Having heard favourable reports of this series and seeing book 2 in a charity shop I decided to give it a try. However, I found it boring in parts and frustrating. The numerous characters are all cardboard cutouts apart from Harry himself, and he spends a lot of the time mentally beating himself up, often while being beaten up by various adversaries. The treatment of women is especially bad - they are all highly attractive but with no real characterisation other than the odd bit of feistiness, apart from Murphy the police woman who seems to be Mrs Angry the whole time. Only Dresden himself has a sense of humour and that is often forced, making wisecracks in the least likely situations, especially when it is guaranteed to drive various villains who have him at their mercy into a killing frenzy.

The story revolves around several types of werewolf - which Dresden describes for Murphy in a report fairly early on in the story. I couldn't help thinking that this might confuse some readers and certainly would a TV audience if this was adapted (having heard there was a TV series based on these books). Quite a lot of the book is devoted to copious descriptions of blood and gore as the various types of werewolf go on the rampage. I also found it highly unbelievable that the main character survives being constantly shot/beaten etc especially when he is at the mercy of a biker gang who channel spirits of rage and are supposedly a type of werewolf that does not change from human form. His ability to function despite days of such treatment stretched my disbelief to the snapping point.

The more interesting aspect of the book was Dresden's familiar spirit, Bob, who inhabits a skull, and a demon he conjures to try to get more information about who is carrying out the murders. But I found it very odd that he would give away one of his names - and apparently has already done so in book 1 - when to give the demons his whole name will put him entirely at their mercy. Especially for information which could have been found out on the internet - granted that magic in this book causes failure of computer and other electrical equipment, but he could have asked his girlfriend Susan, the reporter, to research it for him. It is also very convenient that he early on makes two potions that he just happens to need later on.

So I would rate this as an OK 2 stars at best and am not planning to seek any more of the series. ( )

Oh crap Dresden, You just seem to get deeper and deeper into it, don’t you?
I absolutely enjoyed the second book, the different types of werewolves and Dresden's magic itself was much interesting than the first book. Considering that I choose the audiobook route (my first audiobook btw) it took me much longer to listen to it than it would be to read, besides this I still loved the audio book since James Marsters is the one that reads the book and his voice goes so well with who you think Dresden would be.

There were a couple of things that bothered me, one is that I wished Murphy and Bob were in this book a lot more, I love their characters and wish Butcher would have incorporated them more than he did. Another thing is the werewolf aspect, while I liked the different types of werewolves that are in this world, I still was bothered that they did not have the original type. There's a reason why it is a classic, and I missed that it was not in it.

While I really liked the book, I wished Dresden would think before he does something. Constantly throughout this entire book I was wincing at what this wizard was doing to himself and his body. Honestly it was really hard hearing this through audiobook as I can drift off throughout the book. I will continue reading this series through audiobook, but I do prefer books. ( )

When several bodies turn up savagely murdered near the full moon, free-lance wizard Harry Dresden is called in by the Chicago police to help investigate. However, there's plenty of politics at play as the FBI are involved, Dresden's usual contact at the Chicago PD is under investigation by internal affairs, and crime boss Gentleman John Marcone is also mixed up in the mix. As Harry delves into all things werewolf, it will take all of his cunning and magic to make it through to the end of the week.

This second Dresden Files book is a rollicking good time and made for excellent road trip listening. James Marsters' narration is a delight and he brings Harry's dry humour to life brilliantly. Fun, action-heavy urban fantasy that should appeal to fans of the genre (if they haven't discovered it already). ( )

I was not as big a fan of this second book as I was the first in the series. I've read that the series gets better after you get into it (though how far into it varies widely), but while this one started off similarly enough to the first, it did not have as much of interest to me. It wasn't so much a mystery as it was police procedural, and even after the case was basically solved, there was a lot of book left, which turned out to be mostly fighting. It doesn't help that I usually find werewolves boring in any iteration. I did appreciate that there were various types of werewolves, but since I was listening to the audiobook and couldn't easily go back to remind myself of which was which, it mostly confused me.

I'm finding some formula in the series that I really hope Butcher steers away from soon enough—like how Murphy keeps believing Dresden to be a bad guy (not that he helps the situation by not telling her the full truth, but she can't manage to be understanding of how his hands are tied) or how Harry just gets beat up...so...much. Still, I enjoyed some humorous moments and lines, and there was a bit of a twist at the end involving one of the werewolves. Overall, the book just felt like it dragged on, but I'm still looking forward to continuing the series. I can't pretend that I'd recommend this book in general, but it shouldn't be enough to dissuade anyone from trying the series, especially if you're a fan of mystery and detective noir novels, and enjoy or at least can tolerate the addition of supernatural elements (and the content warning below). In particular, if you like to listen to audiobooks, I recommend the narration by James Marsters.

One final note, something that was worse in this book than in the previous—there is quite a bit of sexual content. After my husband finished the audiobook, he commented on how, with the couple of female werewolves, every time they were in a scene, whether they were fully clothed or not (one of them was naked in at least 75% of her human-form page time), the narrator felt the need to remind us that they had certain female parts. And he was right...they were referenced often. I really hope this doesn't remain at this level. There's also some language, but not actually as much as I anticipated. And there's certainly some violence, much more than the previous book (werewolves are beasts). My tolerance on things like these is fairly low, especially compared to the average reader, and while I do plan to continue, I really hope the level of sexual content, at least, doesn't stay this high. ( )

Improvement from the first one. ( )