THE DRESDEN FILES

The Dresden Files are set in an “alternate” Chicago where magic is real, but only a few actually believe in it; it’s a first-person tale told by a wizard named Harry Dresden, who regulary gives the magical establishment indigestion – and the police, the same.

Storm Front (Book 1 of The Dresden Files series – published 2000) The official site

Synopsis:

With rent past due and a decent meal becoming an issue of some importance, Harry needs work, and soon. A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires, while he himself is under suspicion of the crimes. One thing is certain, if he can’t stop whoever is on this killing spree, Harry will be the next victim.

Fool Moon (Book 2 of The Dresden Files series – published 2001) The official site

Synopsis: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is Chicagos only openly practicing wizard. He is also dead bpublishede. His vast knowledge and magical skills are unfortunately matched by his talent for making powerful enemies and alienating friends.

With little more than his integrity left, he accepts an offer of work from Lt. Karin Murphy of Chicago’s Special Investigations Unit. He wants to redeem himself in Murphy’s eyes and make enough money to quiet his rumbling stomach.

Soon he finds himself pinned between trigger-happy FBI agents, shape-shifiting motorcycle gang members, a threatened mobster boss, and an heir to an ancient curse along with his primal fiance. Thrown in environmental activists and a pair of young werewolves in love and you have something of Fool Moon.

Grave Peril (Book 3 of The Dresden Files series – published 2001) The official site

Synopsis: Harry Dresden’s faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you’re the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.

But in all Harry’s years of supernatural sleuthing, he’s never faced anything like this: the spirit world’s gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble — and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone — or something — is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc.

But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn’t figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself…

Summer Knight (Book 4 of The Dresden Files series – published 2002) The official site

Synopsis: Ever since his girlfriend left town to deal with her newly acquired taste for blood, Harry Dresden has been down and out in Chicago. He can’t pay his rent. He’s alienating his friends. He can’t even recall the last time he took a shower.

The only professional wizard in the phone book has become a desperate man.

And just when it seems things can’t get any worse, in saunters the Winter Queen of Faerie. She has an offer Harry can’t refuse if he wants to free himself of the supernatural hold his faerie godmother has over him — and hopefully end his run of bad luck. All he has to do is find out who murdered the Summer Queen’s right-hand man, the Summer Knight, and clear the Winter Queen’s name.

It seems simple enough, but Harry knows better than to get caught in the middle of faerie politics. Until he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case.

No pressure or anything…

Death Masks (5. díl z knižní série The Dresden Files – published 2003) The official site

Synopsis: Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only practicing professional wizard, should be happy that business is pretty good for a change. But now he’s getting more than he bargained for.

A duel with the Red Court of Vampires’ champion, who must kill Harry to end the war between vampires and wizards…

Professional hit men using Harry for target practice…

The missing Shroud of Turin…

A handless and headless corpse the Chicago police need identified…

Not to mention the return of Harry’s ex-girlfriend Susan, who’s still struggling with her semi-vampiric nature. And who seems to have a new man in her life.

Some days, it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed. No matter how much you’re charging.

Blood Rites (6. díl z knižní série The Dresden Files – published 2004) The official site

Synopsis: For Harry Dresden, Chicagos only professional wizard, there have been worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Dodging flaming monkey poo, for instance. Or going toe-to-toe with a walking plant monster. Still, theres something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The films producer believes hes the target of a sinister entropy curse-but its the women around him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways.

Harrys doubly frustrated because he got involved with this bizarre mystery only as a favor to Thomas, his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquaintance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can’t quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to Thomas oversexed vampire family. Harrys about to discover that Thomas family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harrys life forever.

Dead Beat (7. díl z knižní série The Dresden Files – published 2005) The official site

Synopsis:

Theres an entire world that exists alongside the everyday life of mankind. There are powers, nations, monsters, wars, feuds, alliances–everything. Wizards are part of it. So are a lot of other things youve heard about in stories, and even more youve never heard of …. Vampires. Werewolves. Faeries. Demons. Monsters. Its all real.

Harry Dresden knows full well that such creatures exist. Paranormal investigations are his stock-in-trade, and Chicago is his beat as he tries to bring law and order to a world that exists on the edges of imagination. Luckily Harrys not alone in this struggle. And though most inhabitants of the Windy City dont believe in magic, theres a department thats been set up within the Chicago PD to deal with “strange” cases: the Special Investigations Dept.

Karrin Murphy is the head of SI and a good friend of Harrys. So when a deadly vampire threatens to destroy Murphys reputation unless Harry helps her, he has no choice. The vampire wants the Word of Kemmler and all the power that comes with it — but first Harry has to determine what the Word of Kemmler is. Now Harry is in a race against time– and six necromancers–to find the Word before Chicago experiences a Halloween night to wake the dead…

Proven Guilty (8. díl z knižní série The Dresden Files – published 2006) The official site

Synopsis:

There’s no love lost between Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the Chicago phone book, and the White Council of Wizards, who find him brash and undisciplined. But war with the vampires has thinned their ranks, so the Council has drafted Harry as a Warden and assigned him to look into rumors of black magic in the Windy City.

As Harry adjusts to his new role, another problem arrives in the form of the tattooed and pierced daughter of an old friend, all grown-up and already in trouble. Her boyfriend is the only suspect in what looks like a supernatural assault straight out of a horror film. Malevolent entities that feed on fear are loose in Chicago, but it’s all in a day’s work for a wizard, his faithful dog, and a talking skull named Bob…

White Night (9. díl z knižní série The Dresden Files – published 2007) The official site

Synopsis:

Someone is targeting Chicagos magic practitioners, the members of the supernatural underclass who dont possess enough power to become full-fledged wizards. Some have vanished. Others appear to be victms of suicide. But now the culprit has left a calling card at one of the crime scenes – a message for Harry Dresden

Harry sets out to find the killer, but his investigations turns up evidence pointing to the one suspect he cannot possibly believe guilty, his half brother, Thomas. To clear his brothers name, Harry rushes into a supernatural power struggle that renders him outnumbered, outclassed, and dangerously susceptible to temptation.

And Harrry knows that if he screws this one up, people will die – and one of them will be his brother…

Small Favor (Book 10 of The Dresden Files series – published 2008) The official site

Synopsis:

No one’s tried to kill Harry Dresden for almost an entire year, and his life finally seems to be calming down. For once, the future looks fairly bright. But the past casts one hell of a long shadow.

An old bargain has placed Harry in debt to Mab, monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe, the Queen of Air and Darkness-and she’s calling in her marker. It’s a small favor he can’t refuse…one that will trap Harry Dresden between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and one that will strain his skills-and loyalties-to their very limits.

It figures. Everything was going too well to last…

Turn Coat (Book 11 of The Dresden Files series – published April 2009) The official site

Synopsis:

The Warden Morgan has been accused of treason against the Wizards of the White Council–and there’s only one, final punishment for that crime. He’s on the run, wants his name cleared, and needs someone with a knack for backing the underdog. Someone like Harry Dresden.

Now, Harry must uncover a traitor within the Council, keep a less-than-agreeable Morgan under wraps, and avoid coming under scrutiny himself. And a single mistake may cost someone his head–someone like Harry.

Changes (Book 12 of The Dresden Files series – published April 2010) The official site

Synopsis: Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden’s lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry’s not fighting to save the world…

He’s fighting to save his child.

Side Jobs (Compilation of short stories – published October 2010) The official site

Synopsis: Here, together for the first time, are the shorter works of best-selling author Jim Butcher – a compendium of cases that Harry and his cadre of allies managed to close in record time. The tales range from the deadly serious to the absurdly hilarious. Also included is a new, never-before-published novella that takes place after the cliff-hanger ending of Changes. This is a must-have collection for every devoted Harry Dresden fan, as well as a perfect introduction for readers ready to meet Chicago’s only professional wizard.

Superman Doomsday (DVD movie – voice of Lex Luthor – published 2007) The official site

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