As I mentioned in my last post about Small Favor, one of Butcher's strengths is the large-scale architecture of his novels. He tends to write good climactic scenes and to structure the lead-up to them well. Unfortunately, in Small Favor, although the story as a whole is satisfying, the denouement is very weak; it essentially consists of Harry visiting a bunch of major characters and opening up plot points for the next novel.
Ruth Ann Dudley's Corridors of Death is the first in a series about Robert Aimiss, a civil servant, and James Milton, a police detective. In this novel, she gives us a mildly satiric view of the British Parliament (some of which resonates even with this American), some nicely rounded characters, but also a rather dull plot. Amazon reviewers seem to indicate that the series gets much better, and I liked what I read enough to try the second at some point.
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