By: Corey Lack
Death Masks is the fifth book of the Dresden Files and focuses heavily on the Knights of the Cross and their newly introduced enemies, the Denarians. It also introduces a new Red Court foe along with bringing Susan back into the story. In this story, like with most of the stories, Harry finds himself pulled in multiple directions by the threats. First, he has to deal with Susan’s return, which is awkward in its own without considering his being challenged to a duel to the death by a noble of the Red Court. Second, all three members of the Knights of the Cross are in town, hoping to prevent the Denarians from succeeding in some plot involving the stolen Shroud of Turin.
While the war between the Red Court vampires and the White Council has been the connecting aspect of the story, it is more of a side plotline to the conflict with the Denarians. It seemed like even Susan’s return, which has a direct connection to the aforementioned duel, was just a means to develop the plot with the Denarians. I find this to be a bit of a mixed blessing as, while it doesn’t move the overall series’ plot, the introduction of the Denarians was certainly entertaining. Afterall, until this book, the Knights of the Cross seemed to invoke fear in even the most dangerous of supernatural enemies, so having a force that was their mortal enemies was definitely an interesting addition to the story.
I also liked how near the end of the story there is a certain situation that arises that results in a big change for Harry. To avoid spoilers, I won’t say what that change is, but it, even without knowing what happens later, is very clear that things will be very different for Harry and will result in even more trouble for him, like he didn’t have enough by this point already. Additionally, it was nice to see Harry start to get his sanity back and start to come back to himself after the last book where he was clearly having trouble dealing with his failure in the end of Grave Peril.
As with the rest of the books in this series, I would definitely consider this one as a must-read. All of the charm and wit is still very present along with the drama and the suspense. Even knowing all of the rules that have been introduced, it is impossible to know what is going to happen thanks to Butcher’s phenomenal writing skill.
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