CarlAlves

I want to preface this review by writing that I am not the biggest fan of the Dresden Files, have not read the series religiously and have only found it mildly appealing. My biggest misgiving is that I don't find Harry Dresden to be a particularly interesting lead character. The author makes too much of an effort to make him overly flawed. Also some of the mythos of the story world don't particularly jive with me, such as vampires that can be out during the daytime and who use guns to fight instead of their own preternatural skills.

Having said that, the plot and story of Turncoat are reasonably good. Butcher did a nice job of setting up a strong opening conflict. The wizard Morgan, who has been a nemesis to Dresden in the past, shows up at Harry's doorstep half-dead and in need of help. Harry agrees to help him, starting a chain of events that lead him to uncover a conspiracy in the wizard White Council. A powerful demonic entity known as a SkinWalker attacks Harry and those close to him. Meanwhile he has to carefully sidestep the wardens of the White Council who are after Morgan.

The mystery of this story was well-developed even though I was able to figure out the turncoat fairly early on. The plot was sound and the story moved at a good pace. All in all, better than the other Dresden File novels I have read but not good enough to make me eagerly anticipate picking up the next one.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street