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Death Masks

The Dresden Files, Book 5

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Death Masks

By: Jim Butcher
Narrated by: James Marsters
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About this listen

 The Dresden Files have taken the genre of paranormal mystery to a new level of action, excitement, and hard-hitting magical muscle. Now, in Death Masks, Jim Butcher’s smart-guy private eye may have taken on more than he ever wanted to handle.

Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only practicing professional wizard, should be happy that business is pretty good for a change. But he also knows that whenever things are going good, the only way left for them to go is bad. Way bad. Such as:

A duel with the lethal champion of the Red Court, 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—and the possible involvement of Chicago's most feared mob boss.

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 semi-vampiric 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.©2003 Jim Butcher; (P)2009 Penguin Audiobooks Fantasy Fiction Mystery Private Investigators Chicago Classics Magic Wizardry Paranormal Magic Users

Critic Reviews

Praise for the Dresden Files

“Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer starring Philip Marlowe.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton and Tanya Huff will love this series.”—Midwest Book Review

“Superlative.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“One of the most enjoyable marriages of the fantasy and mystery genres on the shelves.”—Cinescape

“Butcher...spins an excellent noirish detective yarn in a well-crafted, supernaturally-charged setting. The supporting cast is again fantastic, and Harry’s wit continues to fly in the face of a peril-fraught plot.”—Booklist (starred review)

“What’s not to like about this series?...It takes the best elements of urban fantasy, mixes it with some good old-fashioned noir mystery, tosses in a dash of romance and a lot of high-octane action, shakes, stirs, and serves.”—SF Site

“A tricky plot complete with against-the-clock pacing, firefights, explosions, and plenty of magic. Longtime series fans as well as newcomers drawn by the SciFi Channel’s TV series based on the novels should find this supernatural mystery a real winner.”—Library Journal

“What would you get if you crossed Spenser with Merlin? Probably you would come up with someone very like Harry Dresden, wizard, tough guy and star of [the Dresden Files].”—The Washington Times
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A fantastic reading by the narrator, a glorious story to keep you entertained and magnificent characters to empathise with. All of this will keep you hooked.

Fantastic.

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Fast paced and at times gruesome book. Smattered with la long love and faithful friends. Add that with a bit of magic and you have a great entertaining book to the very end.
Highly recommend this series.
Well written by Jim Butcher and the narrator,, James Masters , once again, does a brilliant job.

Death Masks

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Butcher's writing continues to improve with a well paced story and plenty of intrigue supported by an excellent narrator. Highly recommended.

Excellent story

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thoroughly enjoying revisiting this book in the Dresden series through James Marston's terrific reading. This part of the series I think it's quite exciting and leading us into an unexpected turn in the tale.

great rendition of the novel

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To Harry Dresden’s surprise, the Roman Catholic Church commissions him to find the fabled Shroud, which has been stolen and traced to Chicago. Unfortunately, everyone seems to want the Shroud and demonic forces will stop at nothing to get it. Meanwhile, the skirmishes between the Vampire Red Court and the White Council of Wizards are hotting up and one of the Red Court challenges Harry to a duel to the death to minimise loss of life. Harry would be crazy to accept but the Red Court threaten to kill everyone he’s ever met if he doesn’t. It’s going to be a busy week!

I really enjoyed this supernatural PI instalment in the Harry Dresden series. The demonic creatures were chillingly scary, Harry was his usual noble, worldweary self, and the plot was nice and busy! Jim Butcher has slowly built quite a complex supernatural world over the books and there are many beloved, repeat characters here as well as some new ones. I like the humour in these books, most of which centres around Harry and his wry observations about himself and others. 🎧 Actor James Marsters is always excellent and he hits all of Harry’s character notes so perfectly!

The best Harry Dresden book so far!

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