When the dust settles, Harry finally has his hand on a copy of The Word of Kemmler. With help from a handful of Wardens, Butters, his half-brother Thomas Raith, and a zombiefied Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the now Warden Dresden puts a stop to the necromancers' plans. While the summoning goes as planned, the two cloaked figures manage to free the Erlking. Seeking to stop the ritual, Harry contacts the White Council and prepares to summon the Erlking himself, to prevent any of the necromancers from doing so. With Halloween fast approaching, Dresden learns that three different groups of necromancers are planning to try and use the two books in a ritual that will turn them into a minor god. This arrangement leads him closer and closer to accepting the demon's offer in subsequent books. Although he refuses to accept her offer of aid in exchange for his soul, she persists in his mind. After a few run-ins with her, she makes it clear that she is actually a shade of the demon Lasciel, implanted in his mind when he picked up Lasciel's coin to save Michael Carpenter's son in Death Masks. Searching for a copy of this book, he meets Shiela, a helpful clerk with a photographic memory. During the encounter he learns of another book: Die Lied der Erlking. Investigating further, he rescues the medical examiner Waldo Butters from Grevane, a powerful necromancer, at the local morgue. Dresden learns that Bob used to belong to Kemmler, the most powerful necromancer in a thousand years, and narrowly survives an encounter with an evil personality hidden within the spirit. Mavra, from the previous novel, orders Dresden to locate The Word of Kemmler for her within three days, or Karrin Murphy will be set up for the murder of one of Mavra's minions last year. It is three days before Halloween and nearly a year after the events in Blood Rites. Dead Beat is the 7th book in The Dresden Files, Jim Butcher's continuing series about wizard detective Harry Dresden.

Dead beat by jim butcher