The Dresden Files/Death Masks

Book #5 of The Dresden Files.

Sometimes being Harry Dresden really sucks.

Not only does a vampire named Ortega wants to duel Harry in a challenge that he says will end the war between wizards and vampires, but Harry’s semi-vampire girlfriend Susan has showed up again, and now Harry has been hired by a priest to find the stolen Shroud of Turin.

Some days it just isn’t worth chewing through the restraints...

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Tropes associated with Death Masks:

• Big Entrance: After hearing a minor character state "There's nothing that anyone can do to hurt me anymore," Nicodemus blows down the wall, steps through with his two Mooks and shadow, and declares "No matter how many times I hear that, it's always a fresh challenge."
• Brick Joke: "Asteroid Dresden".
• Colony Drop: Committed by Ebenezar McCoy. You do not want to piss off Harry's mentor. Also qualifies as a Brick Joke.
• Combat by Champion: Harry ends up being the White Council's champion against the Red Court's champion, Ortega. Ortega cheats, Harry wins anyway, the war goes on.
• Convenient Terminal Illness: Shiro.
• Creepy Child: The Archive, or "Ivy" as Harry names her. The latest of a hereditary line of women whose daughters inherit perfect knowledge of everything that has been written down, in any form, anywhere...as well as all the accumulated memories of every other previous Archive. What makes her creepy is that all this was forced upon her prematurely; a new Archive usually takes on the position after puberty, but her mother was killed committed suicide before Ivy was old enough. Harry makes an effort to treat her like the little girl she is, and as a result she flipflops back-and-forth between being the Archive (and thus creepy) and a normal child, which even Kincaid believes is even creepier.
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: Nicodemus is not only insulted by the idea of telling Harry his plans and vulnerabilities when he has the wizard on the ropes, he also keeps Harry in a completely inescapable position and wants to kill him by simply cutting his throat after breakfast. It takes a Heroic Sacrifice by Shiro to save Harry.
• Demonic Possession: The Knights of the Blackened Denarius act as hosts for the Fallen.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Shiro sacrifices himself to save Harry's life. That Shiro was soon going to die of cancer gives it an interesting edge, but considering how horrible his death was...
• I Am Not Left-Handed: When the three Knights are fighting Ursiel, they hold back in an effort to try to get through to Rammussen and convince him to give up the coin and repent. When he refuses, Michael ends the fight immediately with a single stroke.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: In Harry's defense, the guy deserved it so much that even Michael did not object. Well, not much.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Harry does this to Cassius by beating him (breaking all of his limbs in the process) with a baseball bat.
  • He then gives him a quarter and tells him he can call for an ambulance from the payphone at the other end of a wide parking lot.

Michael: Harry payphones cost 50 cents.
Harry: I know.

• Kick Them While They Are Down
• Mystical Plague: In the Dresdenverse, the Black Death was originally created by Fallen Angels through magic. This book centered on Harry recovering a religious artifact before the Fallen could use it to create another plague.
• Not So Different: Ortega offers to turn Dresden into a vampire rather than kill him in a duel, claiming they are not so different. Dresden fishes until he establishes that Ortega preys on children and cites it as a difference.
  • At one point another villain, Nicodemus, actually says "We are not so very different, you and I..." to Harry. That said, Harry's response on how they aren't is pretty accurate.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Thomas, who acts like a drunken, unreliable playboy with no sense or restraint. In reality, he warns Susan and Martin about Ortega's attempt to force Harry into combat by champion and thus saves Harry's life, and even manages to bag a Red Court vampire in the ensuing chaos.
• Public Domain Artifact: So many. This book introduces the Denarians, who are humans given power or possessed by fallen angels residing in the thirty silver coins used to bribe Judas. One of them, Nicodemus Archleone, wears the noose with which Judas hung himself, which makes him effectively impervious to harm except from the noose itself. They're after the Shroud of Turin. Also featured heavily in this book are the Swords of the Cross, named so because they supposedly each have a nail from the cross in them. A later book reveals that Michael's sword, Amoracchius, is actually Excalibur. Ghost Story reveals that Fidelacchius and Esperacchius, introduced in this book, are Kusanagi and Durendal respectively.
• Ring Ring CRUNCH: An exhausted Harry is woken up by his Mickey Mouse alarm clock and nearly smacks it, but stops because he "wouldn't sleep in the same room with a person who would want to smack Mickey Mouse."
• Self-Destructing Security: The stolen Shroud of Turin is kept like this, with a remote to deactivate the security. In this case it's a precaution against the seller being subjected to You Have Outlived Your Usefulness after handing it over.
• Throw-Away Guns: Used deliberately by Kincaid. He loads a series of sawed-off shotguns with Dragon's Breath rounds -- rounds that generate a massive cone of extremely hot flame, but warp the barrels of the guns to the point where they can not be used again. Kincaid thus keeps several shotguns loaded with these on hand, and they prove extremely effective against Red Court vampires.
• You Said You Couldn't Dance: Harry sweeps Susan off her feet as a means to get away from some Mooks. She quotes this trope — it turns out Harry moonlighted early in his career as a dance partner for a senior citizen organization. He told her he could not do rock-and-roll-type dancing, but ballroom is another matter.

Harry: Tough to tango with someone with lumbago. It requires great skill.