Review: Grave Peril

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I kept hearing about how this book represented some "turning point" in the series, but I didn't see it. This book struck me as no different from the two that came before it. I enjoyed it well enough that I do intend to read book 4 on audio, but I don't see why people fall all over themselves to recommend this series to me. At this point, it's all James Marsters keeping me "reading" them.

In this book, Harry is scrambling to catch up with all of the ghosts that have been appearing all over Chicago. He has a new friend to help him with this, some kind of paladin character named Michael Carpenter. Harry crosses over to the Never-Never to get to the bottom of it, where his supremely sexy fairy godmother, Leea, waits to collect on a deal he made when he was young and stupid. And, because none of that is enough to deal with, apparently, his idiot girlfriend, Susan the intrepid reporter, tangles herself up in the whole mess so he has to run in and save her.

Harry's biggest supposed weakness remains his "chivalry," which is a nice way of saying that he infantilizes women and they're catty enough to use it against him. Tell me he gets over this and develops human traits, please.

There are some interesting characters introduced in this book, and a few developments that I'm hoping come up later. The plot did leave me guessing, though some of the mysteries were so transparently obvious I wanted to smack Harry, while others took a huge leap of logic to deduct.

I'm glad a friend is loaning me the audio books, because listening to James Marsters' narration is the only thing saving these books, and I would hate to have burned through $30 a pop just for this.



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