Small Favor, the tenth installment of the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, deals primarily with the faerie side of things. Harry Dresden is called upon to return a favor owed to Mab, the Winter Queen, while the forces of the Summer Queen try to prevent him from accomplishing his mission. Along the way, Harry has to deal with multiple Denarians, an escalating procession of Billy Goat Gruffs, and other faerie creatures. On Harry's side is a good number of returning and recurring characters including The Knights of the Cross, Kincaid, The Archive, Toot Toot, his half brother Thomas, Bob, Murphy, and his apprentice Molly. Throw Johnny Marcone and some gangsters into the mix and Jim Butcher provides another fun and exciting adventure in his long-running series.

As you would expect in a Dresden Files novel, once things start happening it goes pretty much non-stop until you reach the end of the book. While putting his apprentice Molly through a shield practice session (having her younger siblings throw snowballs at her), Harry and the kids are attacked by faerie equivalants to the Billy Goat Gruffs, getting his nose broken during the fight. He soon learns that the Summer Court has him on a hit list now because he is being recruited by the Winter Queen, Mab, to find and recover gangster Johnny Marcone, who has been kidnapped by powerful forces. As Harry works to uncover what's really going on, he learns of a plot by Nicodemus, one of the most powerful of the Denarians, to recruit another big player into their cause in addition to continuing to try to turn Harry into one of them. By the time Harry realizes his true plan, it may be too late. In terms of the bigger story arcs that have been surfacing in the series, there's not much moving forward on the ongoing White Council versus the vampire Red Court activities. Harry does get a bit more knowledge in regards to the secretive Black Council that has been behind some of the happenings going on and Harry may have found an unlikely ally in trying to learn more about the Black Court.

Butcher has a couple of big set pieces, one set in the Shedd Aquarium and another set in a remote island in the middle of Lake Michigan, both of which are major skirmishes between the forces of good and evil. Other events and encounters that lead up to those bigger events are well-plotted and make sense in within the Dresden universe. Even though things get serious at times, Butcher keeps a light touch with occasional bits of humor and inventive courses of action on the part of Harry. His use of his cat, Mister, and some catnip in a sock to sidetrack the Summer Court's attempts to track him is a good example.

Readers who have come into the series via the recent televsion series may find the much expanded cast of characters a bit daunting, but as he has done throughout the series, Butcher provides enough background on the characters and situations so that a new reader won't be lost. If you are a fan of the novels you won't be disappointed with the latest installment and will be ready to start anticipating the next one a year from now. - Lee Whiteside