By: Corey Lack
Blood Rites is the sixth book of the Dresden Files series and this one is mostly focused on developing the White Court of vampires with the overarching plot of the war between the White Council and the Red Court vampires taking a backseat to focusing more on the more standalone story.
In this story, Harry, to pay Thomas back for all the help he’s given, takes on a case that involved finding who was behind literally cursing the director of an adult film studio. Harry has to do this by going undercover as a technician for the studio and yes, there is plenty of staring done on Harry’s part. At the same time, Thomas and his family in particular are shown more to understand his motivations and the reasonings behind his actions. As a sort of side plot, Harry also learns of the Black Court vampires building a nest, which Harry couldn’t let stand considering how dangerous they could be.
There aren’t many characters introduced that are obviously going to play parts in the future books, but the ones that do are clearly going to play bigger parts later. For example, Thomas’s sister, Lara, who Harry meets when she is going to start her scene, shows herself to be a major power in the White Court and becomes even more powerful by the end of the story, which she owes to Harry. Also, one of my absolute favorite characters is introduced in this book. This character doesn’t need much in the way of development, which doesn’t mean he isn’t interesting. The character? Mouse, Harry’s new pet Tibetan Temple dog, who he saves as a puppy from demonic monkeys and their flaming poop. I’m not kidding. If that introduction isn’t enough to win you over, there’s also the fact that Mouse acts and later looks like a big friendly St. Bernard who regularly terrifies even the most dangerous of supernatural threats.
This story is definitely one to read as it helps to develop the White Court vampires, which the reader isn’t very familiar with at this point, beyond what they gather from the information from and about Thomas. It also creates another potential frenemy for Harry in the form of Lara Raith. Also, most importantly, the story gives Harry more of a background than what the reader knew already as well as giving him some more information about his mother. All in all, a whirlpool of drama and suspense to suck the reader more into Dresden’s world.
