Fool Moon (the Dresden Files, #2)

The second installment in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series is set in a version of modern-day Chicago where magic and supernatural creatures are real but largely hidden from public awareness. Harry Dresden, a professional wizard and consultant to the Chicago Police Department's Special Investigations unit, is estranged from his main employer, Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, after a previous case in which his secrecy damaged her trust and career.

The story opens at McAnally's pub, where Harry meets Kim Delaney, a young woman he has been mentoring in basic magic. Kim shows him a sketch of a three-ringed summoning circle. Harry recognizes the outer rings as barriers against spirits and physical beings, but the innermost ring is designed to contain creatures of terrifying power. He refuses to explain how it works, warning Kim she lacks the training. She leaves furious, and Harry crumples the sketch and tosses it aside.

Murphy arrives, pockets the discarded sketch, and recruits Harry to examine a murder at a half-finished nightclub owned by Gentleman Johnny Marcone, the city's most powerful crime lord. The victim has been savagely mauled by something with fangs and claws. Harry finds a massive canine paw print and collects a blood-smeared glass shard left by the attacker. Murphy reveals similar killings occurred the previous month around the full moon, a string of deaths she calls the "Lobo killings." FBI agents led by Agent Phillip Denton interrupt, asserting jurisdiction. Murphy, already facing an Internal Affairs investigation that could end her career, cannot afford a confrontation.

Harry uses the attacker's blood to enchant a compass and tracks the trail to an abandoned department store. Inside, he discovers a group of college-aged people in black leather who call themselves "the Alphas," led by a stout young man named Billy Borden. A commanding older woman with amber eyes and grey-streaked hair enters; Harry's compass confirms her blood was at the crime scene. When he is detected, something large and canine attacks him in the dark but deliberately spares his life.

At home, Harry consults Bob, a spirit of intellect inhabiting a skull in his basement laboratory. Bob explains four types of werewolves: classic werewolves, who shapeshift using their own magic; Hexenwulfen, who use enchanted wolf-pelt belts, gaining animal ferocity but losing human inhibitions; lycanthropes, humans with bestial spirits who become supernaturally fierce without physically changing; and loup-garou, humans cursed to become nearly invulnerable killing machines during the full moon, vulnerable only to inherited silver. Harry carries such an object himself: a silver pentacle amulet inherited from his mother.

Following a tip from Agent Harris, one of Denton's subordinates, Harry investigates the Streetwolves, a feared biker gang near the murder sites. He discovers they are genuine lycanthropes led by an aging man named Parker, but they know nothing about the Lobo killings. An accidental soulgaze, a deep mutual reading of souls triggered when a wizard locks eyes with another person, means Parker must now kill Harry to maintain leadership of the pack.

Marcone provides a crucial lead: billionaire environmentalist Harley MacFinn. Harry summons a demon and learns that MacFinn's family carries a hereditary curse dating back to Saint Patrick. Each generation, one family member transforms into a loup-garou during the full moon. The demon gives Harry MacFinn's address. Moments later, Murphy calls with a murder at that same address.

At MacFinn's townhouse, Harry finds Kim Delaney dead beside a failed summoning circle she drew in chalk. In the basement, MacFinn's permanent containment circle, built from silver set into concrete, has been deliberately sabotaged. Harry understands: Kim knew MacFinn, learned of his curse, and tried to build a replacement circle. She failed because Harry refused to teach her. Murphy produces the crumpled sketch, connects Harry to the dead woman, and arrests him.

Tera West, MacFinn's fiancée and the amber-eyed woman from the department store, rescues Harry from the police car, arguing he is the only person who can rebuild the containment circle. During the escape, he is shot in the shoulder. When Harry later meets Tera's eyes, no soulgaze occurs. Since first eye contact between a wizard and any human always triggers a soulgaze, its absence confirms Tera is not human. Knowing the police are unequipped to face a loup-garou, Harry follows Tera to MacFinn's hiding camp, where MacFinn insists someone else destroyed his circle and that he did not commit the non-full-moon killings. Before they can plan further, Murphy and the FBI converge. MacFinn is captured and taken to the police station.

Harry realizes that if MacFinn transforms at moonrise inside the station, everyone there will die. He infiltrates the building using a blending potion but arrives too late. The loup-garou has already torn through its cell bars. Harry fights the creature through the hallways but is outmatched. Murphy arrives and fires homemade silver bullets, loaded with melted-down inherited silver earrings, that wound the creature for the first time. Detective Carmichael, Murphy's partner, sacrifices himself to save her. Harry unleashes a massive fire blast that hurls the loup-garou from the building, then performs emergency magic to bind its senses until dawn.

Harry's girlfriend, Susan Rodriguez, a reporter for the tabloid Midwestern Arcane, and Tera help him escape the chaos. While unconscious, Harry has a dream-dialogue with his subconscious that forces him to confront his guilt over Kim's death and the realization that the real killers are still at large.

The Streetwolves capture Harry, but as the trunk closes, he glimpses Agent Harris surveilling the scene, and the pieces snap together: Denton and his FBI agents are the real killers. At the garage, a three-way battle erupts when Denton's agents Benn and Wilson shapeshift into enormous wolves using enchanted belts, revealing themselves as Hexenwulfen. Tera and the Alphas free Harry, and he defeats Harris by tearing the belt from the young agent's wolf form. Harris confesses: Denton obtained four Hexenwulf belts from an unknown source, recruited his team to kill criminals the law could not touch, but lost control of the belts' addictive power and committed the non-full-moon murders. To cover their tracks, Denton broke MacFinn's containment circle to frame both the loup-garou and the Streetwolves.

At Marcone's estate, Denton's team tranquilizes Tera and the Alphas and produces the bound Murphy as a hostage. Harry, Murphy, Tera, and the Alphas are thrown into a deep pit; Marcone hangs above on ropes as bait for the loup-garou. Marcone uses a hidden knife to sever a rope, dropping it into the pit. Harry climbs out as the loup-garou arrives. Tera follows, transforms into a great she-wolf, and engages the beast. Harry dons Harris's confiscated wolf belt, and the transformation floods him with intoxicating predatory power. As a massive dark wolf, he defeats Denton's remaining agents but stands over the beaten Denton consumed by ecstatic bloodlust. Susan appears, staring at him in terror, and her fear pierces the belt's corruption. Harry tears the belt off, horrified by what he nearly became.

The loup-garou returns after defeating Tera. Harry spins his mother's silver pentacle amulet on its chain, pouring every last trace of his power into the inherited silver. He hurls the glowing amulet at the creature. It pierces the beast's invulnerability, erupting in blue-white fire. MacFinn transforms back to human, looks at Harry with forgiveness, and dies. Behind Harry, Denton rises with a club; Murphy shoots him dead, saving Harry's life.

In the aftermath, Susan's footage of Murphy's heroics lifts the Internal Affairs investigation. Harry and Murphy burn the wolf-pelt belts and attend each other's funerals: Carmichael's and Kim's. Tera bids Harry farewell, revealing she is not a human who becomes a wolf but a wolf who learned to take human form. She shifts into a timber wolf and vanishes into the wilderness. The Alphas pledge loyalty to Harry. Suspecting that someone unknown supplied both the Hexenwulf belts and the dark forces from his previous case, Harry senses a hidden orchestrator but cannot yet identify who. He calls Susan, ready to move forward.