The Dresden Files

Book Three: Grave Peril

by Jim Butcher

Harry visits the cemetary — Harry visits the cemetery

This third novel of the Dresden Files - Grave Peril introduces new characters that become essential to the series moving forward, and also revists characters we’ve come to know in previous stories. We are thrown into the action as Harry and his new friend, Michael, are ghost busting. After this first scene is wrapped up, we are then thrown back in time to earlier in the day, to when the day first started. This was a little confusing at first but I was able to pick up the narrative after a bit.

However, a few pages later the story starts to reference an earlier event where a rogue wizard and his demon were tracked down by Harry and Chicago PD. The demon was destroyed and the wizard arrested and put in jail awaiting trial. This was confusing for a time and I kept wracking my brain trying to figure out if I had missed something. Plus the scenario is a little similar to the first novel, Storm Front, and I had to separate the two stories out in my mind. Overall it was a confusing first few chapters, as I kind of knew what was happening but the whole backstory that had happened months earlier was jarring as all of that action happened “off screen” and a full narrative wasn’t fully given until quite sometime later. And even then the narrative given ended up first being false and then it was later corrected as Harry remembered the parts that were wrong.

There were a lot of good things in this novel though, like the introduction of Michael who is a Knight of the Cross and his sword - Amoracchius. We are introduced to Thomas and Justine as well. All three of these characters, mostly Michael and Thomas, are key players for the rest of the series. There are introduced and integrated very smoothly and naturally into the story and are both interesting characters to read about and to get to know.

We are also introduced to the Nevernever and to Harry’s fairy godmother, Leanasidhe, or Lea for the first time too. She becomes a big player later on too. However, the constant running into her throughout the story and Harry constantly having to trick her to not collect on the debt he owes her got to be a little much as only once or twice was really needed to prove the point.

One really good Easter egg that we see was when Harry sees Karrin Murphy while using his wizard Sight, as we really get to see what type of person Karrin really is and why she is also a major player in the story and not just a background character.

While the previous stories do introduce Harry and his magical capabilities to the reader and we get to know Murphy, this third book really introduces some characters and story elements that continue on throughout the series and contribute in a big way to the overall story.

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Read on for an in depth, spoiler filled summary of Book Three: Grave Peril.

The story starts about 1 year after the last book - Fool Moon. We get the first appearance of Michael Carpenter, one of Harry’s friends. Harry and Michael Carpenter, a Knight of the Cross, have been ghost hunting for the past two weeks and are now headed to Cook County Hospital.

Michael presses Harry on his relationship with Susan, is he going to marry her, does he care for her? They go to the nursery and find the ghost, Agatha Hagglethorn, who is still stuck in the past and is fixated on the newborn babies. Her actions lead to the babies being threatened and Harry and Michael intervene and chase off Agatha into the Nevernever. However, Agatha is still able to threaten the babies from there. Harry and Michael decide to head into the Nevernever.

The story then flashes back to the beginning of the day. Harry is having a somewhat normal day at the office. We learn that Harry and Michael have been chasing ghosts due to an uptick in paranormal activity the past two weeks. Harry speaks with Susan and they decide to meet up later that day, as Harry is leaving his office, he encounters a young woman who needs his help. Lydia came to Harry because she is in trouble and something is after her. Harry only half believes her but gives her a talisman to help protect her and sends her to a church for safety. Afterwards, Bob talks to Harry through an old AM/FM radio that Harry has and warns him of Agatha going to the hospital. Michael then shows up and they head to the hospital.

Back in the Nevernever, Harry and Michael confront Agatha but she is more powerful in the Nevernever and the two have a hard time defeating her as she is still able to reach through to the real world and threaten the babies in the hospital. While Harry and Michael are fighting Agatha, they notice a type of barbed wire that is wrapped around Agatha digging into her spirit and seems to be causing her aggression and madness. Once Agatha is defeated, the two head back to the portal to return to the mortal world, but hear hell hounds coming which signals the coming of the Leanasidhe, Harry’s fairy god mother. Lea and the hellhounds are waiting for Harry at the entrance of the portal and Lea is there to collect on the debt that Harry owes her. Harry is able to outwit her and escape with Michael back into the mortal world.

The police arrive shortly after Harry and Michael return and they are arrested for trespassing. While in jail, Michael asks Harry about his relationship with Susan and that Harry needs to tell her how he feels, that he needs to tell her that he loves her. Harry grudgingly agrees. Michael’s wife, Charity, shows up to bail them out of jail and she is furious with Harry and blames these troubles on Harry. While they are leaving, Harry runs into Susan and they return to his apartment.

Upon arriving at Harry’s apartment, they are greeted by two vampires, Kelly and Kyle Hamilton, who invite them to a party held by Bianca of the Red Vampire Court. They are inviting Harry, and a guest, as the representative of the White Council, and so he basically has to attend. Susan wants to go so she can write a story for the Arcane, but Harry tells her that she can’t as it’s too dangerous. The vampires leave and they go into Harry’s apartment and Susan stays the night and they make love. Harry is still unable to tell Susan how he feels about her.

The next morning, Michael shows up to tell Harry about some strange going ons at a church and he wants Harry to go with him. Michael sees that Susan stayed the night and gets on him for having sexual relations outside of marriage and again steers the conversation to Harry needing to tell Susan how he feels.
They leave and head to the Church and Harry sees that there has been some property damage at the Church. They meet with Father Forthill who knows Harry already and the Father tells them that Lydia came to the sanctuary last night and was staying there when an evil spirit came and was calling out for Lydia to come out of the Church. The Father rebukes the spirit but still Lydia ends up sneaking out.

Harry and Michael decide that they need to find Lydia, so Harry goes to visit a necromancer who might be able to give him some insight and information.

Harry goes to visit Mortimer Lindquist and finds Morty on his way out of town. Morty is scared and needs to leave soon. Harry pumps him for information and finds out that Morty is aware that there is some craziness going on in the spirit world. Morty is aware of a powerful spirit that is causing the havoc, and he calls it the Nightmare. Morty tells Harry where he can find his journals on the spirit world and then jumps in a cab to leave. Harry grabs the journals and heads home to read them.

When he arrives home, there are two police officers there waiting for him, Rudolph and Stallings. Rudolph is his usual rude self, while Stallings is more reasonable. They tell Harry that Lieutenant Murphy needs his help on a case, that Det. Micky Malone is in trouble. They head to Malone’s house and when they arrive, Harry senses a wrongness nearby, as he searches for it he finds that there have been several animals that have been brutally killed and left for dead. They go to the house and Harry tells them that Mrs. Malone will need to invite him into the home for his magic to be able to be used to it’s fullest potential. They go get Sonia Malone who invites Harry in and he heads to Micky’s room. He encounters Murphy and they go into the room and find Malone handcuffed to the bed and he is in bad shape. He looks like he has gone mad and laughs hysterically for no reason, he has also started to physically attack others for no reason. Murphy leaves and Harry uses his wizard’s Sight to see what is spiritually wrong with Malone. Harry sees a man whose soul and mind has been ripped to shreds and is bleeding and bleeding without staining the sheets. Harry then sees the barbed wire wrapped around his body and digging deep into his skin. He recognizes this as the same type of wire that was affecting Agatha Hagglethorn. Harry is able to slowly rip the barbed wire off of Malone, but then the wire attacks Harry and Harry shouts for help and Murphy comes running in. With his wizard Sight still in effect, Harry sees Murphy but “her eyes living flames of azure blue, her hair a golden coronet around her. She held a blazing sword in her hand an she shone so bright and beautiful and terrifying in her anger that it was hard to see.” With his Sight, Harry was seeing her for who she really was, a Guardian Angel. Murphy opens the window and Harry throws the wire out and then blasts it with his blasting rod which causes a forceful explosion that everyone hears and feels even though they couldn’t see the wire.

Malone’s suffering has been relieved and his wife comes in to see him and care for him. Harry and Murphy talk about how this is related to the rest of the ghostly events and that something is out there and Harry needs to stop this Nightmare. Murphy offers him her help if needed.

Harry goes back home and talks to Susan on the phone. She is investigating something regarding Leonard Kravos, the evil magician that Harry, Michael, Lieutenant Murphy, and SI busted a few months ago. Harry and Bob talk about ghosts and how when someone dies their spirits are “impressions left by a personality at the moment of death.”, and the stronger their personality, the stronger the spirit is. They talk about how strong the Nightmare is and how.

Harry goes off to find Lydia and uses a tuning spell to track her down to an abandoned building. She is being held in a white van, when Harry finds her unconscious he realizes that it is a trap. Kelly and Kyle Hamilton kidnapped Lydia to lure Harry in to capture him for Bianca. Harry duels the siblings and wounds Kelly in the process and the siblings leave with Lydia still captive. Harry has been exposed to the vampires venom and is experiencing the effects of the venom and returns home to recover.

Harry is unconscious and dreams of when he and the others took down Kravos. But this time when they are about to capture Kravos and kill his demon that he was using to cause chaos on the city, events happen differently. Harry’s magic doesn’t work and everyone is killed, when the demon is about to kill him the demon first bites him and feeds on his belly, before Harry dies, Mister the cat scratches him on the face waking him up. Harry is freaking out and puts up protective wards around him. Bob talks to him about how when Harry was dreaming he must have created a temporary bubble for himself and his reality in the Nevernever which allowed the Nightmare to reach him and eat him. Because of this, the Nightmare ate some of his power leaving Harry weak in his magical power and making the Nightmare stronger.

Harry believes that the Nightmare is the demon that they killed when they capture Kravos and the demon is exacting revenge on those that participated in his death. Harry realizes that Murphy and Michael are his revenge list. He calls Murphy and Murphy says that she just talked to him ten minutes ago and that she is meeting him at her office and how could he forget? Harry gathers his things to head to the PD, he tries to call Michael to warn him but the line is busy (this book was written before smart phones were everywhere).

Harry arrives at the PD and finds the Nightmare disguised as him already messing with Murphy and she is under his spell and the Nightmare is torturing her by causing her to suffer a constant waking nightmare. Harry chases the Nightmare off, but the damage is done. Harry is able to cause Murphy to fall into a deeper sleep that circumvents the spell and the nightmares, but it is a time limited spell that will only last a couple of days. Harry talks Stallings into getting Kravos’ spell book out of evidence, even though it’s a crime to do so. Harry is able to learn the demon’s name from the spell book in order to gain control over it.

Harry heads to Michael’s house to make sure he and his family are ok. Michael is there caring for the kids, but his wife, Charity, has gone to the store. They rush to the store and find Charity’s van but no sign of Charity. Harry sees Charity and the Nightmare, still disguised as Harry, headed towards the cemetery that is close by. Harry calls for Michael and then chases after them on his own. Upon entering the cemetery he finds the demon holding Charity captive, Charity is also 9 months pregnant and the baby is also in danger. Harry and the demon fight and Charity is able to gain separation but can’t escape as her water just broke and is having labor pains. During the scuffle, Michael shows up and is able to hold off the demon. While Michael is dealing with the demon and protecting Charity, Lea shows up and again makes a bargain with Harry and in exchange for him (again) she heals his wounds and gives him knowledge to use the water, as it is a rainy night, to repel the demon. The demon comes at Harry again and during their wrestling match, Harry uses the water to dissipate the demon. Lea comes to collect on her bargain, but Harry argues a loophole and refuses to go with her. While Michael has picked up Charity to carry her, Harry takes Michael’s sword, Amoracchius, and when one of Lea’s hell hounds advances on him, Harry strikes at the hell hound. Because the sword can’t be used that way Lea is able to take the sword from him and she disappears into the Nevernever. They rush Charity to the hospital.

Charity has to give birth via C-section due to complications and the baby is in the ICU and is struggling. Harry believes this is due to the confrontation with the demon. Harry and Michael talk and Harry convinces Michael that they have to go back out there to defeat the demon and find out who is behind all of this. The demon’s actions are too intelligent and calculated for a demon and someone must be directing it on who to attack.

They go back to Harry’s apartment and using his magic, Harry is able to create a spell to track the demon down and bind it to him so that the demon will have to kill him first before it goes after anyone else. Harry and Michael head to the Bianca’s party to find out who is behind the demon and the killings.

Harry dresses up as a cheesy vampire with the plastic fangs and fake blood, while Michael wears his Knight of the Cross gear to the party. When they are arriving, they meet up with a vampire from the White Court, Thomas Raith, and his date, Justine. Thomas is irreverent and has no love for Bianca and the Red Court. They enter the party together and upon seeing Harry, the vampires are really angry and would have killed him there had there not been protection for Harry and his guest built in to the invitation to the party. As they socialize, Harry takes a drink but then Thomas comes to warn him that the drinks are poisoned with vampire venom, but it’s too late. Harry and Michael get to know Thomas and Justine a little more, they meet a man named Ferro who is really a dragon in human form. But then to Harry’s utter dismay, Susan shows up wanting to get an exclusive interview with a vampire for the magazine she works for. Susan forged an invite using his invite as a template, so she is not under the same protection guarantee that Harry and Michael are. Harry starts to feel the effects of the poison and is weakened even more.

Lea shows up to the party as well and wants to again collect on her bargain with Harry, but after a lot of banter, Susan steps in to prevent that from happening and makes a bargain of her own. Susan gives up a year of her memories of Harry in exchange for his health and safety. Harry is cured from the poison and gets some of his strength back, but Susan doesn’t know who Harry is anymore. Harry has to convince her that they do know each other and that she has to trust him so that they can get out of there.

They go to leave but run into Mavre, who is the leader of the Black Court vampires. She knows Michael as he had massacred many of the Black Court vampires twenty years ago as they had gone on killing sprees and he was sent to stop them. Mavra threatens them and goes to kill Harry. Harry then realizes that Mavra and her magic have likely been the directing hand behind the demon and his attacks. But the three of them, Harry, Michael, and Susan, are able to keep Mavra at bay and go to leave. However, it is too late and they are unable to leave due to the doors being closed and guarded.

Harry and his friends and the other guests are given gifts from Bianca. During this One of the gifts is Michael’s sword that was lost earlier. It was given to Mavra who elected to use it to kill Lydia who was brought out bound and hooded. Mavra was going to use the sword to kill Lydia which would also cause the sword to break. Harry intervenes and a fight starts between Harry and his friends and the vampires. They almost make their way out of the chaos and escape, but Justine is captured by Bianca. She convinces Thomas to trade Susan for Justine. Thomas pushes Susan into the mass of vampires and goes to get Justine. Harry and Michael are left alone surrounded by the vampires, and Harry unleashes fire that kills so many vampires and allows Michael, Harry, and Lydia to escape. Harry is exhausted and is carried out by Michael who then goes back in to retrieve his sword and to find Susan. He returns later without either and they go to Harry’s apartment.

A day and a half later, Harry wakes up and Lydia is still there asleep. Michael explains how he couldn’t find Susan, Justine, or the sword. There’s a knock on the door and it’s Thomas, before they can kill him for his betrayal, he convinces them to listen to him. He explains that the vampires have Susan and Justine and they are both alive. Thomas also has a long rifle case with him. He gives it to Michael as a sign of good faith and in the case is Michael’s sword, Amoracchius! They come up with the idea to go rescue them. Then Lydia wakes up.

Lydia is possessed by the Nightmare and attacks Harry, Michael, and Thomas. Working together they are able to subdue the Nightmare. But during the fight, Harry figures out that the Nightmare is actually Kravos’ spirit which allows Harry to exorcise it out of Lydia. They then come up with a plan to infiltrate Bianca’s mansion and rescue Susan and Justine. They will go through the Nevernever and sneak in to the mansion that way. But of course they have to plan for Lea as she will be there waiting for Harry if he comes back into the Nevernever. As they are sneaking their way through the Nevernever, Lea discovers he is there and chases him down. Lea catches up to them and Harry takes poison to force Lea’s hand. She can either let him go and then he will take the antidote or she can capture him and then he will die within a few hours. Lea agrees to let him go and Harry runs to the portal in the Nevernever, but he is the only one that makes it through and of course it’s a trap and he is captured by Bianca and the vampires who rape him repeatedly. Afterwards they put him into a room and he wakes up a couple of hours later and finds that Justine is there.

While talking with Justine he realizes that Justine is mentally ill and Thomas is able to keep her illness at bay. Harry finds out that Susan is also in the room when she wakes up. Harry finds out that the Red Court Vampires bit her and changed her, but as long as she doesn’t bite someone else and drink their blood then she won’t fully change. Harry tries to connect with Susan and tries to use magic to restore her memories. The spell isn’t working and then harry tells Susan he loves her and those words have power and allow him to restore the stolen memories. Harry comes up with a plan that he will falls asleep allowing Kravos to attack him in his dreams and due to his weekend state, he will be killed. This will allow Harry to die then his spirit will be able to take on Kravos and defeat him. After he dies, Susan does CPR on him and brings him back to life. Harry and his spirit are able to work together in his dream and defeat Kravos for good. Harry is able to get his magical power that he lost earlier to Kravos back and then he wakes up.

Using his power Harry is able to escape his locked room with Susan and Justine. The Hamilton sibling vampires are there waiting for him and Harry is able to take them both on and defeat both Kelly and Kyle once and for all. Harry then runs into Bianca, her vampires, and some thugs with machine guns. A representative from the Red Court is there to observe the events and to make sure the Accords aren’t broken which would start a war between the White Council of Wizards and the Red Court of Vampires. Bianca has Susan and threatens to kill her unless he leaves. Harry says he won’t leave without her and that he will risk a war to save her. Bianca is incensed and orders her vampires to attack him and she herself uses magic against him. Harry fights back with his magic but there are too many vampires. Harry uses his magic to call forth the ghosts of the victims that the vampires have killed there over the years. They rise from the dead and attack the vampires exacting revenge and kill most of them. Harry is able to rescue Susan in the chaos and along with Justine they escape the house before it collapses killing everyone inside.

Harry wakes up in the hospital next to Charity and Michael and Thomas are there too. They were able to escape out of the Nevernever and return to the hospital. Days pass and things get back to normal. Murphy woke up and was recovered. Charity and the baby return home, while Harry stays a little longer in the hospital. Murphy and Harry go to Kravos’ funeral to make sure he is dead and buried. Lydia returned to Father Forthill until she was healed and recovered and then she went into a protection program, her real name was Barbara something, but she is able to heal and move on. Justine was back with Thomas and recovered too. Susan and Harry tried to make it work, but Susan had changed. Harry actually proposed to Susan, but she says no and then disappears saying that she is worried she wouldn’t be able to control herself and would put him in danger. The White Council and the Vampires are at war, and the White Council will convene in Chicago and Harry has been summoned to their meeting to discuss what happened between him and the vampires. But Murphy and Harry are still friends and she is there for him in this hard trying time.

Next up is Book Four - Summer Knight.

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