Despite it taking me over six months to continue The
Dresden Files, Jim Butcher’s series almost could have ended with Small
Favor. Sure, there would still have
been a lot of loose threads, but it is one of the novels which felt like it
could have been an ending, especially in retrospect with Turn Coat is
the novel where not so much everything changes, but enough changes that it
becomes clear Butcher has somewhere to go.
The twelfth book in the series is literally titled Changes but it’s
Turn Coat where there is a preparation for changes that are coming. There is an establishment of an evil
counterpart to the White Council that everybody denies exists, a counter
Council created at the very end by Dresden to prepare for the war, and an
intentional lull in any of the magical hostilities between the various
parties. Everything in the book feels
like an intentional buildup and almost a slight piece of ‘filler’ but filler
that still moves the characters forward and makes the actual plot feel like
there is meaning. Turn Coat mainly
means to resolve some of the tension between Harry Dresden and Morgan, the
Warden who had been watching him like a hawk since the beginning of the series,
only increased with Dresden taking on Molly Carpenter as an apprentice. The inciting incident is Morgan appearing at
Harry’s apartment, accused of murder due to being over the body with a knife, being
shot, and asking for help. That is the
mystery at the heart of Turn Coat and as a mystery despite the length of
the novel this is one of Butcher’s more focused mysteries.
The Dresden Files has
had an issue with taking the mystery elements post-Dead Beat and letting
them meander just a bit to facilitate the bigger world, but with Turn Coat
what really helps is that the elements outside of the mystery are directly tied
to the mystery. Directly tying things
together brings this focus to proceedings that makes the mystery work, even though
this may be one of the weaker mysteries.
The reader can fairly easily tell where things will be going and who the
actual perpetrator, the titular Turn Coat, will turn out to be. There is one very good twist at the climax about
how the actual murder took place and that actually takes several characters in
different directions. This is
essentially a breather of a novel where we are taking the time to get into who
the characters are. Morgan especially
gets time to examine exactly what makes him kick and work more than the rather two-dimensional
character of earlier novels who just had a purpose to serve. Morgan is incredibly human, motivated by a
sense of justice and an adherence to laws, but still an understanding of the
flaws within the laws of the Council. He
goes to Harry for help, a man who he doesn’t trust and would happily have taken
down had this been the past. His last
actions of the novel are keeping a breaking of the laws secret from the
Council, taking it to his grave because of the grown respect for Harry.
Now some of this doesn’t work perfectly, there are a
few characters who don’t quite work as well, mainly due to age. Mainly these are two of the non-white
characters who feel a bit too much like Butcher is drawing on stereotypes,
unintentionally, to craft characters. It
isn’t the worst it could be and is better than some of the ways at least one of
these characters has been used in the past to move away from the stereotypes. This is also a novel built around being
almost a step back and breather from a lot of the larger supernatural goings on
making it almost one that anyone could really be picking up as their first in
the series, though I wouldn’t recommend it.
It’s intentional in bringing a lot of disparate plot threads together
really well, especially involving the threads of Molly Carpenter and her
temptation to use magic on other people, the werewolves who have been working as
protectors and have the opportunity to grow into adults in this novel, and some
minor appearances of Butters as well as Harry’s pixie army that he is the lord over. A lot of these make the tone of Turn Coat
not be so much as weird, but as having at least a little levity when things get
dark. The big magical threat at the heart
of the book is a skinwalker, a creature that comes from certain Native American
sources that Butcher at least attempts to make his own instead of just dragging
from the spiritual beliefs of a marginalized group. It’s a terrifying monster and used really
effectively, but it still feels like it hasn’t really aged the best.
Overall, Turn Coat while having some flaws
mainly due to the time it is being written as it’s over a decade old at this
point and Butcher still can improve as an author, is yet another novel that
continues the high streak of brilliance in The Dresden Files. Things are moving into place and it immediately
put me back on reading the series as I wish to continue almost
immediately. The pace is punchy and the mystery
is really well written and Butcher continues to impress with how interesting
all of his characters have become, despite some time jumps chronicled in short
stories. 9/10.
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