Summer Knight by Jim Butcher (2002)

So I was on the train, with a book I wasn't sure I'd like. I duly gave it a hundred pages, then decided life was too short (and no, this wasn't a dream), and turned instead to the other book I'd taken with me as a back-up -- Summer Knight.

The Dresden Files are my current favourite 'palate cleansers' -- that is, books I can rely on to be enjoyable and (relatively) quick reads, in between the other stuff. It's strange: although that other book wasn't the worst-written I have ever read, I've never been so glad to start reading something by a writer who knew how to achieve the effect he wanted. And so I was back in the world of wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden.

In this, the fourth entry in the series, Dresden is 'hired' (or , more accurately, bound) by the Queen of the Winter Court of the faeries to investigate a death which proves to have implications for relations between the two Sidhe courts, which may in turn threaten the entire world -- and, wouldn't you know it, someone's after Harry again?

One thing that concerns me about these long series that build up an elaborate background is that they'll get too big for their own good. For example, thus far in The Dresden Files, there's been mention and/or appearances  of Red, White and Black Courts of vampires; Summer and Winter Courts of faeries; the White Council of wizards; and that's just what I can remember off the top of my head. The plot of Summer Knight draws quite heavily on this background, and at times I did wish for a good ol' supernatural mystery without all the embellishments. Yet I also couldn't help being charmed by some of Butcher's twists on the material (the queen-in-waiting of the Winter Court is a girl with dreadlocks and a T-shirt that reads 'OFF WITH HIS HEAD'); and the story itself was as entertaining as ever -- just as I'd expected when I took it with me on the train journey.

9. Light Reading by Aliya Whiteley (2008). The first book I've read this year to be publshed this year -- and, yes, in the spirit of fairness, I should mention that the author is on my friends list. It's a fun, engaging novel in which two Royal Air Force wives (one of whom collects suicide notes, and the other of whom wants to be a psychiatrist) travel to a miserable seaside town to investigate the apparent suicide of a young television personality (look, when I said 'fun', I meant in a dark way).

Whiteley has a (welcome) habit of gleefully ignoring genre conventions, so anyone expecting a cosy detective story will be disaappointed. There is a mystery, but it's not the main point of the book -- it's the characters that Whiteley is most interested in, and the two friends' relationship develops in a way that grows naturally out of their personalities and situations, yet is not at all what you might expect. And all this is wrapped up in neat prose that reads quickly... yet I still ended up with the nagging feeling that Light Reading could have been better. The mystery isn't quite as satisfactory as I'd have liked, and I observed the characters developing rather than really feeling it. That said, the book is still well worth reading, particularly if you're after something a little different. A full review is in the works...

10. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (2001). Third in the Dresden Files series of supernatural mystery/thrillers narrated by Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard. This time, the ghosts of the city are getting agitated, and something nasty seems to have it in for Dresden and those closest to him. There are, of course, a lot of these paranormal thrillers about at the moment -- often, it seems, in long series (there are nine Dresden books in print so far, with Butcher apparently intending to write more than double that number more); and, as they can appear from the outside to be much of a muchness, I don't tend to read that many (I may miss some good books that way; if so, it's my loss).

But I'm glad I took a chance on The Dresden Files -- Butcher has built up an interesting magical cosmology, and given Harry Dresden an engaging narrative voice. This particular volume has a lot of stuff about vampires, which could so easily have lapsed into cliché; but, happily, the author manages to put his own spin on them. Three books in, and background details emerge that will doubtless drive the plots of future volumes; it remains to be seen whether the edifice will collapse under its own weight, but I'm sticking with the series for now.