Skin Game by Jim Butcher
Synopsis:
Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, is about to have a very bad day…
Because as Winter Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness, Harry never knows what the scheming Mab might want him to do. Usually, it’s something awful. He doesn’t know the half of it.
Mab has just traded Harry’s skills to pay off one of her debts. And now he must help a group of supernatural villains—led by one of Harry’s most dreaded and despised enemies, Nicodemus Archleone—to break into the highest-security vault in town, so that they can then access the highest-security vault in the Nevernever.
It’s a smash and grab job to recover the literal Holy Grail from the vaults of the greatest treasure hoard in the supernatural world—which belongs to the one and only Hades, Lord of the freaking Underworld and generally unpleasant character. Worse, Dresden suspects that there is another game afoot that no one is talking about. And he’s dead certain that Nicodemus has no intention of allowing any of his crew to survive the experience. Especially Harry.
Review:
Harry Dresden is still Winter Knight to Mab and must fulfill her debt Nicodemus, or Mab tells him he’ll die soon of the parasite growing within him. Harry is suspicious from the start, and prepares himself for the worst. As their job takes them from Marcone’s lair to Hade’s Underworld.
Skin Game is the 15th novel in the Dresden Files. Butcher isn’t afraid to mix things up for Harry and put the characters through change and plenty of drama. But Harry is easily one of the best characters in fantasy literature today. He’s powerful, wise, fallible, kindhearted, and can always find humor in the darkest of hours. This latest installment is fast-paced and full of adventure, suspense, thrills, and more great characters. This solid series never disappoints and always entertains.