The Dresden Files/Blood Rites

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Book #6 in The Dresden Files.

Harry Dresden never thought he would have to go undercover at a porn studio. However, with the director convinced he is under a curse, and his girls dying left and right, Harry poses as a production assistant and tries to find the culprit, at the request of a flirtatious and metrosexual vampire ally named Thomas. However, the biggest surprise has little to do with curses...

Tropes associated with Blood Rites:

  • Ancient Conspiracy: The White Court of vampires has owned the sex industry for centuries at a minimum. And Arturo is a threat to that with his new ideas.
  • Awesome McCoolname: The "actors" at the studio have to pick stage names, and Bobby considers names like "Rocko Stone" or "Rack McGranite". Finally, at Harry's suggestion, he goes with "Gowan Commando."
  • Batman Cold Open: The novel begins in a burning building, and what goes on there is not directly related to the rest of the story, but it is where Harry finds Mouse, who becomes a big character throughout the rest of the series.

"The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."

  • Brainless Beauty: Trixie Vixen. Her being unable to get Harry's name right is a Chekhov's Gag later in the book where it turns out that since she either is not smart enough to remember or just does not care, when the time comes for his name to be vital (in framing him for a murder) she gave the police the wrong name, when Harry had been scared that the police were going to be on his doorstep any minute.
  • Compensating for Something: After looking between his broken blasting rod and Kincaid's large, high-tech vampire blasting spear, Harry flat out says "My dick is bigger than your dick."
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Several women around Arturo suffer these, one included being hit by a car ... while water skiing. Harry saves another girl from being slammed by a frozen turkey falling at terminal velocity by transferring the target to a Black Court vampire.
  • Dead Person Conversation: Harry speaks to his mother this way, though she is not a ghost.
  • Didn't See That Coming: A frozen turkey falling at terminal velocity nearly killing a Black Court vampire is one such incident. It brought the fight to a momentary standstill just because of its implausibility.
  • Disease Bleach: Justine after barely surviving being fed on by a near-death Thomas. When she's seen afterwards, she's in a wheelchair and can barely speak. She recovers in later books.
  • Dramatic Chase Opening: The book opens with Harry being chased by demonic chimps that fling incendiary poo.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: At the beginning of the book, after Harry saves the puppies from a monkey demon, then mentions about a previous case in which he prevented The End of the World as We Know It:

Harry: "I helped to do it and lived to walk away. But there was an unhappy ending."
Thomas: "What?"
Harry: "I didn't get paid. For either case. I make more money from flaming demon monkey crap. That's just wrong."

Harry: For god's sake Trixie, she's got kids.
Trixie Vixen: So did Hitler.

Harry: No, he had dogs.

  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Lord Raith tries this on Murphy, but Murphy being Murphy throws a wrench into his plans.
  • In Medias Res: Harry escapes a burning building carrying a box of puppies while being chased be monkey demons flinging incendiary poo.

The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault.

A half-hysterical chuckle slipped out of my mouth. "Wait, I've seen this one before. This is where you say, 'Search your feelings; you know it to be true.'"

  • The Missus and the Ex:
    • Murphy deals with this as she is the Ex as her second husband is engaged to her sister. She is not pleased with this fact.
    • Arturo has three ex's he works with and one lady he plans on wedding who truly makes him happy. They don't approve and try to kill her.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: The MO of the ex-wives of Arturo who is planning on marrying another woman.
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Trixie Vixen is so self-absorbed and vapid that she cannot remember Harry's name (though she never forgets that he never got her her latte that she never ordered). This works in Harry's favor near the book's climax, as when she tries to frame him for a murder, she does not get his name right, allowing him to drive to the Raith household and stop the entropy ritual that the bad guys are doing.
  • Oh Crap: Harry has a moment like this when he realizes that the entity behind the entropy curse is He Who Walks Behind.

Harry: Hell's holy stars and freaking stones shit bells.

  • The Power of Love: It is one of the strongest forces in the world. It is so strong the White Court vampires cannot eat or even touch a person who is in love and is loved in return. Thus forever protecting Justine as Thomas loved her enough to risk his own life and stop feeding off of her when he needed it the most. Sadly, this means he also can't touch her from now on without getting horribly burned.
  • Rage Against the Mentor: Harry goes nuts at his former mentor when McCoy reveals that he is the Blackstaff, who can violate all the Laws.
  • This Is a Sentence Bitch: "Get on the bike, bitch."
  • Tome of Eldritch Lore: Subverted. When discussing the mechanics of ritual magic, Harry explains that the White Council pushed to have dark ritual books published and distributed to as many people as possible. When Murphy asks (understandably) why the good guys would want to do that, he tells her that summoning dark powers through rituals is like water coming out of a pipe. If you have thousands drawing from the same line, it loses all effectiveness because there is not enough power to go around. Hence, the only rituals in the Dresdenverse with overwhelming power are the ones that are kept secret.
  • You Called Me "X" - It Must Be Serious: Murphy tells Dresden's mentor, Ebenezar, to get out of the driver's seat so she can take the wheel and get them to their destination before people die. She is not polite as she says this. Harry sighs, and asks Ebenezar to take her lead, slipping in the word "sir." Murphy drops her jaw, and everything she is holding at the time, and calls Harry out on this. After a second, Murphy asks Ebenezar again. This time, she is very polite when asking.
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