Recommended reading: The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

When we first meet him, our hero Harry Dresden is a down-at-heel, gumshoe wizard-for-hire, living in a basement apartment in one of the less reputable areas of Chicago, taking whatever cases - mostly missing persons, or missing felines - come his way, and helping out Karrin Murphy of the Chicago PD with any cases that go so far beyond the norm that even the cops get desperate enough to call him in.

As well as trying to make ends meet, he spends a lot of his time trying to keep out of the bad books of the White Council - they're the secret society of wizards in charge of regulating the use of magic and generally keeping the bad guys under control - just in case he puts so much as a toe out of line and their enforcer, Morgan, finally gets to have his way and carry out the suspended death sentence that's been hanging over Harry since his former mentor tried to eat Harry's mind, and Harry had to get rough and kill him. See? back-story a-plenty, and we're only a couple of chapters in...

Anyhow, I have to say that so far I'm thoroughly enjoying this series. The characterisation is fantastic, the supporting cast is varied and colourful, and Jim Butcher's milieu is extremely well thought-out; it's both solidly consistent and highly intriguing. A multitude of supernatural beasties come pouring out of the woodwork at every turn, and Harry - although he's potentially one of the most powerful wizards to have lived, if certain tantalising hints are to be believed - is young and still relatively inexperienced, so he's not immune to getting his arse kicked in the line of duty.

In fact, that's one trick that Butcher manages to pull off quite neatly; he's very good at instilling a palpable sense of risk in Harry's encounters with his various and numerous foes. Admittedly, as the hero of an ongoing series, there's a good chance that Dresden's not going to get wind up slaughtered halfway through the book, but there's still every chance that something bad will happen to those that Harry works with, cares about and loves...

I'm very glad I started reading this particular series before the Sci-Fi Channel announced they were making a TV series based on them. I much prefer to experience books first, adaptation afterwards, rather than the other way around, and I'm not sure - judging by the trailer - that the producers have got the casting exactly right; Paul Blackthorne looks the part as Dresden, but I'm not sure that Valerie Cruz will make a convincing Karrin Murphy... we'll see when the series finally makes it to the UK.

If you're a fan of supernatural detective / mystery series in general, then this is one of the better ones I've come across. Here are the Amazon links for the first seven volumes, UK editions:

Let me know what you think when you've read the first book or two, yeah?