An Embarrassment of Riches

The Chilling Alternative - by Laural I love spooky books!  Or books that tell a story of an alternate universe where vampires, werewolves, zombies, witches and wizards exist.  I recently read a great book in this genre. When I was looking at author read-alikes in the database Novelist (a database that helps you find good reads, available to our library patrons), I found that Jim Butcher’s series The Dresden Files kept coming up. And now The Dresden Files has me hooked!

In Storm Front (Book One of The Dresden Files), Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire in Chicago.  As a reader, once I know something is set in Chicago, I make certain assumptions. Yes, there is a mafia presence. And very scary vampires too. In the mythology the writer draws upon for his supernatural creatures, Butcher doesn’t disappoint. Harry Dresden meets the scariest vampire I have ever encountered in my reading. And I have read many vampire stories. I don’t even want to be in the same city as these vampires. 
Harry is dragged into a mystery.  Someone or something is viciously killing people. It will take a great wizard to solve this mystery.  As the pages turned I realized I really like Harry and I couldn’t wait to read another book in the Dresden Files series. I couldn’t wait to inhabit his very scary Chicago with him. At least in the pages of a book.