Rosemary and Rue

Rosemary and rue / Seanan McGuire

Rosemary and Rue is the first book in the October Daye series. As a series, it’s more than a little bit similar to the Dresden files, combining fantasy and detective fiction, but I honestly prefer McGuire’s series.

Brief plot summary

October “Toby” Daye is a changeling private detective, half human and half sidhe. Forced to investigate the murder of a powerful figure in the faerie courts by the victim’s dying curse, Daye’s investigation will take her from San Francisco to the faerie realms and back, bringing her into conflict with more than one important figure from her past.

I realize this summary sounds terrible and melodramatic, that’s my fault, not this book’s.

Storm front

Storm front / Jim Butcher. Originally published 2000.

Storm front is the first novel in the Dresden files series. It’s an interesting book and an interesting series, if only because the first novel was an attempt at writing an intentionally bad, formulaic genre novel. The fact that the series went on to be wildly successful, spawning a TV series and a graphic novel adaptation probably says something both about

Brief plot summary

(spoiler-free)

Storm front inaugurates the adventures of Harry Dresden, down-on-his-luck free-lance wizard living in modern-day Chicago. Hired by a mysterious woman to find her husband, Dresden finds himself the prime suspect in a supernaturally-tinged double murder. Crossing paths with demons, fairies, the Chicago Police, the magic-regulating White Council, and the Chicago Outfit, Dresden must use all of his wits and magic to survive.