There’s All Kinds of Magic: “Brief Cases” by Jim Butcher

Greetings and hallucinations, my dears, and welcome back. First let me apologize for my erratic postings and lengthy absence. Between late nights working, Thanksgiving, family responsibilities, and plowing through my reading backlog, I seemed to have no energy for writing.

Second, allow me to welcome my latest followers. Amanda, Kesi, Piotr, Lauren, thank you all, and I hope I don’t disappoint.

Now, on with the review.

If you don’t know who Harry Dresden is… well, who have you been reading in Urban Fantasy for the last two decades? Brief Cases is Jim Butcher’s latest collection of short stories, most of which have been in other anthologies with other authors. The difference is when he has a collection to himself, he always has a new, previously unpublished story, if only to have a cover sticker advertising the fact.

Now, be warned: these stories will touch on characters and plot points throughout the fifteen novels of The Dresden Files. If you haven’t gotten into the series, you will be exposed to spoilers.

“A Fistful of Warlocks” is the earliest-set story, originally written for a collection called Straight Outta Tombstone (that title by itself brings to mind spell-slinging cowboys). The story is told from the point of view of Anastasia Luccio, a Warden (think police force) of the White Council of Wizards. She comes to Dodge City in the late 1800s, chasing a murderous warlock from England. She discovers a necromancer and zombies she must deal with, but she also has unexpected help: a knowledgeable deputy named Wyatt Earp.

“B is for Bigfoot” finds Harry Dresden, professional wizard, playing bodyguard for a scion, a child born of human and supernatural parents. In this case, eight-year-old Irwin Pounder is half-Bigfoot, the tallest and smartest kid in class, and being bullied by two other scions. And when the bullies have their own bodyguard, things get complicated.

“AAAA Wizardry” is a combination story, split between Harry teaching a class on supernatural investigation and a case illustrating the different points he tries to press on his students — and how a silent A (for arrogance) can make a case go terribly sideways.

“I Was a Teenage Bigfoot” has Harry revisiting Irwin Pounder, now in his teens. Bigfoots, even those of mixed heritage, don’t get sick, but Irwin’s been felled by a bad case of mono. Since he’s never had so much as a sniffle before, Harry acts an interim guardian to find out what happened.

“Curses” explores the origin of the Billy Goat Curse on the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Apparently, the legend says, a Greek-American fan, who had brought his pet goat to do tricks between innings, was ejected because the goat had started to smell. But what if the one who had laid the curse, that the Cubs would never win the World Series, wasn’t human?

“Even Hand” delves into the thought processes of one of the most dangerous humans in Harry Dresden’s Chicago: “Gentleman Johnnie” Marcone, the head of the local mob and the only human to join the Unseelie Accords, the treaty between supernatural forces. But even a “professional monster” has rules, first of which being “no children”.

“Bigfoot on Campus” is the third time Harry would see Irwin Pounder, now a college student at the University of Oklahoma. This time, instead of the usual gold nugget the size of a fist, Harry asks a favor as his fee: that Irwin’s father, largely absent because he’s a Sasquatch, meet his son properly. Of course, circumstances are complicated by Irwin’s girlfriend, who doesn’t know herself that she’s a vampire of the White Court (the original succubi and incubi, who eat life energy, mostly through sex). But what does one do when your first real boyfriend is a scion?

“Bombshells” focuses on Molly Carpenter, Harry’s apprentice and the daughter of one of his best friends. During a time when Harry was presumed dead (complete with ghostly visitations), Molly took it upon herself to fight the evils in Chicago in her teacher’s place. The supernatural had taken to calling her the Ragged Lady, for the scraps of fabric left behind. She’s approached by Justine, a human who works for the White Court, to help find Thomas Raith, her boyfriend and Harry’s half-brother. Joined by Andi, a female werewolf, the three women go undercover at a party for two supernatural nations to get him back.

“Cold Case” continues with Molly, now the mortal Lady of the Winter Court of Fae, on her first assignment for Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness. When she tries to collect a tribute from a tribe in Alaska, she finds herself teamed up with Warden Carlos Ramirez to fight something scarier than Mab. Be warned: this story’s ending isn’t as happy or unambiguous as others. Molly learns just how much being the Winter Lady may cost her, and makes her as determined to make the role her own, as Harry has done being the Winter Knight.

“Jury Duty”: usually these two words summon annoyance for normal people, losing anywhere from a day to a few weeks of their normal lives, but they fill Harry with dread. That is, until he hears and sees the circumstances of the murder trial he’s impaneled for. An ex-con prevents a girl from being taken by something that looks human; but because of their relative sizes, Hamilton Luther is put on trial for murder, pleading self-defense against something that was much stronger than it looked. Of course, Harry believes him, and decides to give the case his own slanted investigation. As someone says in a previous story, “There’s always a girl.”

“Day One” has a voice that no one had heard before: Dr. Waldo Butters, Medical Examiner, Harry’s go-to medic, boyfriend of Andi the werewolf, and a newly-minted Knight of the Cross. After wielding the blessed Sword Fidelacchius against a demon in the last full-length novel, Butters was immediately taken under the wings of Michael and Charity Carpenter, Molly’s parents. (Michael, a former Knight and previous wielder of the Sword, trains with Butters’ cardio and fitness, while Charity trains him in hand-to-hand and weapons.) His very first calling to his very first mission as a Knight appears over the head of a homeless man. The man is probably overdosing on something, but insists that he not go to the hospital. Butters goes to investigate why it invokes such a strong fear reaction. Sure enough, there’s a creature feeding on the fear and suffering of multiple patients. Best part of the story: Butters makes his own makeshift Knight’s cloak from a bed sheet and a first-aid red cross sticker. Truly a good way of finding your courage in the face of fear.

“Zoo Day”, the first-time story, is probably the first of any story in this universe: the same story told from three different points of view. The first is Harry, annoyed that, on an outing with his ten-year-old daughter Maggie, he encounters a warlock. He makes sure she is safe in an eatery with Mouse, their over-sized canine companion, to deal with the possible danger. The second POV is Maggie, who encourages her father to deal with the warlock, while also being stalked by “creeps”, evil spirits that only children can see. While Harry is gone, she confronts the creeps herself. The third, and most surprising, narrator is Mouse, who himself deals with something bigger, a piece of his past he never expected to see again. Mouse’s point of view is the funniest and most insightful, because he not only understands his humans, he understands their hearts and doubts of being loved by their blood family. (He calls Harry and Maggie “heart-stupid” in his head.)

Butcher is something of a character himself, putting little introductions before each story, explaining where it came from, what inspired it, even wondering where some plot points actually came from. For example: he originally never intended for Harry to be a dad, and yet he’s doing his best by Maggie. The characters, even in small snapshots of their lives in the world of the weird, are consistent with the novels but still continue to grow and learn, even if both can be painful. This is one of the good ways to get into The Dresden Files; others include reading the first three novels of the series back-to-back and reading Side Jobs, his other short story anthology.

Brief Cases is currently available in hardcover.

Thank you for reading my ramblings, my dears, and I hope to hear from you. If you’d like to recommend a book for me to read and review, or even need me as an editor for your own work, please contact me on my Facebook page, for Just Write! Ink.

In the meantime, keep reading, keep writing, and never give up making your own magic. Be well, my dears.