Mark Yon has been a reviewer and web administrator at SFFWorld, one of the world’s biggest genre forum sites, for nearly ten years. He has also been on the David Gemmell Awards organisation committee for the last two years. In this series of rereads, Mark will guide us below through the whole of Jim Butcher’s fabulous Dresden Files series as we count down to the new hardback Ghost Story at the end of July.
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Book Five of the series and things are still getting darker.

A little more Harry Dresden-focused after the events of Summer Knight, Death Masks is, in some respects, a smaller scale book – there is little reference to the NeverNever, more happenings around Chicago.

The war between the wizard’s White Council and the vampire’s Red Court is continued, but here the attention is clearly on Harry’s role in it all. Harry, in an attempt to settle the war, is challenged to a duel by Paolo Ortega, a reputed member of the vampire Red Court royalty. In the organised fashion that seems to be the way in the world of magic and demons, seconds are called for and the duel is arranged – at Wrigley Stadium in Chicago.

What I noticed and enjoyed most is that although the book is Harry and Chicago focused, there are things happening around Harry that are hinting at the global nature of the supernatural realm. We have the arrival of new characters such as the Archive – a person containing the sum of all knowledge – and their arrival shows us that Harry’s issues have wider consequences beyond just Chicago. After previously being mainly based around Harry’s immediate friends and enemies, Death Masks indicates that there are other characters outside the usual who are affected by Harry’s actions.

The biggest surprise for me here is the welcome return of Susan Rodriguez, Harry’s ex-girlfriend. And as a consequence of Harry’s actions in earlier books, she is now part-vampire and that makes things rather complicated. In a good way.

These complications are what raises the Dresden series at this point for me. My overriding feeling at the end of Death Masks is that the mood is not so much bleak, as rather melancholic. Harry is having to deal with some big personal issues here and face some uncomfortable truths, which mean that he’s not finding life easy. He also has to make decisions that do not sit well with him, even when he realises they are for the greater good.

In a book this dark, it is important to offset the bleakness. To do this, there are still the great humorous touches that are a Dresden trademark. Harry still manages to use his usual wisecracks when pushed into a tough corner. I particularly liked the surreal use of a plastic duck (you’ll have to read to find out…).

The book ends with a lovely flourish and a degree of closure on Harry’s past (a theme that will reappear in later books); as well as a James Bond-ian cliffhanger, leading in to the next book, Blood Rites.

In summary, Death Masks is a book with a number of set pieces that finish satisfyingly. Five books in, the series is still fast and fun. The tension towards ‘the big finish’ kept those pages turning, even on a reread; and again, it was no surprise that on my rereading I finished the book in a couple of days.