which is frustrating for someone who has read the series from the beginning. But as a story in its own right it hangs together pretty well.