In this book,  Jim Butcher split up vampires into groups similar to how he grouped werewolves in Fool Moon. There are three different types: Red Court which are traditional vampires but drug their victims and feast on them at parties, Black Court  which are monsters with little resemblance to humans, and White Court  which feed off emotions instead of flesh.

Given the title, I expected the major focus to be on ghosts. There are a few notable ghostly references. Dresden’s first encounter is with an incredibly strong ghost which leads Dresden and his friend Michael, a Christian knight, into the realm of Nevernever. A ghost of a sorcerer is bent on revenge against all those responsible for his imprisonment, topping the list is Dresden, Michael,  Lt. Murphy, and another officer, Malone. The third major ghost appearance is the manner in which Dresden gets out of his predicament, so I can’t describe it here.

Too much of the book is, however, taken up with Bianca’s (the leader of the Red Court) grievance with Dresden. I’m not crazy about vampires at all, so I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Fool Moon. But there is some important back story for the series in the book. Michael appears out of nowhere and is obviously an important character – interesting, too. Susan’s story is intermingled with the vampires. Dresden has a faerie godmother who shows up in the book, and there is a huge conflict with her.

Another thing that to me wasn’t as good is that there was too much reliance on blasting power instead of thought or planning. I know many people like the powerful show, and it works well in movies, but not so much in books. How much hell can a guy go through and still keep fighting; that seemed unrealistic to me.

So I did like parts of the book, and I still like Dresden. Bob, by the way, was pretty funny in this one. But overall, I doubt it is the best in the series. My sons assure me that it gets better as you keep reading.