The Dresden Files: Brief Cases by: Jim Butcher

 

Side Jobs while mixed in places was an anthology that was organized wonderfully around traveling through the timeline of The Dresden Files from lighter, fun stories, to darker, more reflective stories on the events of the later novels.  It’s such a winning formula that Brief Cases, the second short stories collection, took it and continued the idea.  However, unlike Side Jobs, Skin Game wasn’t a book that changed everything, it was just the last novel installment of The Dresden Files until 2020 brought Peace Talks and Battle Ground (which were originally intended to be one novel but were split due to length) and thusly Brief Cases doesn’t have as much of a necessity to deal with fallout for characters.  It did close with an original short story, “Zoo Day,” and was published only two years before the latest installments would be so for fans it was essentially a spring in a drought.  Brief Cases is also structured chronologically like Side Jobs, but features more variety in points of view for each of the short stories.  Of the 12 short stories, 6 are from the perspective of Harry Dresden, 2 from Molly Carpenter, 1 each from John Marcone, Waldo Butters, and Anastasia Luccio, and 1 switching between the points of view of Harry, his daughter Maggie, and Mouse.  The story introductions also generally didn’t go into detail on where these were published previously, so that information is being drawn from the wiki page (https://dresdenfiles.fandom.com/wiki/Brief_Cases) for further information.

 

The collection opens with the story from Luccio’s perspective with the pulpy titled “A Fistful of Warlocks” originally published in Straight Outta Tombstone.  From the title of both the story and the anthology it was originally published in, it is a Western, and that is perhaps why it’s a story I didn’t quite connect with me.  Westerns as a genre are something I’m not really interested in and haven’t consumed much of outside of knowing a lot of their tropes, and “A Fistful of Warlocks” is a story full of tropes.  This isn’t an entirely bad thing, it makes it a fairly fun and quick read, set before the time of Harry Dresden and following Luccio as she tracks down a warlock in the Wild West, meeting Wyatt Earp, and being attacked by other warlocks.  It is a story that doesn’t really have a nice conclusion, but ends with Luccio finding a vital piece of information on two of the warlocks featured in the story.  Now she is a very fun character to follow, but this one suffers from being a bit too disconnected to what’s going on in The Dresden Files proper.  Sure, the warlocks featured do have some major connections to Dead Beat, but this was a story where we didn’t really learn a whole lot more about Luccio or the warlocks because this is explicitly a prequel written after the fact.  It’s an issue with prequels in general which stops them from working since you have a character your audience is already going to have some understanding of where they’re going.  7/10.

 

The second and fourth stories in Brief Cases are the first two installments of a trilogy of stories included but split up and will be discussed in sequence with the third installmetn of the trilogy (the seventh in this installment) so going to the third story of the anthology, “AAAA Wizardry” we have another of the smaller stories.  This was part of a tabletop role playing game based around The Dresden Files and shows Harry teaching some young wizards about magic and kind of how it works as a frame for a story about an exorcism Harry had to perform.  It’s really quite a simple story and closely resembles micro-fiction, as the length makes it easy to read with one final twist about what’s causing the horrors of a family who’s children have been suffering from a bogeyman.  The twist itself is perhaps a bit too obvious, especially when you realize that the “AAAA” in the title stands for four A’s used in understanding magic.  This is a story that’s nothing new and I’ve seen done before in other places, but here it is still a lot of fun with both the frame and the story proper works to tell something that just works.  8/10.

 

The lighthearted “Curses” is next, which is a story that you’ll get more out of if you have a connection to Chicago, the Chicago Cubs, or Illinois in general.  This is Harry taking on the case to reverse the Billy Goat curse on Wrigley Field, something that came from a man being escorted out of a World Series game in the rain due to his smelly goat in 1945.  Now, the real world curse would be broken in 1945, but since Jim Butcher is a Chicago native and Harry is based in Chicago, it’s the perfect little story to tackle something insane like that.  Butcher writes it like a film noir, slowly going through the suspects with a mysterious client representing the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field because they don’t want the media even having the idea of them thinking the curse is an actual thing and the Cubs would like to win the World Series for once.  Harry then uses his detective skills to track down the pub William Sianis owned, and eventually the one who set the curse, the goat.  Yes, the curse was set by a goat.  Well, not really a goat, but a Fae, the king of the Tylwyth Teg, Gwynn ap Nudd, who was a fan of baseball but the game was sold out so Sianis had the idea of him disguising himself as a goat to get in and he did it a little too well.  The fake out and delve into the Nevernever here is honestly wonderful, it makes the story feel so unique and weird and the conclusion makes it all the better putting it near the top in terms of quality for the anthology.  10/10.

 

“Even Hand” gives readers an insight into the mind of Gentleman Johnnie Marcone, who has been in The Dresden Files since the very beginning and has steadily built up his power as a signer of the Unseelie Accords, making him a Baron in the supernatural world.  This short story allowing readers into his mind is really interesting since we explore how he operates within the mob, always at a distance and always to his organization’s own game.  This was published originally in Dark and Stormy Knights and the idea of Marcone as a dark knight is an interesting one, one that “Even Hand” duly explores as he goes out of his way whenever there are children involved.  Justine brings a child to him and asks for protection from the Fomor (the frog like creatures who popped up post Changes with the genocide of the Red Court).  Marcone also finishes the story by imploring Justine to getting the child to St. Mary of the Angels where she could be safe, again something very reflective of who Marcone is.  He begins the character taking care of an enemy in a very violent fashion, but after that moment there is a lot of class in his dealings from that point.  Ghost Story, Cold Days, and Skin Game all take their time to put Marcone nominally on the side of our heroes, though Skin Game does have him as the victim of the heist at the center of that novel, but Butcher uses this to remind readers that nominally is the key word.  Marcone is still power hungry and working only in his own interest which may be a portent of things to come.  9/10.

 

Now it’s time to discuss the Bigfoot trilogy of novellas, and yes they are novellas as all three of them are the three longest stories in Brief Cases.  “B is for Bigfoot” from Under My Hat: Ttales from the Cauldron, “I Was a Teenage Bigfoot” from Blood Lite 3: Aftertaste, and “Bigfoot on Campus” from Hex Appeal deal with Harry being hired thrice by Strength of a River in his Shoulders (shortened to River Shoulders), a Forest Person who are Bigfoot/Sasquaches/Yeti/etc. to protect his scion son, Irwin.  The trilogy itself develops and evolves as The Dresden Files evolves as they are set after Full Moon, Dead Beat, and Turn Coat respectively.  It is also important to note that these three were also published in Working for Bigfoot, a special edition of the three stories published by Subterranean Press in 2015.  “B is for Bigfoot” is a story which could easily have stood on its own and not really made for a trilogy, River Shoulders is worried that his son is being bullied by those in school and his gentle nature from his bigfoot heritage is influencing him to not be fighting back.  It’s a very human motivation for getting Harry involved, though it is made clear that he has to stay on the sidelines, only made worse by the fact that it’s supernatural threats which are causing the bullying.  It’s a nice version of early Harry and wraps up nicely, especially with the way Harry interacts with everyone unburdened by what he will become, but the story does get bogged down in explaining the bullies and the fact that the PE teacher is part of it is one of those things that feels really cliched.  The characters are solid, however, especially the supporting cast and Butcher clearly realizes that he has something special with these characters.  7/10.

 

“I Was a Teenage Bigfoot” continues the light natured tone of the previous short story in the trilogy, but it is one with hints of some of the darkness to come.  Irwin is sick with mono despite being a scion, something in The Dresden Files universe that are invulnerable to general human illness.  Harry is brought in to observe him by River Shoulders, with continual contact to Irwin’s mother, Dr. Helena Pounder.  Irwin actually realizes who Harry might be in this one though this is a really simple story.  Harry has to use deduction to understand what exactly is ailing Irwin by understanding what Irwin faces at this school, it’s a school whose director has gathered several scions as a possibility to hone the skills of scions subtly.  This is then subverted when it is revealed that the dean resorted to black magic on Irwin so he could reverse his male pattern baldness.  It’s such an absurd plot point that it makes the story really just fall into place as it’s secretly about dealing with adolescence and growing up without a father or a traditional family.  8/10.

 

The pinnacle of the trilogy is “Bigfoot on Campus” as this is a story set after Turn Coat, at a point where Jim Butcher was writing Changes and giving Harry a daughter of his own, with several years having passed, Irwin being in college in Oklahoma and having fallen in love with Connie Barrowill.  The story has a frame narrative with Harry in a jail cell explaining what happened on campus that evening where violence broke out due to Connie being not human, but a young vampire of the White Court whose father wishes her to come of age and kill Irwin.  What’s really interesting is that Jim Butcher does a really good job of setting up Irwin and Connie’s relationship in a relatively short period of time.  It’s not entirely three dimensional, but compared to some other relationships he’s written, it’s amazing to see it come together throughout the story as they vow to stay together despite both of them technically being monsters.  There’s also this great tension between Irwin and Harry, all because River Shoulders still hasn’t had built up the courage to meet his son, something that is rectified by the end of this story. Connie’s father, Charles, is also great, having some history with Dresden as one of the vampires at the events of the climax in Blood Rites although this is a retcon, but not a bad one.  It immediately creates some history for Charles as a character and gives sufficient reason for him to dislike Harry and be willing to make things harder for him.  It makes the story work all the better and leaves things open for further appearances of Irwin in the series (one that I believe has happened but not been collected in an anthology like this).  9/10.

 

The next two stories are those from the perspective of Molly Carpenter with “Bombshells” and “Cold Case” set after Ghost Story and Cold Days, respectively.  “Bombshells” explores her psyche during the period where she isn’t quite certain if Harry Dresden is going to be alive again, while he is being healed by Mab.  Again, this is a novella and not a short story, and an incredibly necessary one, especially since Molly Carpenter as seen in Ghost Story was a broken one and getting into her psyche is brilliant.  For much of this she’s paired with Andi and Butters, with Butters she takes advantage of his hospitality while Andi attempts to get through to her as a human being to come back to her senses.  This is complicated when Molly and Andi have to work together to infiltrate a stronghold when a treaty of non-aggression is being signed and of course shenanigans happen.  The treaty isn’t actually signed because of the ladies and a lot of the story reads like the title “Bombshells” was thought of before the plot though that isn’t much of a detriment, it just feels like Butcher wanted to write about powerful women infiltrating and causing explosions.  It just goes on a bit too long as a novella and either would have worked better as a tighter short story or as an actual novel with a deeper plot, but those of these suggestions would cause the story to be irreparably changed.  7/10.

 

“Cold Case” fairs better by being tighter and hitting a better subgenre of fantasy, specifically Lovecraftian horror as Molly, under the mantle of the Winter Lady, has to travel to Alaska where one of the Old Ones is sleeping.  The Sleeper is essentially Cthulhu and “Cold Case” is Butcher’s tribute to At the Mountains of Madness, playing on an isolated setting with a very small cast, and cultists causing cosmic horror.  It also explores Molly coming to terms with the Winter Court as an organization, simply because she is trying to be Harry in her actions and can’t.  The story pairs her with Warden Carlos Ramirez, a relatively important supporting character, and ends with Molly injuring him accidentally since as the Winter Lady she must remain a maiden to complete that part of the maiden, mother, and crone trinity.  It’s made work by the sacrifices, all children, being taken to be part of the Winter Court’s war against the Outsiders, giving Molly a real taste of what she has become.  9/10.

 

Butcher espouses some weird views about the American justice system in “Jury Duty” where Harry has jury duty, is selected, and solves a year-old murder with the help of Will Borden.  The inclusion of Will is just so Harry has a way of tracking down physical supernatural evidence using his werewolf powers, but his inclusion is a nice one.  It adds a bit of optimism as Harry has extreme cynicism about the justice system.  Now, I cannot tell if Butcher is using this story where a man is innocent but all of the evidence points to him being guilty of the murder, to be as clever as he implies about how the slow nature of the court system doesn’t work and is interfered with by asking easy questions, or if it’s examining the implications of having a hidden magical world underneath the normal world causing issues for normal humans.  The later would work better for the story being told, especially since the trial ends in a mistrial due to the White Court being responsible for the murder and a witness being found, but unable to be called due to the supernatural threat.  The former just doesn’t feel very well thought out, or coming to the proper conclusions when presented with the problems of the justice system.  Butcher isn’t exploring the systemic racism embedded in the justice system which is very weird in a story like this.  7/10.

 

“Day One” is the story from the perspective of Waldo Butters on his first day to be trained as a Knight of the Cross and is the weakest of the stories in Brief Cases.  It’s not bad by any means, Butters is a great protagonist and his interactions with Michael Carpenter are great.  Harry being a mentor to Butters and having to stay on the sidelines while he undergoes this quest is great and Butcher does make a good job of doing his best.  There’s also a great examination of Butters’ ideals and the way he deals with the trauma of slaying monsters.  6/10.

 

The final story is the one completely new installment with “Zoo Day” which explores what happens when Harry takes Maggie and Mouse to the zoo.  It’s the story that deals with the fact that Harry is a father and wants to be in the life of his daughter.  There are three narrators to this story, Harry, Maggie, and Mouse, all three telling of what happens that day from their perspective which gives great insight to who they are.  Harry is obviously nervous but making an actual connection with his daughter, realizing how to be a good role model and to spend time with her despite being the Winter Knight and protector of Demonreach while helping a young warlock because it is the right thing to do.  Maggie is Butcher’s brilliant exploration of post traumatic stress disorder through the eyes of a child.  She has a panic attack and is constantly dealing with voices in her head, but is attempting to come to terms with them.  This story has her chase them away through manifestation of haunts.  Mouse’s perspective is of the best of boys, always there for his friends and family but has to confront his evil brother who doesn’t like the fact that Mouse is subservient to humans which is kind of hilarious and dark all at the same time.  Honestly this, like “Aftermath” in Side Jobs is the apex of the collection.  10/10.

 

Perhaps it is because it includes stories written well into The Dresden Files’ publication, even when it is set earlier, but Brief Cases manages to be the superior short story collection in almost every way though there are some weaker links, but the highs are higher and there are more of them.  8/10.