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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Turncoat definition: ‘A person who shifts allegiance from one loyalty or ideal to another, betraying or deserting an original cause by switching to the opposing side or party.’

After tense events featuring the Fae in Small Favour, we’re back into Wardens, Wizards and vampires in this one. The cease-fire existing between the vampires and the wizard White Council seen in Small Favour still remains, but is still fragile. This is in no small part due to the so-called Black Council (an exciting addition), the fifth-columnists within the White who seem determined to bring the wizards down.

We start, as is usual, with a bang. Though most of the Dresden novels start with a hit of adrenaline, this one tops the lot so far. Harry is at home when on his doorstep appears a badly injured Morgan, the Warden with whom Harry has had a difficult relationship with to date. Then after asking for protection from the White Council, Morgan collapses …

Though harbouring a fugitive from the Council means death, Harry protects his former adversary whilst he investigates the crime that Morgan is accused of, namely the murder of Senior Council member Aleron LaFortier. Harry feels that Morgan has been framed as an attempt to discredit him and the Council, as well as reignite the situation between wizards and vampires. This is of course all very tense!

To resolve Morgan’s situation, we see Harry travel to the Wizards Council’s headquarters in Edinburgh. On uncovering evidence, Harry discovers that there is a deeper problem here. The future of the Council is at stake and Harry has to go against his allies in the White Council for the sake of what he believes in.

At the climax we have unlikely allies who end up fighting together in order to deal with a problem that could affect them all. The thought of wizards, werewolves and vampires fighting together against a common enemy should get you pretty excited and here I was pleased to find Jim certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Though there are fantastic developments then in terms of plot, it is still the relationships between the characters here that keep us reading. There are some major changes here too that will have an effect on events later in the series. Thomas Raith, Harry’s half-brother, is changed by what goes on in this book and not necessarily for the better. The biggest plot point is the death of a fairly major character, which leads to some serious soul-searching by Harry.

What is perhaps the biggest thorny question here is an ethical issue. We are asked to consider whether the sacrifice of an innocent individual is acceptable for the greater good. This is something that sits uneasily with Harry, due to his background, and in Turn Coat it leads to consequences that are neither easy nor happy solutions.

This is a complex turn of events and gets the reader to consider Harry’s real values. Like Harry, at the end I was left wondering who, in this case, is the turncoat? In the world of Dresden, things are rarely black and white. Here things are about as blurred as they can be, making it a really great read.

SEE BELOW FOR A RUN DOWN OF THE DRESDEN FILES
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
DEAD BEAT
PROVEN GUILTY
WHITE NIGHT
SMALL FAVOUR