Having dealt with werewolves this series continues by dealing with ghosts. Grave Peril is the third book in The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and it continues Dresden’s adventures in dealing with things that go bump in the night. It opens on Dresden and his friend Michael hunting a ghost that is haunting the nursery at a local hospital and trying to kill all the newborns. They chase it away but only into the Nevernever where they then are confronted with Lea, Dresden’s godmother, who is trying to get Dresden under her control. Things start to spiral out of Dresden’s control though when they discover that the increasing ghostly presence might be related to an aborted demon summoning from a few months ago. When people associated with the takedown of the wizard from the summoning start to get attacked things start getting even more dangerous. On top of all that, Dresden also has to navigate the magical politics of Chicago when he receives an invite to the Vampire court calling on him as a representative of the White Council which means that he can’t safely get out of the event.
For an urban fantasy series this is a rather surprisingly dark series as well. I can easily picture this series as this old school noir detective series as much as it is urban bounty hunter so the blend is definitely interesting. The character of Dresden is definitely the driving factor for the books though as without him, I highly doubt these events would work out even remotely similar. In this book, things get even weirder then they already were as this book deals with ghosts. This topic has been brought up in the previous books but we really get to see it in full force here so the depiction was rather cool. I really thought it was cool how the idea of ghosts worked in this universe as they are apparently able to cross over between our world and the Nevernever which is the world of the Fae, I think. In fact, the story actually weaves these together by using the idea of the weakening barrier as a possibility for why the ghosts are so active and strong. You don’t typically see stories that link the Fae and ghosts, let alone have them potentially sharing a realm in anyway so I have to admit I was rather intrigued here. The blending of these elements was seamless though and created this rather rich and unique flavor to the story that I really don’t think I have seen before. One of the things that I also really liked about this book is that it seems to have broken the mold created with the first two. I think I mentioned this in my review of the second book, Fool Moon, but both of the first two books relied on the use of random potions created early in the story that come back later and end up saving Dresden. This book through that right out the window with no potions whatsoever so I was happy to see it employing a new plot structure. Being able to adapt and change structures over the course of a series is a good thing and I was originally worried this series wouldn’t be able to do that but I was pleasantly surprised instead. This is a great series so far and I am looking forward to continuing reading them. As such I am giving this book four out of five stars.
This book is a great example of urban fantasy but it is also a pretty good noir detective novel. If you happen to enjoy either of those genres and are able or willing to overlook the presence of the other one then I suggest you consider trying this series out. While you could start it here I would highly recommend you go back to the first book and read them in order to get the best background of what has been going on. Now this book is primarily aimed at adult readers I could see it holding some appeal for young adult and teen readers. However, I would recommend it only to the higher end of that age spectrum as it does deal with some slightly dark and mature content, such as ghosts, almost dying, becoming a slave to the fae, and vampires. Despite all of that it is a pretty good book and I hope you would consider reading it. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.