Blood Rites

Executive Summary: Mr. Butcher ramps things up with this story, and continues to break away from the formulaic style of the previous novels.Audio book: Nothing really of note for this book, although James Marsters does get to try his hand at a Greek accent, which to me sounded pretty good. At this point in the series, I can't imagine anyone else reading it.Full ReviewSo for me, the turning point for the series starts with the last book [b:Death Masks 91479 Death Masks (The Dresden Files, #5) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345557713s/91479.jpg 2183], but if that one didn't impress you, this one should. Otherwise, why exactly are you still reading the series?Gone are the mysterious and attractive females that bring Harry's sense of chivalry to override his better judgement. That doesn't mean he's still not taking cases, or working as a Wizard for hire, but he's tackling bigger problems, with larger implications than he once was.Thomas has come to Harry to call in a favor for helping him in the past and help a friend of his who appears to be under attack from dark magic.The underlying plot of the last few books takes a bit of a break with novel with the return of other baddies, along with introducing some excellent new ones.We see the return of what are becoming the main stay supporting characters of Thomas and of course Murphy, as well as Ebeneezer.This book has several very large revelations that have a major impact on the course of the story in futures novels.The humor gets better with each book, although Harry's smart mouth in the face of mortal danger can get a bit tiring at times.Also, Mouse! (Any of you who have read past this book, should understand that, any of you haven't will just have to scratch your heads).It's getting harder to write these reviews in my normal spoiler-free fashion, or at least without discussing spoilers from previous books. This may be the last book that I can manage that.This is another fast and fun read, and I can't wait to jump into [b:Dead Beat 17683 Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, #7) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345667776s/17683.jpg 6614452], which probably sealed this as one of my favorite series.