Storm Front by Jim Butcher

When we signed up for Dysprosium way back when, it seemed like an idea to pick up at least one novel by each of the guests of honour and read them. Of course, the night before packing for the con, I realise I haven't read them (moreover its not clear a Seanan McGuire was ever purchased) and so I threw Storm Front into my bag and resolved to read it at the con.

It's a pretty decent book, certainly entertaining con reading, without being too difficult to put down when panels were calling to be attended. It's the first in The Dresden Files series about which I had heard vague squeeing but about which I knew little beyond that they were Urban Fantasy Detective novels. As a detective novel, Storm Front, holds together pretty well. I'm somewhat frustrated by the trope in which our lone heroic detective is generally shouted at and impeded by his allies but, at least in this case, the ally in question had fairly good reason. Most of the apparent coincidences in the plot resolved themselves with a certain amount of sense, and the set up avoided the temptation to supply the heroic detective with an unfeasibly swanky place of a abode which appears to be a strange weakness of the urban fantasy I've read. I got possibly unnecessarily distracted by the sequence in which protagonist wizard Harry Dresden dashes around Chicago naked in a thunderstorm (things started going down while he was in the shower) because I always worry about things like "won't he hurt his feet" and "isn't that a bit cold" in situations like that.

So yes, good book. I'm not convinced the set up necessarily has the chops to last a full 20 book series (which I understand is planned and, in fact, almost executed) but I'd certainly read one or two more if there were any space left on the "to read" shelf.