Death Masks: The Dresden Files, Book 5

My only complaint about the Dresden series is the waiting for the next audio book to come out. Hells bells, I'd pick up the coin and become a "Nickle Head" if it would produce the next 2 books faster.

Oh, and FYI, the TV series does NOT do the books justice in the least. The TV Series did what "Highlander 2" did to the first movie. Judge not the Dresden series off of that!

Jim Butcher himself admits that the Dresden Files series, the first volume of which was a writing exercise in the creative writing class he was in, really starts coming into it's own in the third volume, Grave Peril. I agree with him, the first two books where really raw. They are worth reading, don't misunderstand, but they are nowhere near as good as the books which came later.

In Death Masks, I personally feel that Jim Butcher really gets things into full gear. His writing gets into full gear and he tones down on the overdriven amounts of battery and damage his hero must somehow survive to levels that someone might actually survive. That sort of thing. The plot is great and you can really see him bringing the series into maturity. It's great fun and tons of action, I strongly recommend both this book and the series!

In Death Masks, Jim Butcher seems to have hit his stride as an author. After the first two books I wasn't sure, but I'm glad I came back. The Archive and Kincaid were interesting characters that I'd like to see more of in the future.

I rather miss James Marsters' deep manly breaths that were so frequent in the early books, but his narration in this book was top notch, especially his rendition of Father Vincent, the Italian priest. It's a good melding of author and narrator, in my opinion.

I hope book 6 is available soon!

What a great series, and with James Marsters' narration, you can't go wrong.
This book was right up there with one of the best. A great cast of characters, hearing more from Susan, and that Thomas is a hoot. It had some surprise allies,( if only for awhile), adding to the book's charm.
Harry didn't have a chance to get bored, as bad guys kept popping up everywhere, in his quest to find the stolen shroud.
If you follow the series, don't miss this one.

This is another fun installment in the Harry Dresden series, fast-paced with tremendous jeopardies, bittersweet romance, and Butcher's trademark humor.

The audiobook is wonderfully narrated by James Marsters, who not only gives Harry the perfect, slightly world-weary film noir detective voice, but also skillfully does a variety of accents for other characters, including Japanese, British, South American Spanish, and Russian (I loved the voice he did for Sonya, the Russian atheist Knight of the Cross.)

I'm looking forward to listening to the next books in this series--the audiobooks really make the Dresden Files come alive!

The last chapter has been added now, so purchase at will! It's a great book, and the reading is on par with everything else read by James Marsters. Enjoy!

Great book, per usual. Looking forward to 6 & 7.
As in title, final chapter is now included.

*Book source ~ Purchased at Audible.

Harry Dresden, wizard and PI, is hired by Father Vincent to find the Shroud of Turin. Unfortunately, that’s not the only thing on Harry’s plate. The Red Court has sent Ortega to Chicago to kill Harry, either outright or in a duel. It’s Harry’s choice, but if he doesn’t agree to the duel then Ortega sees nothing wrong with killing anyone Harry cares about. Of course Harry agrees to the duel. All three of The Knights of the Cross are in town looking for the Shroud and trying to keep Harry away from it because they believe he will be killed, his girlfriend Susan is back, but not for the reason she tells Harry and the Denarians are also sniffing around Chicago. Poor Harry. When it rains, it pours.

Guest reviewers:
A ~ my 16-yr-old daughter
T ~ my 14-yr-old son
K ~ my 13-yr-old son

Ok, there is a lot going on in this book, but everyone is still loving the series. Big surprise there. Not. :D The humor continues to entertain and is a big part of why this series is a favorite. The plot had several things going and we worried Harry would drop one or more of the balls he was juggling. With help he manages to not only stay alive, but return the Shroud to the Church. How could we have doubted him?? Everyone agreed that it was nice of Harry to give Marcone the ultimatum at the end and they didn’t doubt that Marcone would comply.

New faces won approval: Kincaid, The Archive, Butters, Sanya, Shiro, Molly and even Ms. Gard. Old faces have returned: Bob, Susan, Murphy, Thomas, Michael, Marcone, Ebenezer (phone appearance) and Mac from McAnally’s. Oh, and Anna’s favorite…Mister. Can’t forget him. Some new faces were not liked such as Ortega (though we saw him very briefly in Grave Peril), all of the Denarians, but Nicodemus in particular and we’re on the fence about Martin.

Everyone thought the duel was pretty cool and that Ortega was a liar liar pants on fire. They loved meeting the other two Knights and Ebenezer impressed the crap out of them with this little thing he did at the end. I won’t say what because that would spoil it, but it’s frickin awesome. The fight for the Shroud at the end was pretty good and what’s a helicopter swooping in to fight without Ride of the Valkyries playing? Which is actually a pretty funny inside joke that will come up in a later book. K & I laughed since we’ve read the books.

Favorite quote:
“…The next time I opened my eyes, I was in the morgue. This, all by itself, is enough to really ruin your day. I was lying on the examination table, and Butters, complete with his surgical gown and his tray of autopsy instruments, stood over me.
‘I’m not dead!’ I sputtered. ‘I’m not dead!’”

This book is where you really meet the Denairians. these are Demons who possess mortals through coins to do their evil work. In this one they are trying to steal the Shroud of Turin. You know that can't be good. reading this one you'll laugh a lot, cry a little and get a better understanding of the main characters.

I wasn't sold on the direction the love thread was taking, but after listening to this installment, I'm ALL IN. Same goes for the Knights; their holier-than-thou attitude would have tested my patience eventually, however in DEATH MASKS they demonstrate that they aren't 100% black or white either. The Archive was some freaky deaky sh*t which leads me to believe that Butcher has only dipped his big toe in this universe's scope. The punches kept on coming in book 5, and with so many secondary plots intertwining, the story left me reeling in the best kind of way. I don't know if I'll be able to focus on anything else until BLOOD RITES is on my iPhone, locked & loaded. Goodbye weekend! ~ 4.5 stars