My Thoughts on the Book, Out Law: A Dresden Files Novella, 5/7/2026…

Reading a Dresden Files tale is like engaging in a conversation with a good friend: it fills the time with quality conversation and worthy companionship. Out Law: A Dresden Files Novella, by the one-and-only Jim Butcher, meets this standard squarely.

Baron John Marcone, Harry’s mortal nemesis, offers the wizard a chance to repay an old debt, which involves helping one of the crime boss’s underlings go straight. But, as usual, this offer is not what it seems. Layers unpeel like an onion, evil and dark magic soon enter, and Harry must summon all of his resources to beat a threat to himself, his people, and Chicago itself.

Just another day in Harry Dresden’s spectacular life.

Harry, of course, imparts lessons on goodness and morality to Tripp Gregory, he who seeks to go straight, while continuing to be true to himself. He at first takes Gregory’s case on to repay a debt, but the job, just like Harry’s expectations, develops into something more. It turns out to be more than just another feather in his cap of good deeds.

Jim Butcher’s prose, through the first-person narration of Harry, reads like Phillip Marlowe with an aptitude for magic. The deadpan snark and world-weary cynicism are evident, as are aspects of crime literature, while the ongoing quest for redemption drives the plot forward.

I highly, highly recommend this novella, as well as the entire Dresden Files series.