title: Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files
author:  Jim Butcher 
description: Fans of Butcher's long-running and bestselling urban fantasy series featuring Chicago wizard PI Harry Dresden were stunned by the concluding events of the 2010 novel Changes. They'll probably want to skip ahead to the last of this collection's 11 stories, "Aftermath," set just hours after the end of that book. With Dresden's fate uncertain, it's his longtime ally, Sgt. Karrin Murphy, who must help find a kidnapped werewolf. This entry is the collection's strongest, full of powerful emotion. The rest of the book is a mixed bag, ranging from Butcher's first attempt at short fiction--"a novice effort" that "wasn't up to par for professional publication"--to more recent tales set around and between the novels. First-timers will be lost, and this uneven volume mostly makes the case that Butcher's talent is best displayed in longer form. (Nov.) (c) <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  " 'There's only one thing to do. I'm going to call the police,' says a strong-
  minded, outspoken old thing; and she clump across the floor on her low heels
  and calls the fuzz."
  
  
  "Well, the faggot draws a deuce; and in the box he meets this cat who is some
  species of cheap hustler, and love sets in or at least a facsimile thereof
  convince the parties inna first and second parts. As continuity would have it,
  they are sprung at the same time more or less and take up residence in a flat
  on the Lower East Side. ...And cook in and both are working legit modest jobs.
  ...So Brad and Jim know happiness for the first time.
  
  
  "Enter the powers of evil.... Lucy Bradshinkel has come to say all is forgiven
  She has faith in Brad and wants to set him up in a studio. Of course, he will
  have to move to the East Sixties.... 'This place is impossible, dahling; and
  your friend...' And a safe mob wants Jim back to drive a car. This is a step
  up, you dig? Offer from citizens hardly see him before.
  
  
  "Wil