The Dresden Files/Storm Front

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Harry Dresden knows that being the only one working in your field can be tough. For example, being a wizard who works as a private detective in Chicago. Things start getting especially complicated when Harry discovers that someone is using black magic to kill people... and he's the only suspect.

What looked like it was going to be a simple murder case turns into a race against time as Harry tries to prove his innocence before the White Council pronounces judgment against him... or he becomes the next target.

Storm Front is the first book in The Dresden Files, written by Jim Butcher.

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Storm Front contains examples of:

• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The "runes" on Harry's staff on the cover art are simply the mirror image "Matrix" in Japanese katakana (マトリックス).
• Badass Boast: The final lines:

My Name Is Inigo Montoya Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. When things get strange, when what goes bump in the night flicks on the lights, when no one else can help you, give me a call. I'm in the book.

• Big Entrance: When Harry confronts Gentleman Johnny Marcone, he does so by blowing off the doors of his gentleman's club in a burst of magic (towards himself, protecting himself with a shield, so as to keep bystanders from getting hurt), then fireballing the jukebox into slag, and popping every lightbulb in the joint to make an impression. In a later story, Marcone has remembered this, and has the dramatic entry points of his establishments furnished with flimsy doors, so that when similar things happen, the shrapnel won't do any damage. The strategic entry points, on the other hand, are equipped with reinforced steel.
• Blessed with Suck: There is a (seemingly) B plot in the distribution of the illegal drug Third Eye. Harry doesn't particularly care about it (mundane drugs are not his problem), until he discovers that it's a magic drug that forcibly opens The Sight, even on mundanes. Users of the drug are driven completely insane from the first use, unable to ever forget what they've seen. And since Supernatural Chicago is not a nice place...
• Burn the Witch: Addressed. In his first case of the series, Harry is explaining the basics of magic to his client and tells her that the Old Testament's "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" law does not make a wizard's life very easy.
• The Cavalry: Morgan.
• Chekhov's Gun: Early in the book, Harry mixes an "escape" potion, for emergencies. Bob, whose help he needs to do so, insists that he also mix a love potion (because Bob is a Lovable Sex Maniac). Later, a demon attacks while Susan Rodriguez is visiting and Harry's in the shower. He sends Susan to drink the escape potion while he fights it off, but she drinks the love potion by accident. When Harry retreats to the room the potions were in, he manages to get her to drink some escape potion and he drinks the rest of it, allowing them to escape.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Morgan performs it, and when Harry rouses it is with no more than an observation that he had been performing it.
• Domestic Abuse: After soulgazing his client, Harry learns she's a victim of this.
• Elevator Action Sequence: Harry and an unconscious Murphy are trapped in an elevator with a scorpion from hell ripping its way through the roof. Harry slams the car against the top of the shaft with a wind spell, squishing the scorpion against the ceiling, then catches them with a shield at the bottom.
• Full-Frontal Assault: A very nasty demon shows up while Harry is in the shower and Susan is in his living room.
• Godzilla Threshold: A minor one. Confronted with a toad demon in a heavy rain that prevents him from making use of his old standby fire, he is forced to try for a lightning spell despite the dangers. Fortunately, it works.
• Groin Attack: Harry claims his knee was aiming for the Shadowman's gut, and missed.
• Oh Crap: Right after Harry kills the scorpion with the elevator, when he steps outside and discovers that it has just started to rain. (The Big Bad is using thunderstorms to power his death spells, and Harry is next on the roster.)