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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At the beginning of this book the set up is as follows: Harry is duelling, wand-less and crippled, after his troubles with the vampire Mavra in Blood Rites. But this is a problem as Mavra’s back – and after revenge. And incubus Thomas, recently discovered to be his half-brother, is now living with Harry following exile from the Raith family.

Despite these many woes, there are more to come … Harry is blackmailed by Mavra, the target being his friend, police chief Karrin. If she is to live, or at least avoid being dismissed due to incriminating shenanigans in Blood Rites, then he has to find ‘the Word of Kemmler’ (whatever that is). He must then then take whatever it turns out to be to Mavra by Halloween, in three days time. This isn’t easy, as Harry and friends are being hunted by six necromancers – who clearly have designs on the Word of Kemmler too and will stop at nothing etc. etc.!

So far, so good. However, these books are not just about the resolution, but about the means, the exciting journey to the destination. If Blood Rites was about families and relationships, then, in short, this one is about rebirth. As well it needs to be, for Dead Beat seems to start at a particular low point even for Harry. But it’s certainly no less entertaining for all that. This is a darker, more bitter, Harry than we’ve seen before. The wisecracks are as good as ever, but it’s clear he’s barely holding himself together at times. Some of the events in this book push Harry to the edge, adding to the drama, as he suffers whilst helping others.

There are new elements here too. We discover scary revelations about Harry’s air spirit assistant Bob that show another side to him – and we see Bob has not always been the character we’ve come to know and like in previous books.

However you can’t keep a good wizard down, and at the resolution of the novel Harry is stronger and wiser for his experiences. To me this is an even more confidently written book than those previous. It’s also more a complex book than the earlier ones, not to mention bigger! We have moments in this book when Jim seems to throw everything into the plot and it’s a lot of fun. We have vampires, werewolves, ghouls, Halloween goings-on, the White Council, the NeverNever (or at least some of its inhabitants) all being juggled simultaneously. Consequently, the main showdown at the end is a big thrill, but competes for attention with the excitement leading up to it. Not that that’s a bad thing.

In summary, the series has definitely kept up the momentum, and this book is a tour-de-force performance that broadens and deepens the Dresden experience. This book shows that the series has plenty of life (or in the case of necromantic zombies, death…) in it yet.

SEE BELOW FOR THE DRESDEN FILES FILES (do you like what we did there…)
Previous rereads are available here, though books don’t have to be read in this order:

STORM FRONT
FOOL MOON
GRAVE PERIL
SUMMER KNIGHT
DEATH MASKS
BLOOD RITES