Storm Front recap

Harry Dresden, the only wizard in Chicago's phone book, is hired from two directions at once: his police-consultant work brings him a double murder committed by heart-ripping black magic, and a worried wife hires him to find her missing husband, Victor. Because only forbidden magic could have killed that way, Warden Morgan of the White Council threatens Harry with execution if another such death occurs and treats him as the suspect. Investigating, Harry ties the murders to a new drug that grants the Sight and to the vampire Bianca, clashes with crime lord Johnny Marcone, and discovers that the missing husband, Victor Sells, has become a dark sorcerer killing at a distance with storm-powered rituals. Victor turns demons and conjurations on Harry. In a final confrontation at Victor's lake house during a storm, Harry, aided by the reporter Susan Rodriguez, destroys Victor and his ritual, clears himself with the Council, and keeps Murphy's uneasy trust.

Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, takes on two problems at once. Karrin Murphy of the police department's Special Investigations unit brings him to a grisly double murder: a mob bodyguard and a call girl killed in bed by magic that tore the hearts from their chests, a spell of terrible power and skill. That same morning a nervous woman named Monica hires Harry to find her missing husband, Victor. Harry recognizes that only forbidden black magic could have committed the killings, which puts him in immediate danger from his own kind: the White Council forbids using magic to kill, and Harry already lives under a suspended death sentence for a killing in his past. He begins pulling at both cases, not yet aware that they are the same case.

Warden Morgan of the White Council shadows Harry, promising to see him executed the instant another magical death occurs and treating Harry himself as the prime suspect. Harry's inquiries link the murders to a new street drug that grants a brief flash of magical Sight, and to the world of the vampire courts: he confronts Bianca, a Red Court vampire who runs a brothel and employed the dead woman, and the meeting ends in mutual injury and lasting enmity. Meanwhile the missing husband, Victor Sells, proves far harder to find than a runaway should be. Harry's digging draws the attention of Gentleman Johnny Marcone, Chicago's crime lord, whose own man was one of the victims; Marcone tries to buy Harry off the case, then to warn him away, and is refused.

The killer strikes again, and the spell is turned on Harry himself; only luck and quick warding save him, and Morgan's threat becomes immediate. Harry realizes the murders, the drug, and the missing man all trace back to Victor Sells, who has become a self-taught dark sorcerer working from a lake house outside the city and killing with a storm-fueled ritual that rips out hearts at a distance. Victor sends a demon and other conjured horrors after Harry to stop the investigation. Battered, hunted by his own Council, and distrusted by Murphy after he is caught withholding information, Harry races to reach Victor before the next storm gives the sorcerer the power to kill again - and before the next heart torn out is his own.

Harry and Susan drive out to the lake house as a storm gathers, where Victor is preparing a mass ritual. Susan, having secretly taken the Sight-granting drug, is overwhelmed and endangered, and Harry faces Victor amid conjured scorpions and demons with almost nothing left. Turning Victor's own storm-drawn power against him, Harry destroys the sorcerer and his ritual, ending the killings. Murphy, arriving to find the aftermath, arrests Harry briefly but comes to accept he was on her side, and their working partnership survives. The Council's death sentence is lifted for now. Harry is left exhausted, cleared, and more entangled than ever in the hidden world, having made a lasting enemy of Bianca and drawn the lasting interest of Marcone.

Victor Sells is dead, killed by his own storm-drawn power when Harry turned the ritual back on him, and the heart-ripping murders stop. Susan Rodriguez, who had secretly taken the Sight-granting drug to follow the story, survives the ordeal, and her relationship with Harry deepens even as the danger of his world becomes undeniable to her. Murphy, after briefly arresting Harry when she found him at the scene, accepts that he was working to stop the killer, and the partnership between Special Investigations and Chicago's wizard holds. The White Council lifts its immediate threat, though Warden Morgan remains convinced Harry is dangerous and keeps watching. Harry also leaves two lasting marks on his future: the vampire Bianca now hates him and will nurse the grudge, and the crime lord Gentleman Johnny Marcone has taken his measure and filed him away as a man worth watching. Broke and battered as ever, Harry returns to his small practice, his cat, and Bob the skull, a little more established as the city's reluctant supernatural defender.