Summary

Chapter 1. Harry Dresden has not been receiving work assignments from the police department for nearly a month, so his monthly budget has become very tight. For this reason, he jumps at the chance to have a steak dinner when Kim Delaney, a friend and sometime apprentice, offers to buy him one in exchange for some information. However, he begins to think twice about the offer when Kim shows him a drawing of a magical circle that is designed to hold in a powerful force from the Nevernever, the place where magical creatures originate. Dresden only tells Kim what it is, but refuses to tell her how to create it. Kim becomes angry and storms out of the bar. As she leaves, Karrin Murphy, Dresden’s friend and occasional employer at the police department, comes in. Murphy tells Dresden there has been a murder...