Blood Rites

Jim Butcher's Blood Rites follows Harry Dresden, a professional wizard and private investigator in Chicago, as he juggles two deadly cases while uncovering a family secret that transforms his understanding of his own life.

Harry opens the story fleeing a burning building with a box of sacred puppies he has recovered for Tibetan monks, battling Chinese guardian demons called shen. Thomas Raith, a vampire of the White Court, a faction that feeds on life energy through intimate contact, waits in Harry's car. After Harry destroys the merged demon with his blasting rod, Thomas asks a favor: take a case for Arturo Genosa, a motion-picture producer who believes someone is trying to kill him. Two women close to Arturo have died in bizarre accidents. Harry agrees, on the condition that Thomas eventually explain why he has been covertly helping him.

At a Gold Coast party, Arturo, a charismatic Greek-American filmmaker, hires Harry to protect his crew during a two-day shoot, suspecting someone has cursed him with the Evil Eye, a type of entropy curse. Harry meets Madge Shelly, Arturo's first ex-wife and a major investor. In the parking lot, a Black Court vampire—an undead, corpse-like creature from a rival vampire faction—attacks. A stowaway puppy's growl alerts Harry just in time to fight it off. He recognizes the vampire as a minion of Mavra, a centuries-old Black Court sorceress, and resolves to destroy her during daylight.

Harry consults Bob, an air spirit of intellect housed in a human skull in his laboratory. Bob explains the Hunger, a symbiotic entity within each White Court vampire that feeds on life energy, and reveals Arturo produces adult films. Harry recruits Lt. Karrin Murphy, head of Chicago PD's Special Investigations division, for the assault on Mavra, and hires Kincaid, a mercenary, to assist.

At the studio, Harry meets the crew, including a young woman named Emma. He senses a surge of destructive magical energy. A young actress named Giselle has been scalded by superheated water, fallen through a glass door, and lies being electrocuted. Harry hexes the electrical system to stop the current and performs CPR. Giselle survives. Harry deduces the curse targets women around Arturo, not Arturo himself. Murphy reports finding a fourth marriage license for Arturo with no prenuptial agreement, establishing an unidentified next of kin. When Lara Raith, Thomas's sister, arrives at the studio, Harry recognizes her overwhelming supernatural allure and identifies her as a White Court vampire. Inari, Lara's younger sister, also works on set.

That night, Harry catches Thomas lurking at the studio and punches him for concealing Lara's involvement. Thomas reveals he is trying to overthrow their father, Lord Raith, the patriarch of the White Court. Three Black Court vampires attack while the entropy curse simultaneously descends toward Inari. Harry intercepts the curse by grabbing Inari's arm and channeling it onto one of the vampires. The curse manifests as a frozen turkey plummeting from the sky, impaling the creature. Thomas transforms into his vampiric form but collapses. Harry uses his mother's silver pentacle amulet as a symbol of faith to incinerate another vampire.

Harry drives the wounded to the Raith estate. Lara explains Thomas must feed or die. Justine, Thomas's lover, aware this will likely kill her, goes to Thomas willingly. The next morning, Thomas implies Justine is dead. When Inari's latent Hunger awakens and she tries to feed on Harry, her lips burn on his skin. Thomas explains that genuine love is deadly to the White Court; Harry's love for his former girlfriend, Susan Rodriguez, protects him.

Thomas leads Harry to a gallery of portraits Lord Raith has painted of the women who bore his children. Harry recognizes his mother, Margaret Gwendolyn LeFay. During a soulgaze, a wizard's ability to see another person's soul through eye contact, Margaret appears through an enchantment she embedded in both sons, confirming they are half-brothers. She passes Harry a gem of insight about Lord Raith's vulnerability.

Bob locates Mavra's lair at a homeless shelter occupied by vampires, Renfields (humans broken into permanent insane thralldom by psychic force), darkhounds (dogs empowered by supernatural dark magic), and hostages including children. Harry contacts Ebenezer McCoy, his former mentor and a senior wizard of the White Council (the governing body of wizards), to suppress Mavra's sorcery during the assault. Harry pieces together Lord Raith's full conspiracy: Raith controls the adult film industry through Silverlight Studios, and Arturo defied him by starting his own company. Because Arturo is genuinely in love, the White Court cannot control him. Raith manipulated Arturo's three ex-wives into performing the entropy curse, aiming to kill the secret fiancée and bring Arturo back under control.

Harry races to the studio and lays a deflection circle to redirect the curse, but Trixie Vixen, Arturo's third ex-wife, confronts him at gunpoint and reveals she has already broken it. During the struggle, stray bullets guided by the curse kill Emma. Harry flees, giving the gun to Joan Dallas, the crew's producer, to preserve Trixie's fingerprints.

The team assaults Mavra's lair. Murphy disarms an antipersonnel mine rigged to a closet of chained children. Harry's left hand is severely burned by improvised flamethrowers. Kincaid beheads the sleeping vampires, and they decapitate a figure matching Mavra. Afterward, Ebenezer reveals he is the Blackstaff, a secret position granting license to break the Laws of Magic. He confirms Lord Raith killed Harry's mother with an entropy curse the night Harry was born. Harry, feeling betrayed by Ebenezer's lifelong deception, sends him away.

Using his mother's insight, Harry deduces that Margaret's death curse stripped Raith of his ability to feed, draining his power over decades. Raith has been bluffing ever since. Harry proposes a deal to Lara: He will expose Raith's weakness so she can seize power, in exchange for help rescuing Thomas. At the estate, Lara reveals Justine survived, though her mind has retreated. They descend into the Deeps, an underground cavern where Madge Shelly, revealed as the true sorceress behind the curse, is summoning He Who Walks Behind, a powerful demon. Thomas is chained in the ritual circle as the intended sacrifice. Raith captures Harry and Murphy.

Murphy kills their guard and frees Harry. Harry magnetically tears the sacrificial knife from Madge's hand and sends keys flying to Thomas. He Who Walks Behind manifests through Madge's body, killing her. Raith breaks Thomas's neck, and Harry empties a gun into Raith, who falls but begins healing. Lara enters, having watched her father's powers fail. She unleashes her own vampiric force against the weakened Raith, overpowering him. Harry carries the unconscious Thomas out and tells him Justine is alive.

In the aftermath, Harry visits Arturo and Joan, now married. Joan was the secret fiancée and the real target all along. Lara exiles Thomas to maintain the fiction that Raith still rules but promises to protect Justine and tell Inari the truth about her vampiric nature. Thomas moves into Harry's apartment, and Harry names the stowaway puppy Mouse. A specialist recommends amputating Harry's burned hand; Harry refuses. Beneath the bandages, his palm bears the sigil of Lasciel, a Fallen angel, and his staff now channels Hellfire involuntarily. Kincaid warns that Mavra may still be alive. Murphy departs for Hawaii with Kincaid. The novel closes with Harry adjusting to life with his brother and his dog as unresolved threats loom.