© James Pyles

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Yesterday, I finished Jim Butcher’s novel Blood Rites, the sixth book in The Dresden Files series.

Harry Dresden is the world’s only publicly advertised investigative wizard. He operates out of Chicago and is on contract with the Special Investigations unit of the Chicago P.D. to help solve the really weird crimes that sometimes happen thanks to ghosts, demons, fairies, and vampires.

“Blood Rites” continues the war between Harry (and by inference the White Council) and a group of vampires called the Black Court (vampires that most resemble “Dracula”). However, Harry’s life is always complicated. He is encouraged by his “White Court” vampire associate Thomas to take a job protecting the owner of a porn film company from what amounts to “the evil eye.” Two women associated with the production have already died.

Amid all of this, Harry accidently ends up in possession of a puppy, one of a group he was supposed to retrieve for Tibetan monks who believe these dogs are holy and magical. The dog is adorable, but Harry already has an enormous cat named “Mister,” so a dog is going to be a problem.

As always, the adventure heats up. Harry meets the motley crew of porn actors and support staff which includes the ex-wives of the company owner. At the same time, he sends his air spirit familiar Bob out to scout for possible daytime locations for the vampires he’s hunting (Bob can possess Mister for this task).

The porn company assignment gets messier when Harry discovers that two of Thomas’ sisters are working there, one as an actress. White Court vampires feed off of humans using seduction and sex (incubus and succubus) rather than taking energy from blood. Over time, this will kill a human donor but by then, they are too hopelessly in love with the vampire to care. It’s a hard lure for Harry to resist.

What could have been a hopelessly convoluted mess of a plot was neatly handled by Butcher and again, the main baddie wasn’t who the reader was lead to believe.

Harry and his police detective ally Karrin Murphy become closer and we not only see the more personal side of Murphy but her much greater participation in helping to rid Harry of his enemies. It’s not easy since Murphy is a cop through and through. Killing vampires is bad enough, but what about their lethal human slaves, ones armed with automatic rifles?

As with the other “Dresden” books I’ve read thus far, this one has a bittersweet ending but one that leaves Harry with many scars, physical and otherwise. He also finds a sliver of the family he’s been longing for most of his life as well as a crushing betrayal.

I’ll be reading two unrelated books after this one, but believe me, I can’t wait to get to book seven to see what happens next.