Ghost Story

Ghost Story is the thirteenth novel in the The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

Release notes
Ghost Story was originally scheduled for release in late March, but was postponed for three months to ensure that it was "full-assed". It was released on July 26, 2011.

Penguin released the first chapter of Ghost Story in March 2011.

Jim Butcher finished writing Ghost Story on April 4, 2011.

It was going to be titled Dead , but the name was shot down by publishers.

Blurb
Meet Harry Dresden, Chicago’s first (and only) Wizard PI. Turns out the ‘everyday’ world is full of strange and magical things - and most of them don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. But he’s forgotten his own golden rule: magic - it can get a guy killed. Which didn’t help when he clashed with unknown assailants with his murder in mind. And though Harry’s continued existence is now in some doubt, this doesn’t mean he can rest in peace.

Trapped in a realm that’s not quite here, yet not quite anywhere else, Harry learns that three of his loved ones are in danger. Only by discovering his assailant’s identity can he save his friends, bring criminal elements to justice, and move on himself. It would just be easier if he knew who was at risk. And had a (working) crystal ball. And access to magic. Instead, he is unable to interact with the physical world - invisible to all but a select magical few. He’s also not the only silent presence roaming Chicago’s alleys. Hell, he put some there himself. Now, they’re looking for payback.

Plot
Ghost Story picks up exactly where Changes ends. Harry is waxing philosophical about how precious life is, and how easy it is for life to end, while a "Southbound Train" is speeding towards him. He is saved by Carmichael, who takes him to a precinct and hands him off to his boss, Jack.

Jack tells Harry that where they are isn't really the afterlife, per se. They are Between; something similar to Purgatory. It is revealed that Harry was killed by certain forces for getting in their way. "The opposition" cheated, and Harry can't go onto whatever is next until the matter is cleared up. He informs Harry that he must go back to Chicago and solve his own murder as a ghost, without any real access to his powers or to his allies, otherwise three people he cares about would be harmed. If he fails, he will be forever stuck on earth as a ghost.

As Harry is leaving, Captain Jack is than revealed to be Collin J. "Jack" Murphy, late father to Karrin Murphy and the former head of Black Cat Investigations Department at the CPD.

Harry is dropped off at Mortimer Lindquist's house. There Harry encounters the late Captain Sir Stuart Winchester of the Colonial Marines. Sir Stuart eventually leads Harry inside to see Morty, who refuses to help him, slamming a door painted with ghost dust in his face.

The house comes under attack from scores of Wraiths and six Lemurs, being led by the spirit of a former wizard. Sir Stuart and the house's other ghosts take up defensive positions. A battle breaks out. During the fight, the wizard-ghost—the Grey Ghost—is helped by a spirit shaped like a skull, which Harry thinks looks like Bob. They eventually scare the wraiths, lemurs, and ghost away.

Reluctantly, Mort agrees to help Harry, and travels to Murphy’s home. Harry and Sir Stuart observe a meeting of the Chicago Alliance. After being put through a battery of tests, Murphy explains that after Harry destroyed the entire Red Court, the power vacuum it left allowed a group called the Fomor to rise to power. Molly, now a powerful illusionist and extremely disturbed, arrives and finally confirms Harry’s identity, breaking down in tears. Murphy’s house is then attacked, and Mort flees home.

Harry follows the attackers and finds they’re a group of teenagers who live in fear and under the protection of a practitioner named Aristedes, who protects them from the creatures in Chicago that have flocked to the city in Harry’s absence. Harry contacts one of them who’s sensitive to spirits, a youth named Fitz, and convinces him to meet Harry later. Harry rushes to his grave at Graceland Cemetery to hide from the sun. There he meets the spirits: Inez and Eternal Silence.

Harry returns to Mort to find his home destroyed and Mort abducted. Stuart passes on the last of his memories to Dresden to use as a weapon and becomes a half-mindless Ghost like the other spirits guarding Mort’s home.

Harry tracks down Molly and finds that she operates under the pseudonym the Ragged Lady and is now under the tutelage of the Leanansidhe, who uses brutal training methods to teach. Molly is now an adept spellcaster and Harry watches as she drives off a group of Fomor lackeys, called Turtlenecks, although he intervenes to aid his former apprentice.

Enlisting Fitz’s aid, Harry tracks down Mortimer at the Big Hoods hideout, and sends him to Father Forthill. Harry finds Mortimer's being tortured by the Grey Ghost (Corpsetaker), with Evil Bob and the Big Hoods’s help, to force his permission to take his body.

At his grave, Harry exchanges the story of his duel with Justin DuMorne and He Who Walks Behind with Lea, in exchange for the answer to 3 questions, learning he was murdered by a male he is acquainted with.

Butters and Fitz find Harry in his grave telling him that Father Forthill, who elected to help the teenagers in Aristedes' thrall, goes to reason with the practitioner and is captured. They transport Harry in Bob's Skull where Harry has a long talk with Bob. They consider the possibility that He Who Walks Behind was Justin DuMorne's mentor.

Daniel Carpenter and Butters try to rescue him and nearly succeed but are overpowered. Harry convinces Fitz to confront Aristedes, and wrests control of the group from him, calling for aid for Forthill, Daniel and Butters.

Harry enlists the Alphas, Murphy, Butters, and Molly to assault Corpsetaker's hideout, along with the army of spirits from Mort’s home. Harry storms the hideout through the Nevernever, confronting Evil Bob, who overpowers Harry and nearly destroys him before being caught and held by Bob. Harry breaks into the hideout and confronts Corpsetaker, driving her away. However, while pursuing her he discovers Corpsetaker had taken Mort in order to have him summon the homicidal spirits—the Lecter Specters —from his home to her hideout. Seeing the army of spirits Harry summoned, Mort is dismayed. A fight breaks out. The Corpsetaker consumes the spirits, greatly increasing her power. Harry manifests and saves Morty from Boz.

With Harry's friends in a sleep spell, the Corpsetaker entered Butters which leads to Molly assaulting the spirit and casting her own spell which lets the Corpsetaker enter her. Dresden acts quickly grabbing the Corpsetakers ankle and enters Molly as well, leaving Butters's physical body lying on the ground and his Shade standing in disbelief and utter shock. Inside Molly’s mind, Molly uses a memory to aid in her defense after being gradually overpowered, spawning a memory from when Harry had a broken back lying in the Church, she confronts Harry with her feelings for him, as she will get to watch her entire family die of old age, and Harry is the only one whom she can feasibly love.

The memory assaults Harry. During Changes, realizing he must become the Winter Knight to save his daughter, and that Mab would then turn him into a monster, Harry contacted Kincaid and asked him to kill Dresden after the assault in South America, and then had Molly remove the memory. Realizing he ordered his own murder, Uriel appears, congratulating Harry and explaining that, in a moment of despair, a fallen angel whispered into Dresden's ear. His direct influence allowed Uriel to take active action as well, allowing Harry to return, although he is shocked to learn Captain Murphy lied to Dresden about his loved ones coming to harm. Uriel offers Dresden a choice to work for him or move on to What Comes Next. Dresden asks to see how his loved ones fare, to make an informed choice.

Mort, taking control of the Wraith swarm in Corpsetaker’s lair in her absence, comes upon Molly, who holds Corpsetaker in place, and the tortured souls Corpsetaker once held in thrall devour her spirit ending the battle. Mort not being able to find Harry standing around the aftermath finds Murphy who is crushed by confirmation of his death, but Mort surprises Harry by being genuinely comforting and wishing he had been bright enough to have known this side of Mort while he was alive, giving Murphy one last look, turns and walks to Uriel and asks to see his brother. Thomas Raith, who Harry had not thought of since becoming a Ghost, realizes how he couldn't have thought of Thomas without remembering the truth and shame of his own murder. Destroyed and bitter over Harry’s death, is elated when he realizes Justine has devised a method by which she and Thomas can be intimate once more. Before asking Uriel to show his next loved one, Uriel understands and takes Harry to see his daughter Maggie, who has been adopted by the Carpenters, with the protection of Mouse, whom Harry embraces one last time. Happy that Michael and his family home is under the protection of a squad of angels, realizes those he loves are safe as they can be, Harry elects to move on.

He then awakens on Demonreach, under the care of Queen Mab, who saved Harry the moment he fell into the darkness of the lake, her own domain, and the island, which kept him alive. Distrusting of Harry, Mab informs Harry that she knew he would have tried to create a plan to end the contract of becoming the Winter Knight, and that it had backfired. Annoyed at Uriel's influence, she tells Harry to prepare himself for her to turn him into her creature, and Uriel uses this opportunity to tell Harry only he can choose who he is, and Mab cannot. Harry tells Mab he won’t be her creature, enraging her, but tells her he will be her devoted Knight, the greatest she has ever had, but that he shall do it his way, else Mab can turn him into another mindless, and worthless thug. Mab, still enraged but also ecstatic, tells Harry to prepare himself, and pulls them into the Winter Court.

Plot points introduced

 * The fact that ghosts can use memories as weapons.
 * "The parasite"
 * The Fomor - though they are referenced before, in the shortstory Aftermath.
 * Harry's former home has been converted into a castle-like building, the headquarters for Murphy's "Justice League" of Chicago, built with money from Marcone and staffed by Harry's allies.
 * Harry realizes he does not have to end up like his predecessor and can remain his own man despite being beholden to Mab.

Book References:

 * Ghost Story at jim-butcher.com
 * Ghost Story article on Wikipedia
 * The Dresden Files Reread: Book 13, Ghost Story Pt. 1 | Tor.com
 * The Dresden Files Reread: Book 13, Ghost Story Pt. 2 | Tor.com
 * Things to Do in Chicago When You’re Dead. Ghost Story by Jim Butcher | Tor.com ~ Summary

Story Mentions:
D-Day, Landing at Normandy, WWII
 * Chicago Loop - Wikipedia
 * ‎www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/doit/general/GIS/Chicago_Maps/Community_Areas/CA_LOOP.pdf
 * South Side, Chicago - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 * South Side - Encyclopedia of Chicago
 * Graceland Cemetery - pictures at Graveyards.com
 * Graceland Cemetery - Wikipedia
 * Graceland Cemetery, Chicago IL
 * Gracelandghosts
 * Surviving D-Day : Military Channel
 * Surviving D-Day: Omaha Beach 1944 (720P) - YouTube
 * D-Day - June 6, 1944 - the United States Army
 * Saving Private Ryan #1 Movie CLIP - See You On The Beach (1998) HD - YouTube
 * D-Day 6.6.44 Part 1/5 - YouTube
 * WW II D-DAY 3 of 3 JUNE 6,1944 RARE COLOR FILM - YouTube
 * D-Day — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts
 * American Experience . D-Day | PBS
 * Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Normandy 1944
 * Before and After D-Day: Color Photos From England and France, 1944 | LIFE.com
 * Home - National D-Day Memorial