Turn Coat by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden hasn't been having a very good day when he hears a knock at his door and Morgan nearly falls in. Morgan, the Wizard who has been persecuting Harry for taking out his Wizardly mentor, Justin Morne, when Morne was about to kill him and Harry's fellow student and girlfriend.

Despite what Morne was, Harry broke one of the Wizardly Laws of Magic to kill his mentor, and that had the Wizards of the White Council afraid. Well, not all of them, and a Wizard named Ebenezer McCoy took Harry in and mentored him during his last years of training. But Harry became a Wizard none of the Council really trusted. And Morgan, one of the Guardians, wizards who fight on behalf of the Council, never let Harry rest, believing that he shouldn't be allowed to live.

Now, Morgan has come to Harry for help, and he did it because Harry is the last person his pursuers would think of as someone who would shelter and aid him. But Harry does just that. He takes in the badly injured Morgan, and goes out of his way to get him medical attention and medicines. But Morgan isn't wanted by some supernatural foe of the Council, he's wanted by the Council himself for killing one of their own, the senior Council member LaFortier. And the Guardians are the ones chasing him.

Harry has long known that there is a spy somewhere in the Headquarters of the White Council. The Vampires have learned too quickly and too well of the decisions and information that should only be known among the Council, and by the level of the information, it has to be someone close to the Council. But who?

Harry sets out to investigate, but along the way, he's attacked by a Skinwalker, a type of spirit well-known to the Navajo who can change forms and is almost immortal. And worse, this one doesn't appear to be a former human, but one of the truly ancient Naalgoshii, who were once messengers between earth and heaven before being corrupted.

Harry calls on the assistance of his friends the Werewolves to aid him in taking on the Skinwalker, but it is too powerful for all of them, and one of the Werewolves is killed and another badly injured, for which Harry knows he is to blame. But who could have called up a skinwalker and set it on him?

Looking for answers, Harry travels to Edinburgh and the Headquarters of the White Council. On the way, he is ambushed by creatures of the Nevernever, and although he takes care of the problem easily enough, it only fills him with more questions. Who is responsible for the killing? Who is the spy? Does either one have anything to do with the existence of the Black Council that Harry and others suspect exists within the framework of the White Council and in the members of those governed by it?

One thing is for sure: this is a battle Harry isn't going to be able to fight by himself. But can he win free of the trap someone is constructing around Morgan, and what sacrifices will he have to make to do it? And what cost is Harry going to have to pay, in friends and in allies, to set things right? How long can he continually bear the cost?

Whoo. This book starts out fairly dark in tone, and just goes darker and darker from there. Despite all Harry and his allies can do, bad stuff happens and keeps happening. And worse for Harry, there aren't many on his own side that he can trust. Even Ebenezer McCoy, Harry's old mentor, may be compromised. So Harry is forced to keep secrets... which will cause people to suspect him even more.

And the council isn't really all that interested in finding the real killer. As long as they have someone to hang the blame on, they'll be happy... even if it means the real killer is still out there. They are so invested in looking powerful and all-mighty that truth is quickly becoming one of the casualties. So Harry is going to have to force their noses into the truth for them to really see it. The question is, will even the truth force them to give up lies of convenience? None of them like Harry anyway, but will his insistence on the real, messy truth make them hate him?

In my opinion, the White Council is looking more and more like a Wizardly analogue of the George W. Bush administration. They don't want to see the truth because it is more politically expedient to tell lies. And while the war with the White Vampires might be off at the moment, no one expects the truce to last very long. But what if the two groups were being manipulated to fight each other?

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I read too many mysteries for the culprit's disguise to work for me. But as soon as the real culprit appeared I said aloud, "Oh, he's the one responsible. I bet you." And I was right. I didn't get the way it was all done, but I knew who was responsible. But I don't know if that was just me, or if it would be clear to everyone who reads the book.

I recommend this book. It's an excellent adventure, but for me, it wasn't much of a mystery. It turned into a "Who is the Spy? Who is behind the killing of LaFortier?" into a "How does Harry prove the true culprit is responsible?" It's not a bad book- it's a very, very good book, but I wonder how many other people twig to the true culprit's identity so soon.