Early Review – Brief Cases (Dresden Files Short Story Collection) by Jim Butcher (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-0451492104
Stand Alone or Series: Part of the Dresden Files series
Source: eGalley through Edelweiss
Rating: 4/5 stars

“The world of Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, is rife with intrigue–and creatures of all supernatural stripes. And you’ll make their intimate acquaintance as Harry delves into the dark side of truth, justice, and the American way in this must-have short story collection.

From the Wild West to the bleachers at Wrigley Field, humans, zombies, incubi, and even fey royalty appear, ready to blur the line between friend and foe. In the never-before-published “Zoo Day,” Harry treads new ground as a dad, while fan-favorite characters Molly Carpenter, his onetime apprentice, White Council Warden Anastasia Luccio, and even Bigfoot stalk through the pages of more classic tales.

With twelve stories in all, Brief Cases offers both longtime fans and first-time readers tantalizing glimpses into Harry’s funny, gritty, and unforgettable realm, whetting their appetites for more to come from the wizard with a heart of gold.”

This is a collection of twelve short stories featuring characters from the Dresden Files series. As with most anthologies the quality of the stories varies. The majority of these stories have appeared before in other anthologies, only the last story in this anthology is original to this collection. I had read a number of these stories previously in other UF short story collections.

My favorite stories of the bunch were the ones featuring Bigfoot and his son Irwin; I especially enjoyed “Bigfoot on Campus”. I also really enjoyed “Cold Case” which takes a look at Molly starting her duties as the Winter Queen.

This is a decent collection of Dresden stories (especially if you don’t keep up with all the short stories released in this universe). It was nice to get a dose of the Dresden Files while we suffer through this long drought between Dresden Files’ books.

Overall a good collection of stories and a “must read” if you don’t normally keep up with the Dresden Files short stories. Recommended for fans of the series; most of these don’t stand alone very well. See below for short descriptions and ratings for the individual stories.

“A Fistful of Warlocks” (4/5 stars)
Story featuring Anastasia Luccio, set in the Wild West. She ends up working with Wyatt Earp to fight a group of warlocks that are causing trouble in the region.

“B Is for Bigfoot”, Jim Butcher (4/5 stars)
This is a short Harry Dresden story in which Dresden is asked to help a half-Yeti boy deal with bullies. It wasn’t all that exciting but was decently written and I enjoyed it.

“AAAA Wizardry” (5/5 stars)
I really enjoyed this story. In it Dresden is teaching some new Wardens about investigation as a wizard. He jumps between teaching a class and telling a story about a time things went wrong for him because he didn’t look at the situation correctly. Very well done story.

“I was a Teenage Bigfoot” (4/5 stars)
Dresden goes to check on a teenage bigfoot who supposedly has mono; however something much more sinistar is going on. I ended liking this story a lot. It was a fun read and features the same kid as “B is for Bigfoot” did.

“Curses” (4/5 stars)
This was a fun story about Dresden tracking down a fae king who cursed the home plate at Wrigley stadium so that the Cubs never win. It was an entertaining read.

“Even Hand” (4/5 stars)
A story from John Marcone’s point of view. It was interesting to gain some insight into Marcone. The story was entertaining but over-all nothing mind-blowing.

“Bigfoot on Campus” (5/5 stars)
Irwin is at college now. When his dad (Bigfoot) senses that something bad is going to happen, he hires Harry to go and check on Irwin. What Harry find involves the White Court and ends up in an epic battle involving Bigfoot, ghouls, and vampires. This was an excellent story I was completely drawn and want to read about Irwin more now!

“Bombshells” (4/5 stars)
This story followed Molly as she tried to deal with some Formar. There was a lot of action in here and it was good to see how Molly fared while Harry was “dead”. I didn’t really like Molly’s “voice” that much and it was hard for me to really engage in this story, it was really dark.

“Cold Case” (5/5 stars)
This was an amazing story that feature Molly as she starts her duties as the Winter Queen. She is there to collect tribut but finds out that something is going very wrong in this town. She ends up meeting up with Carlos who helps her unravel the strange events. During the course of events Molly finds out some truly dreadful facts about what it means to be Winter Queen. This was an awesome story, a bit dark and serious but really engaging and interesting

“Jury Duty” (3/5 stars)
Super light and fluffy story about Dresden being called to jury duty. He ends up using his investigative skills to keep the defendant from going to jail. It was okay but my least favorite of the bunch so far.

“Day One” (4/5 stars)
This was a cute story about Butters and his first “call” to action as a Knight. It was well done and a fun read.

“Zoo Day” (4/5 stars)
This was the same story told three times from three different POVs (Harry’s, Maggies, and Mouse’s). I liked seeing Harry cope with being a father and seeing Maggie’s and Mouse’s thoughts were interesting. However, I am not a huge fan of this type of thing….it ends up being pretty boring reading the same thing three times.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– New Release Reading Challenge
– Goodreads Reading Challenge