You would think Harry's life is difficult enough. He has a white vampire (one who feeds of emotion) for a brother, his ex-girlfriend had to leave town when she was bitten by a red vampire, he has a Fallen Angel trying to talk him into turning to the dark side, and he is the only practicing wizard detective in Chicago. Well, that all gets worse when he gets a late nght call from Molly, the teenaged daughter of his good friend and righteous warrior for God, asking for help. She is at the police station, and she needs to be bailed out .... and he can't tell her parents.

Harry is not comfortable with keeping the parents out of the situation, but he does go down to help Molly only to learn that it is really her friend Nelso who needs help. He has been arrested in connection to an attack on a movie theater owner who was cruely and horribly beaten in the theater's men's room. Nelson insists that he didn't do it, and his connection to Molly makes Dresden want to help.

It turns out the two kids are working on a horror convention that is taking place next to the theater. It does not take long for Harry to realize that Nelson was telling the truth when more victims start turning up. It seems that phobophages, creatues that feed on fear, are at the root of the problem. They are taking on the forms of a number of familiar horror movie villains in order to murder and spread fear.

The problem is that there is more to the case than Harry realizes. The more he digs into the fact, he realizes the consequences and those involved are so much more different than he ever could have predicted. It will affect not only those at the convention, but those he holds dear and may even sway how the war between the wizards' White Council and vampires' Red Court.

As usual, Harry Dresden spares no sarcastic wit and keeps the reader chuckling even as he faces horrible monsters and certain death. A number of recurring characters from police detective Karrin Murphy to various members of the faerie courts pop up to help move the story along. While the plot is very well developed, I did not feel at all confused about what was going on. I was REALLY surprised about what was at the core of the mystery, but the book left me anticipating the next volume in the series.