Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 9

Photo by Mike Lorusso on Unsplash

Harry arrives at the Full Moon Garage, a run down building of a sort you apparently only see in the
"worst parts of a city". I honestly have no idea what this means, because it sound to me like the kind of building you find in...every mixed residential-industrial area. If Jim Butcher meant that it was a chop shop, not necessarily a legitimate automotive repair establishment, he might have said as much. Across the street, there's a pawn shop "a place for crooks to sell their extra knives and guns" when they need cash. I'm not sure what Jim Butcher thinks a pawn shop is, but I am very sure that this is not a viable business model for a pawn shop. For one thing, they have to occasionally sell things, not just buy them, or they're not going to make any money. 

Harry didn't bring his gun, on account of he's coming straight here from the police station, but in addition to his staff and blasting rod, he has the first version of the force ring. This one only delivers about twice the impact of a thrown punch, but this kind of marks the beginning of the evolution of magical gadgets that continues throughout the series, even after other things, like the potions, get dropped. 

The door is unlocked, so Harry just kind of strolls in, hoping that no one is there and he can just find come clues for Murphy and Denton and then go home. He specifically says "Murphy and Denton", which is interesting. He knows Denton is hiding something. He knows Benn tried to shoot Murphy, and that something feels off about Harris. But he's still inclined to think of Denton as someone he's working with. He wants them to be on the same side. I mean, that's almost certainly a more comfortable place to be than on opposite sides, but we're talking about the guy who like half an hour ago said that he thinks Harry is either slightly unbalanced or a very intelligent charlatan. So talking so casually in his own internal monologue about finding clues for Denton and Murphy... I don't know. I guess he has reason at this point to think Denton is on Murphy's side, regardless of how anyone feels about each other interpersonally, which would put Harry and Denton on the same side via the transitive property?

Of course, the place isn't as empty as it initially appeared, and Harry quickly finds himself surrounded by lycanthropes. He opts to take the straightforward approach, telling them that he isn't a cop, he's Harry Dresden and he's here to ask them about the recent murders. Don't get me wrong, this is probably exactly what I would have done in this situation, but like, first of all there are reasons I'm not a private investigator/professional wizard, and that's one of them, but also I was about 15 the las time I walked into a sketchy building full of presumably hostile strangers, and I was invited. Unfortunately for Harry, as lycanthropes, the Streetwolves are sufficiently tied into the supernatural community ti know that Harry isn't working with Marcone and is working with the police. While Parker, their leader, doesn't mention it, they probably also know that the last time Harry got within shooting distance of magically inclined criminal activity, the whole thing kinda ended up burning down. If it were just the two of them, I think Parker might still have let him walk away, but that whole pack starts chanting "Kill him, kill him" and there's really no hope of a peaceful resolution after something like that. Parker fires his shotgun, as much to snap his people out of it as to kill Harry, although that is definitely also a goal, and Harry makes a run for it, using the force ring to deal with the guy guarding the door. 

Photo by Diane Helentjaris on Unsplash

Unfortunately, the Beetle. which was making a weird noise when he got here, refuses to start at first, and in the chaos, Harry makes eye contact with Parker. This is another of the weird, early books soul gazes where there's no imagery, just an infodump. He sees that Parker is getting older, slowing down, and that letting Dresden live would likely be the tipping point that caused him to lose control over the pack. He doesn't know anything about the murders. And he's furious with Harry for getting the pack stirred up, and thus endangering them. I find the lycanthropes fascinating. There's at least a dozen of them at the Full Moon Garage - did Parker, or his predecessor, if he has one, manage to gather every lycanthrope in the Chicago metropolitan area, or are there more out there? I wonder if people exist who are "natural channels" for other kinds of spirits. As I said in the previous post, lycanthropes kind of remind me of White Court vampires, but their symbiotic relationship with the spiritual entities with which they coexist seems to be fundamentally different. Is the phenomenon of "Cassandra's tears", described in the next book, the result of a similar relationship with a prognosticating spirit (which are established to exist in Proven Guilty)? Certainly, if we meet anyone else in the series who's a natural channel for a spirit in this way, they aren't identified as such. I'm also immensely curious whether this kind of pack structure is the usual thing for lycanthropes, or if Parker's ability to keep the Streetwolves together, keep them in line, an achievement which is almost certainly the only thing keeping most of them out of prison, is something special. 

While Parker is recovering from the soul gaze, Harry gets the damn car started and drives away, reflecting on what a monumentally stupid course of action this was. He's learned nothing new, and now a group of people totally unconnected to the current as want to kill him. He considers that the lycanthropes aren't strictly human, so he'd probably be okay under the First Law if he used magic to wipe them how. However, the idea doesn't sit right with Harry's own sense of the right and wrong ways to use magic. While the lycanthropes may not be human under the White Council's definition, neither are they vampires, or creatures of the Nevernever. They're people, and using a fundamental force of life and creation to kill them would be wrong. Sometime Harry's whole "mustn't indulge my darker nature" bit gets irritating, but I'm 100% with him where the lycanthropes are concerned. It also helps that this version of "This is what magic is and this is why I have to be careful not to turn into a bad guy" inner monologue is one of the best in the series - it includes the "there's more magic in a baby's first giggle" line, and also "fun and easy, like legos". 

There's something else I notice on this reread (like I said, I usually skip this one): it is blazingly obvious that this was a setup. Noting we know about lycanthropes in general or the Streetwolves in particular gives us any reason to think that they'd engage in ritualistic murders, wolf motif notwithstanding, and we know they don't physically transform. Sure, Denton and Harris could have had some reason to suspect their involvement, which they did not choose to share with Dresden, but even were that the case this is a damned irregular way of doing things, and out of character besides. I guess it's not unreasonable that Harry doesn't catch on at this point - all Denton's protestations about following the rules are somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that he's obviously got a secret, but it should be extremely clear to the reader, even this early on. 

The chapter ends on a cliffhanger, when Harry arrives at his office, to discover Marcone and Hendricks already there, waiting for him...

Apparently at some point last fall my Patreon got "unlaunched", so I don't know what that big orange button up at the top did, but I'm guessing it didn't actually give you the opportunity to support this blog and my other projects. It's fixed now, so this is a great time to become a Patron, and get access to cat pictures and the opportunity to tell me what books to review. 

I've been reading a bunch of YA romance featuring angels recently, for a thing I'm working on, so I might be putting up a post with my initial thoughts on this previously unfamiliar genre sometime in the coming weeks. Until next time, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things!