Grave Peril recap

Working alongside Michael Carpenter, a Knight of the Cross who wields a holy sword, Harry Dresden confronts a wave of ghosts driven violent across Chicago while dodging his faerie godmother, the Leanansidhe, who has come to claim an old debt. The disturbances are the work of the Nightmare, a dream-stalking spirit that proves to be the risen ghost of a sorcerer Harry helped destroy - and it has been set loose deliberately, striking at everyone Harry loves. Behind it all is his old enemy, the Red Court vampire Bianca, now risen in power and staging a grand masquerade as an elaborate revenge. Bianca captures Harry's girlfriend Susan to lure him in; at the ball Susan is bitten and cursed into a half-vampire state, and Harry, enraged, destroys Bianca and her court - an act that ignites open war between the White Council and the Red Court. Harry kills the Nightmare and saves the Carpenters' baby, but Susan, unable to trust herself, leaves him, and he is left blamed for a war.

Previously: Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard and a police consultant, has survived a rogue heart-ripping sorcerer and a tangle of warring werewolves. Along the way he rebuilt his uneasy partnership with Detective Karrin Murphy, gained loyal allies in Billy and the shapeshifting college pack called the Alphas, and stayed under the wary watch of the White Council of wizards. From his first case he carries a dangerous enemy: the Red Court vampire Bianca, whom he humiliated and who has been quietly climbing in power ever since. He is dating Susan Rodriguez, a fearless reporter who chases the supernatural stories he will not give her.

A year on from the werewolf killings, Harry has taken up an unlikely partner: Michael Carpenter, a Knight of the Cross who wields a holy sword against the darkness. Across Chicago the barrier between the living world and the spirit realm has grown thin, and ghosts are rising in torment and turning violent. Harry and Michael hunt these disturbances down one by one, but it becomes clear that something is deliberately stirring the dead into a frenzy. Meanwhile Harry is stalked by his own faerie godmother, the Leanansidhe, who has come to collect an old debt and carry him into Faerie, and he must dodge her elegant traps while the spirit crisis worsens.

The force behind the rising dead reveals itself as the Nightmare, a spirit that hunts people through their dreams, draining and torturing them and growing stronger with every victim. It targets those closest to Harry - striking at Michael's pregnant wife Charity and their unborn child, and at others in his circle - to wound him through the people he loves. Harry realizes the Nightmare is the risen ghost of Kravos, a sorcerer he and Michael had destroyed, and that someone freed and unleashed it on purpose. As he races to protect his friends and unmask whoever is directing the spirit, an engraved invitation arrives: the Red Court vampire Bianca, his old enemy, is hosting a grand masquerade ball.

The threads converge on Bianca. Recovered from the humiliation of their first encounter and risen high among the Red Court, she has orchestrated the whole crisis as an intricate revenge, and her ball is the trap at its heart. She seizes Susan to force Harry to attend. Bound by the customs of such a gathering and desperate to save Susan, Harry and Michael walk into a hall full of monsters: Red Court nobles, the ancient Black Court sorceress Mavra, and other horrors. There Harry gains one unexpected ally in Thomas Raith, a White Court vampire who takes his side for reasons of his own, while the ball tightens around them as a carefully sprung snare.

The masquerade turns to violence. The vampires spring their trap, and Susan is bitten and infected with the Red Court's curse - left half-turned, forced from then on to fight an endless thirst. Enraged past reason, Harry breaks the guest-truce and destroys Bianca and much of her court in a storm of fire, but the act carries a terrible price: it is a declaration of open war between the wizards' White Council and the Red Court, a war the Council will blame on him. With Thomas and Michael's help, Harry and the survivors escape the ruin of the ball.

Harry hunts down and destroys the Nightmare, the ghost of Kravos, ending the torment of the city's dead, and he and Michael save Charity and her newborn son. But the greater damage is done. Susan, now cursed and struggling to keep from fully becoming a vampire, cannot stay near the people she might harm and leaves Chicago and Harry behind. Harry's slaughter at Bianca's ball has dragged the entire White Council into a war with the Red Court that will hang over him for years. He ends the book victorious over the immediate threat but stripped of the woman he loves, blamed for a war, and bound more tightly than ever to Michael Carpenter, who has become his truest ally.

Harry destroys the Nightmare - the ghost of the sorcerer Kravos - ending the plague of tormented spirits, and with Michael he saves Charity Carpenter and her newborn son. But the cost of the case is enormous. At Bianca's masquerade, Susan Rodriguez was bitten and infected with the Red Court's curse; caught between human and vampire and terrified of what she might do to the people around her, she leaves Chicago, and Harry, behind. Harry's furious massacre of Bianca and her court, in violation of the guest-truce, has dragged the entire White Council into open war with the Red Court - a war they hold him responsible for starting, and one that will shadow him for years. Thomas Raith, the White Court vampire who unexpectedly helped him, slips away with his secrets and his unexplained interest in Harry intact. Michael Carpenter is now Harry's closest and most trusted ally. Harry ends victorious over the immediate evil but heartbroken, isolated by loss, and freshly burdened with a war he never meant to start and a Council that trusts him even less than before.