Storm Front

Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only openly practicing professional wizard, is short on money when two cases arrive almost at once. A nervous woman calling herself Monica asks him to find her missing husband, while Lieutenant Karrin Murphy of Special Investigations summons him to the Madison Hotel. There Harry examines the bodies of Jennifer Stanton, an escort connected to Bianca’s Velvet Room, and Tommy Tomm, bodyguard to crime boss John Marcone. Their hearts have been ripped apart from a distance by thaumaturgy, a form of sympathetic magic using personal links. Harry realizes the killer is human, dangerously powerful, and likely known to the victims.

Marcone soon intercepts Harry and offers to pay him to stay out of the investigation. Harry refuses, and a soulgaze reveals Marcone as disciplined, ruthless, and burdened by hidden shame. Harry then meets Monica in person. She identifies her missing husband as Victor Sells, recently fired from SilverCo and increasingly obsessed with real magic. She gives Harry a retainer, a photo, a possible lake-house location, and a dried scorpion talisman that appears inactive.

Harry’s inquiries widen the case. At McAnally’s pub he encounters reporter Susan Rodriguez, who presses for details about the murders and secures a date with him. Harry then visits Victor’s lake house, where the faery Toot-toot reports a recent pizza delivery and sexual activity. Warden Donald Morgan of the White Council confronts Harry there, accusing him of bending magical law and later of the murders themselves. Because Harry is already under the Doom of Damocles for killing his former mentor in self-defense, he knows the Council may execute him unless he finds the real killer.

Preparing for danger, Harry brews an escape potion with Bob the Skull and, at Bob’s insistence, a love potion. He defies Murphy’s order and visits Bianca, who attacks when Jennifer is mentioned. Harry repels her with stored sunlight and his pentacle, then negotiates. Bianca denies responsibility and points him to Linda Randall, Jennifer’s former coworker. Linda admits Jennifer contacted her about Tommy’s birthday, but withholds more. A pizza driver separately tells Harry he saw an orgy at Victor’s lake house and a man photographing it, suggesting blackmail and a cover-up.

Harry deduces that the murders required enormous power, possibly drawn from storms. A ThreeEye user sees a spiritual scar on Harry, proving the drug may open true Sight and making the citywide drug problem much more dangerous. Harry tells Murphy that the killer is probably the ThreeEye supplier and that the murders were a message to Marcone. Their alliance strains as Harry withholds supernatural details to protect her and himself.

The danger turns direct during a storm, when Susan arrives for their date and a summoned toad-demon attacks Harry’s apartment. Harry and Susan retreat into a protective circle in his lab, but Susan mistakenly drinks the love potion instead of the escape potion. Harry bargains Bob into temporary freedom to fetch the correct potion, and he and Susan escape into the storm. A projected image of the hidden sorcerer appears and sends the demon after them. Harry destroys the projection and channels lightning through his staff to kill the demon. Morgan arrives afterward, sees only evidence of black magic, and announces that the Council will judge Harry.

Police then take Harry to Linda Randall’s apartment, where she has been killed by the same heart-ripping spell after calling 911 to say she knew the murderer. Murphy finds Harry’s blood-specked business card at the scene and, furious at his omissions, treats him as a suspect. Soon after, a limping thug steals a lock of Harry’s hair, giving the killer a lethal sympathetic link. Harry tracks the attacker to Marcone’s club, the Varsity. There he exposes the thug, Gimpy, as a traitor feeding information to Marcone’s rival. Hendricks kills Gimpy in the ensuing shootout, but Harry’s hair is already gone. Marcone acknowledges a common enemy but refuses open help.

In despair, Harry returns to Linda’s apartment and finds an undeveloped film canister matching one from Victor’s lake house. Donny Wise, the photographer, arrives searching for it. Harry learns Linda hired Donny to photograph the lake-house orgy for blackmail. Harry burns the film and realizes Monica deliberately steered him into the case. He confronts her at home, where a soulgaze reveals her abuse and fierce devotion to her children. Monica confesses that Victor is the killer. He discovered magic after losing his job, learned to amplify power through lust and fear, recruited Greg and Helen Beckitt by promising revenge on Marcone, manufactured ThreeEye, summoned demons, and killed Jennifer and Tommy when Jennifer threatened to expose him. Linda’s death followed when she came too close to the truth.

Harry plans to use Victor’s scorpion talisman as a link, but Murphy is searching his office with a warrant and triggers the trap. Harry arrives to find her poisoned and handcuffed to him as the talisman becomes a growing scorpion construct. He drags Murphy into the elevator, crushes the creature by blasting the elevator upward with wind, and shields them through the fall. Murphy is taken by EMTs, but Harry realizes Victor still has his hair and the storm is strengthening.

Harry slips free, borrows Mac’s car, and knocks Morgan unconscious when the Warden tries to stop him. At Victor’s lake house, Harry uses his Sight and sees the building saturated with dark power. Tempted to destroy everyone inside, he steadies himself with his mother’s pentacle and enters instead. He finds crates of ThreeEye and Victor using Harry’s hair in a ritual fueled by the Beckitts. Harry destroys the ritual music, breaks the circle with a film canister, and causes the gathered storm power to backlash. Victor attacks with fire and animates giant scorpions, while the Beckitts fire guns.

Cornered in the burning house, Harry animates a broom to sweep back the scorpions. Victor summons the toad-demon Kalshazzak, but Harry uses the demon’s name to break Victor’s control rather than bind it. Harry taunts Victor with Monica’s betrayal, uses Murphy’s handcuffs and a gust of wind to unbalance him, and Victor falls into the chaos below, where the demon and scorpions kill him. Morgan arrives as Harry dangles helplessly, but instead of executing him, he later resuscitates him. Morgan admits Harry stopped the Shadowman without breaking the Laws and must report the truth.

Afterward, the White Council lifts Harry’s Doom for valor. The Beckitts are arrested and tied to ThreeEye distribution, while evidence at the lake house posthumously exposes Victor as the mastermind. Monica and her children enter Witness Protection. Murphy survives, rescinds Harry’s warrant, and resumes a cautious professional relationship with him, though trust remains bruised. Susan publishes her demon story and agrees to another date. Harry, battered but cleared, recommits himself to defending Chicago from the darkness beneath its ordinary streets.