Ghost Story

Jim Butcher

Jul 2011 · Dresden Files Book 13 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

Chicago wizard Harry Dresden gets a taste of the dead life in this novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

In his life, Harry’s been shot, stabbed, sliced, beaten, burned, crushed, and tortured. And after someone puts a bullet through his chest and leaves him to die in the waters of Lake Michigan, things really start going downhill.

Trapped between life and death, he learns that his friends are in serious trouble. Only by finding his murderer can he save his friends and move on—a feat which would be a lot easier if he had a body and access to his powers. Worse still are the malevolent shadows that roam Chicago, controlled by a dark entity that wants Harry to suffer even in death.

Now, the late Harry Dresden will have to pull off the ultimate trick without using any magic—or face an eternity as just another lost soul...

Ratings and reviews

There is nothing interesting in this most recent novel of the Dresden files. It feels very much like a clip shows of the previous dozen books. The same sort of action, the same characters, the same old plot. If you have read at least two previous Dresden novels, you should know after the first chapter how the story will end. Feel free to skip it and wait for a real Dresden novel sometime (I hope) next year.

Jim Butcher left his protagonist in an apparently terminal state at the end of the last novel and he doesn't cop out here, presenting us with a now dead Harry Dresden. Naturally as the reader I'm expecting that to be resolved by the time the book is over, but Butcher doesn't give his hero an easy ride. The Dresden series of novels is what I consider "popcorn entertainment". Not because they're bad, they're consistently good actually, but because they don't require too much in the way of soul searching to read. What I get out of it is an exciting, fast moving adventure that amuses and occasionally thrills me. And that is what Butcher delivers one more time. The nature of this story provides a little more introspection perhaps and also fails to move any of the ongoing plot elements forward at all. Which is frustrating for someone who has read the series from the beginning. But as a story in its own right it hangs together pretty well.

Harry, is out of the loop and yet he is in the loop. It's all very hard to get used to for him. he is use to being able to do something. Watching is torture. He finds himself learning a whole new way of life. Everything has changed since the last book. Things have spun out of control. People have been altered. There is a major crossroad for him, one that will effect his very being. There really is not much I can say without giving something away. If you are a Harry fan, you have to read it. You know you do. So what are you waiting for ? This book is pivotal ! I am so excited for the next book, stuff is in motion that is going to rock the world.

About the author

A martial arts enthusiast whose résumé includes a long list of skills rendered obsolete at least two hundred years ago, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher turned to writing as a career because anything else probably would have driven him insane. He lives mostly inside his own head so that he can write down the conversation of his imaginary friends, but his head can generally be found in Independence, Missouri. Jim is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera novels, and the Cinder Spires series, which began with The Aeronaut’s Windlass.