A Fistful of Warlocks
In the first story, Butcher explores a part of the Dresden world not previously touched on, the Old West. In this story, a young Anastasia Luccio enters Dodge City to track down a growing threat before it gets out of control. When Luccio learns that Wyatt Earp belongs to the Venatori Umbrorum and is more clued into the supernatural world than most lawmakers, the pair team up, which is good since the single warlock Luccio was tracking ends up joining forces with a large group, including a very powerful necromancer, a necromancer whose influence will eventually touch on Dresden's life during the main books.
B is for Bigfoot
This is the first of the stories that has Harry hired by Strength of a River in His Shoulder (or River Shoulders for short) to look after his half-human son, Irwin Pounder. Irwin attends a prestigious private school, and while he is a large kid (he is the son of a sasquatch, after all), he is also a gentle giant who fears his own strength. When Harry sees that he is bullied, and that the bullies aren't your average kids, he has to decide the best way to intervene while keeping his cover as a temporary school janitor.
AAAA Wizardry
Here, Dresden teaches some Wardens-in-training the tricks of the investigation trade. Given his history as a private investigator, Harry is the best man to explain to the batch of rookies how to blend standard gumshoe techniques with the spookier side of the world the Wardens have to deal with. This story is amusing because it flip-flops between Harry teaching the class where he goes over each of the Four A's of Investigation he has developed, and a case that shows how each of those A's came into play.
I Was a Teenage Bigfoot
This short story has Harry once again being contacted by River Shoulders, this time because Irwin has gotten sick, something that no one with even a single Bigfoot parent should have to deal with. River Shoulders insists that his race's magic is strong enough that if Irwin is sick, there is something powerful and supernatural afoot.
Harry makes his way to Irwin's new school, one that is even more prestigious than the kid's previous one, and finds the young Bigfoot in the hospital wing out cold. While Irwin's blood tests come back saying that he has mono, Harry starts to suspect that something is going on in the school that is weakening Irwin's aura to allow such a common disease to get a foothold on the kid.
Curses
Brief Cases's fifth story has Dresden investigating the Billy Goat Curse that was supposedly laid against the Chicago Cubs in 1945. Given the nature of curses and spells, Harry knows that the amount of energy needed to make such a spell last over 60 years is astronomical, so it must be something that is being refreshed on a regular basis, if it's even real, of course. Harry's investigation takes him from the stadium itself to visiting a particular breed of fae that he believes might have a connection to the curse. Will he be able to find out the true nature of the Billy Goat Curse and what will it take to break it?
Even Hand
This story puts the mob-boss Gentleman John Marcone as the central character when he receives unexpected visitors asking for asylum. Marcone has to weigh the cost and rewards of helping the pair that walked into the office over antagonizing the person they are running from. The decisions he makes in this story will not only affect Marcone's immediate story, but it will have repercussions seen in a later short story called Bombshells.
Bigfoot on Campus
In the last of the three Bigfoot-centric stories Butcher has written so far, Irwin is in college and he has a pretty young girl on his arm. Of course, River Shoulders feels something is amiss in his estranged son's life and once again calls on Harry to visit the boy and make sure everything is okay. When Harry pokes his nose in Irwin's life again, the young half-sasquatch explains that he knows who Dresden really is and he makes it obvious that he is aware of the supernatural world around him. What Irwin still doesn't realize though, is that he is a part of that world too, and what neither Irwin nor his girlfriend realize is that she isn't exactly a typical human either. Once again, Harry must walk a fine line to figure out how much information he can withhold because telling everybody everything could put them in more danger than they already find themselves.
Bombshells
This story follows Molly during the dark time when she is living on the streets being trained by Harry's faerie godmother, Leanansidhe. She is tasked with infiltrating a svartalf stronghold in order to find Thomas, who is being held within its walls. She will join forces with Justine, Thomas' human lover, and Andi, the werewolf, and each will have to play to their individual strengths in order to free Thomas and stop the machinations that are playing out in the stronghold.
Cold Case
Cold Case is another Molly-centric story, this time taking place just after she becomes the Winter Lady. Maeve sends her on her first mission, to collect a tribute from a tribe of Miksani in Unalaska, Alaska. It seems that the previous Winter Lady, Mab, had been quite remiss in many of her duties, one of which is not only collecting these tributes, but also helping to protect many of the peoples that were under the protection of the Winter Court. It seems that the Miksani have been living in fear for quite some time and there is another supernatural force at work in the fishing village. Molly ends up joining forces with Warden Ramirez who has found his own way to the cold town because of rumors about something going awry up north. In the end, Molly will start to learn how to control her new powers and also learn some dire consequences that come with being the Winter Lady.
Jury Duty
This story has Harry being summoned to court. Unlike most of his adventures, this isn't a court of the fae, but one of normal human justice. Dresden has been chosen to be one of the twelve jurors who are to determine the guilt of a man accused of murder. When Harry hears the story of what happened the night of the death, he notices that some of the pieces don't add up and there might be something more going on than just a robbery gone wrong. Harry becomes determined to get to the bottom of the events that happened a year before and discover if Hamilton Luther is guilty of murder or if something deeper happened and maybe the man on trial was stopping something worse from happening.
Day One
Set after Skin Game, Butters is now training to be a Knight of the Cross under the tutelage of Michael, and the medical examiner turned paladin has just gotten his first sign. Where Michael says that his signals from God come in the form of a moment of peace and a calm message directing him, Butters' apparently look like a floating icon over people as if they are an NPC in a game ready to give the player their next quest.
Butters approaches a sick homeless man and provides immediate medical aid, but when he follows the person back to the hospital, he starts to realize that something much darker is going on in the halls. Can Butters handle the evil alone or could he be presented with a danger bigger than he has been trained for?
Zoo Day
This is an all new story written for Brief Cases. In it, Harry, his 10 year old daughter, Maggie and Harry's temple dog, Mouse, have their first family outing. I really enjoyed this story as it shows the events of the day from all three of the characters' perspectives and it is a delight to not only see the world from the young, troubled Maggie's perspective, but also Mouse's. Each has their own troubles to deal with, and none quite realize how much they rely on each other to get through the day.
Most of these stories have been released in other anthologies that Butcher has participated in over the years. For example, Cold Case was in a collection called Shadowed Souls that we reviewed a few months back. That said, there is a good chance that even avid Dresden Files fans haven't sought out and purchased all of those other books just to get at one of these adventures, so it is always nice when an author of a long-lasting series that puts out a lot of short stories like this collects them in a book that fans can grab and dive into. Brief Cases, like Side Jobs before it, is just such a welcome addition to a fan's library.
