"Death Masks" by Jim Butcher

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The Dresden Files #5
Publication: August 5, 2003
Format: Paperback 451 pages
Cover Rating: 3/5 Stars
Goodreads Link: Death Masks

From Goodreads: Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only practicing professional wizard, should be happy that business is pretty good for a change. But now he’s getting more than he bargained for.

A duel with the Red Court of Vampires’ champion, who must kill Harry to end the war between vampires and wizards…

Professional hit men using Harry for target practice…

The missing Shroud of Turin…

A handless and headless corpse the Chicago police need identified…

Not to mention the return of Harry’s ex-girlfriend Susan, who’s still struggling with her semivampiric nature. And who seems to have a new man in her life.

Some days, it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed. No matter how much you’re charging.

My Thoughts: I'll be honest here (and please don't throw things at me), but I am not Dresden's biggest fan. Unlike my boyfriend, Zack, who worships Jim Butcher, I just can't get into them as much. So why am I reading them? Well, I made a deal with my hunny that I would finish reading "damn Dresden" if he would watch Dr. Who with me. So it began.

He feel in love with Dr. Who (duh) and I still don't like Dresden all that much.

My biggest thing with the Dresden books is that they're just not my style. It's not that I think Jim Butcher is a bad writer, he's not- no way. He can tell a story and he can tell it well. I guesss I'm kind of sexist. I prefer female narrators. And yeah, okay, I do tend to like a little more romance in my books if I'm to be honest. So I'm not a huge Dresden fan.

But, I'm going to try and review this book right and set aside my prejudices. *Ahem*:

In this fifth installment of The Dresden Files, Harry is on another job, but not just any job, he's been hired by the Vatican to find the missing shroud of Turin- you know, the Holy one. What I really enjoyed about this book was that this case WAS interesting. I mean, everybody eats up historical artificats. They're just fascinating. So when I seen that Harry was on the prowl for the Shroud, I knew I was going to like this book better then the others.

I also REALLY loved the fact that Susan has become a complete and utter badass. GO SUSAN! And of course, with Susan return we do get more of that romance I was complaining about earlier.

Then there's the fact that the story is action packed. There's not too many "filler pages" in this book. All of it's relevent and all of it's happening FAST.

All in all, if you dig the UF genre, then you will probably love Dresden.