Skin Game (Dresden Files)
Harry Dresden, having finally succumbed to Mab and become the Winter Knight, is hiding out. The spirit of the island can help keep his debilitating headaches at bay, and keep Mab off his back. She shows up with a job for him—help Nicodemus Archleone steal the Holy Grail from Hades. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s Mab, so nothing is straightforward. Harry, having a good sense for survival, is quite sure Nicodemus is going to do his best to prevent anyone from surviving the experience and that Mab has motives she’s not mentioning. Harry brings in Murphy as backup, Michael Carpenter plays his usual stabilizing role, and the rest of Nicodemus’ team is, though reprehensible, quite an entertaining bunch of supernatural criminals. Harry is incredibly well suited to the heist, especially the back-stabbing, convoluted, conspiratorial heist that Skin Game turns into—and it’s clear that all of this plotting is leading to another, even more epic confrontation. To top it off, a few loose ends—including a surprising solution to Harry’s headaches—get tied back into the story. This should be just what fans of the Dresden Files series would hope for.            HIgh Demand Backstory: Butcher is generally regarded as the reigning king of urban fantasy, so librarians will find it impossible to keep fans away from his latest novel. --Regina Schroeder