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{{work}}
When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn't doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.
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To save his friends -- and his own soul -- Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic...
{{tropelist|page=Ghost Story}}
* [[Abnormal Ammo]]: Sir Stuart uses a large gun to blast a wraith to oblivion. Harry finds out that, much like everything else {{spoiler|a ghost}} can do, it is powered by memory. Stuart makes a great effort to recover that energy each time it is used. {{spoiler|Harry finds out later that he can use magic again if it is powered by his memories of using magic. However, if Harry does not recover that energy he himself will eventually dissipate since, as a ghost, Harry is made of nothing ELSE but memory. Harry, being Harry, realizes this just a bit too late.}}
* [[All Love Is Unrequited]]: Harry finally realises that
* {{spoiler|[[An Astral Projection, Not a Ghost]]}}: Ironically, one of the [[Twist Ending|twists]] of ''Ghost Story''. Maybe.
* [[Back
* [[Badass Normal]]: Daniel Carpenter takes after both of his parents in the badass department, knife fighting with a supernaturally fast warlock.
* [[Battle in the Center of the Mind]]: {{spoiler|Molly engages the Corpsetaker in a mental battle in order to rescue Waldo Butters, whose body Corpsetaker has stolen. Then Corpsetaker tried to steal Molly's body in turn and is almost successful; the battle itself is represented as an actual battlefield, with Molly waging her end of things from a mental copy of the bridge of the [[Star Trek|Enterprise]]. Molly plays a scorched earth policy to delay Corpsetaker, and almost suicides to prevent Corpsetaker from winning - until Harry convinces her to call for help, at which point Mort hits Corpsetaker point-blank with a swarm of ''very'' pissed-off spirits.}}
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* [[Break the Cutie]]: {{spoiler|Molly. Her overt madness is a [[Batman Gambit]] to scare away some of the nastier critters lurking around Chicago, but helping Harry arrange his own murder and then being as sensitive as she is at the battle of Chichen Itza - and close proximity to the spell that wiped out the Red Court - seriously hurt her, which is not being helped by Lea's "Neitzsche and Darwin were Pussies" brand of magical training.}}
* [[Broken Bird]]: Molly.
* [[Cast
* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: {{spoiler|Corpsetaker does this to Mortimer Lindquist, suspending him over a writhing mass of wraiths and then dipping him in ever so slowly for an ever-increasing amount of time.}}
* [[Creepy Child]]: Inez, the spirit of a little girl in the Graceland cemetery who Harry meets. She is generally friendlier and more polite than most versions of creepy kids, but she is still unsettling, not the least because she died a couple of centuries ago and has an extensive amount of knowledge about spirits and shades, and is convinced by long experience that Harry will become "a monster."
** {{spoiler|It is implied that Inez is actually Mab, talking through a conduit because she couldn't come in person, what with being occupied as part of Harry's life support on Demonreach.}}
** Also the ghost children who love to "play" with living children down by the river.
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* [[Disney Death]]: {{spoiler|Harry, apparently.}}
* [[Enemy Without]]: {{spoiler|Evil Bob}}.
* [[Fun with Acronyms]]: In Ghost Story Harry's friends have formed the [[BFS|Better Future Society]] it could have been a coincidence but then Butters mentions that he wanted to name it the [[BFG|Better Future Group]] for the sake of the [[Fun with Acronyms|Acronym]]
* [[Genre Blindness]]: Played with in ''Ghost Story''. {{spoiler|Harry's ghost is fighting Corpsetaker's ghost, and she keeps trying to gloat at Harry, only for him to keep interrupting her with harder and harder spells. He mocks her for doing so, then he's reminded that as a ghost, his spells are [[Cast
* [[Ghostapo]]: {{spoiler|Nazi-dressed Evil Bob commands a spirit realm shaped like the Nazi defenses on the beaches of D-Day, patrolled by werewolf Nazi soldiers called hexenwulfen.}}
* [[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot]]: {{spoiler|Justine invokes this in order to get Thomas to feed on her at the end.}}
* [[Guilt Complex]]: Harry also spends ''Ghost Story'' feeling guilty about the mess he's made of the whole world, and particularly the lives of his friends and loved ones, by exterminating the Red Court (which he's not exactly wrong to feel guilty about). He feels particularly guilty about Molly, for not training her well enough to survive on her own, for setting a bad example by crossing the line when he {{spoiler|became the Winter Knight, and especially for exposing her highly tuned psychic senses to the battle at Chichen Izta and the giant curse that ended it. He also feels like crap for making her help him kill himself, once he remembers. And then about Thomas, for not telling him about it.}}
* [[He's Just Hiding]]: {{spoiler|Murphy refused to accept Harry's death, including after she ''met his ghost'', because she had never seen a body. When he shows up as a ghost, she refuses to believe it's really him, even after getting his identity confirmed by Mortimer the ectomancer and Molly's Sight, all because she doesn't want to admit that he's dead.}}
** To be fair, {{spoiler|in the end, Murphy's point about the body was valid as it was snatched up and preserved by Mab and Demonreach. Thus, technically speaking, Harry was never exactly dead in the first place.}}
* [[Heel Realization]]: Midway through the novel, Harry comes to this realization when he considers the consequences of his actions in ''Changes'' and the extent which he went to in order to stop his enemies and save those he loved - and that in doing so, [[He Who Fights Monsters|he became what he fought.]] {{spoiler|But this is inverted later when he rejects Evil Bob's [[We Can Rule Together]] offer, realizing that one bad choice at the end of a lifetime of fighting evil does ''not'' make him evil.}}
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* [[Heroic Fatigue]]: Played with in ''Ghost Story'': {{spoiler|Being dead makes all the pain and exhaustion go away. Then, later, Harry manifests and enjoys the sensation of pain as a sensation of being alive. However, Harry is using his own memories to fuel his limited magic and later manifestation, to the point that there is not enough of Harry left to even remain as a ghost by the time he is done. Uriel and Mab later set things right. Well, right-ish.}}
* [[Idiot Ball]]: Harry realizes he was holding it during a specific event near the end of ''Changes'': {{spoiler|letting Molly, a mentally sensitive apprentice who's mostly untrained in combat, join him in retrieving Maggie. The mass of emotions from the battle came dangerously close to driving her insane, and as of ''Ghost Story'', she's a lot more paranoid and broken than she used to be.}}
* [[Impostor
** Earlier in the series, she pulls one on Harry. After being [[Mind Rape|mindraped]] by a ghost taking Dresden's form in a previous book, when he shows up at her house unannounced, she forces him to walk through her threshold uninvited, which would have revealed if any illusion was being used.
* [[The Internet Is for Porn]]: In ''Ghost Story'', Bob now has access to the internet. He declares, almost giddy, "It's like ninety-percent porn!"
* [[Ironic Echo]]: One notable example, showing just how ''bad'' things have gotten. When we first see Harry trying to teach Molly about shielding spells, it's with her younger brothers and sisters throwing snowballs at her. Her shield fails, she's pelted with snow, and it's a hilarious and heartwarming moment. Cut to ''Ghost Story'', and she's again practicing shields. Only this time, it's {{spoiler|[[The Fair Folk|Leanansidhe]] throwing ''hunks of ice'' like a major league pitcher, and Molly's as far from her warm, safe, loving home as you get.}}
* [[
* [[Kill It with Fire]]: In ''Ghost Story'', Harry points out that the reason he uses fire is because it is universally useful. Even intangibles like ghosts recoil from fire as they have a hard time separating their memory of fire and flame from their current existence. Harry also points out that even though something might be invulnerable to death from burning, they almost always still feel pain from it and can be stalled with it.
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* [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]: Present in some of the later books, but ''Ghost Story'' takes this to new heights: it is ''impossible'' to discuss its plot ({{spoiler|[[Who Dunnit to Me?]]}}) without giving away the last few pages of ''Changes''.
* [[Must Make Amends]]: Harry Dresden to an extent when he realises the effects of his actions. Easier said than done since {{spoiler|he happens to be dead}}.
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* [[Not Quite Dead]]: {{spoiler|Harry, as it turns out, at the end of ''Ghost Story''. His soul had just been separated from his body while said vessel was being kept alive by Mab, Demonreach, and a certain "parasite".}}
* [[Oh Crap]]: In the first couple chapters of ''Ghost Story'', Harry has a moment where he realizes that, {{spoiler|as a ghost, he has no magic. As he's being attacked by a wraith.}}
** In the last chapter, Harry does it again when {{spoiler|he wakes up, alive... in Mab's lap. But then Uriel passes on his advice...}}
* [[Pound of Flesh Twist]]: Harry ultimately realizes that, although he IS the Winter Knight, Mab still doesn't have any ACTUAL power over him, allowing him to retain his free will and enabling him to determine HOW or even IF he follows Mab's orders.
* [[Schedule Slip]]: ''Ghost Story'' was originally scheduled for release in April 2011, before being delayed until July 2011.
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* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: There are two significant instances of this: first, {{spoiler|when Harry tells Evil Bob to take his [[We Can Rule Together]] offer and shove it because he will ''never'' belong to the Dark Side}}, and second, {{spoiler|when Harry tells off ''Mab herself'' at the end, vowing that he is ''not'' hers and will decide if, when, and how he carries out her orders}}.
* [[Spot the Thread]]: In ''Ghost Story'', to sneak into the den of a [[The Fagin|sorcerer]] and rescue his [[Oliver Twist|band of thieving street urchins]], {{spoiler|[[Took a Level
* [[Spring Is Late]]: Chicago sees regular snowfall well into ''May'' {{spoiler|due to the fact that Queen Mab herself is in the city, keeping Harry's body [[Incredibly Lame Pun|warm]].}}
* [[Stealth Pun]]: Flickum Bicus is actually kinda subtle unless you regularly flick your bic. ''Ghost Story'' outright explains this one, though: {{spoiler|1=when Harry was training under Justin DuMorne, he tried to cheat at a magical fire-lighting test with a lighter, causing Justin to remark "You won't always be able to flick your Bic." When Harry finally does light the candle with magic, he uses "Flickum Bicus" as the invocation as a nod to Justin's lecture.}}
* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: "Grenades!" [[Unreliable Narrator|I ordered,]] in a firm and manly tone that did not sound at all like a panicked fourteen-year-old.
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Seriously. It was her. Nobody can prove otherwise. }}
* [[Take Up My Sword]]: A straight example occurs in ''Ghost Story'', when the gravely-wounded {{spoiler|spirit of Sir Stuart}} throws Harry his gun. Harry initially thinks he's been given a powerful one-use weapon, but later figures out that it is actually {{spoiler|a symbol of Sir Stuart's authority that allows Harry to rally Mort's spirit friends and take on Sir Stuart's former position as their commander, leading them into battle to rescue Mort.}}
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* [[Terror Hero]]: Molly becomes a Type 4 deliberately to try to impose order in the city.
* [[Thirteen Is Unlucky]]: This is the thirteenth book in the series, and Harry is dead. {{spoiler|Well, until the end. Or, depending on your point of view, he never was dead in the first place}}.
* [[Training
** After this episode, {{spoiler|Harry}} begrudgingly admits that she might have a point and that, by going relatively easy, he might not have done the best job of preparing {{spoiler|Molly}} for just what kinds of trauma and hardship she'll naturally be exposed to as a wizard, especially {{spoiler|as a psychic sensitive}}.
* [[Unfinished Business]]: ''Ghost Story''. {{spoiler|Harry finding out who killed him is actually not that important. Saving his friends one last time might not have been that important either; the book's [[Big Bad]] quite possibly would have been stopped without Harry's intervention. However, it ''was'' important to him that he make sure his loved ones were OK and say goodbye properly to Molly. And he had to go through the entire book to put Uriel's scale-balancing advice in the proper context.}}
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* [[You Can See Me?]]: It comes as a surprise to {{spoiler|Dresden}} that Butters and Lea can see him. He's also surprised when he comes across someone else who can hear him.
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