These two books are each a group of short stories that Jim Butcher has collected. Side Jobs was published in 2010 and Brief Cases was published in 2018. In each case Butcher collected the stories that had been published in anthologies then added a new novella at the end. And obviously the differences in subject matter and tone in the collections match up with the where they fit in the chronology of the Dresden Files at the time they were written. But just as with the overall series the “feel” of the stories and especially the character of Harry himself is surprisingly consistent. He is as always, a wise-cracking, annoying defender of the human world against the forces of the various supernatural creatures he opposes. He battles White, Red and Black Court vampires, ghosts, sorcerers, werewolves, faeries and other folklore creatures. Harry is always a little too lefty and feminist for my complete stamp of approval but Butcher writes a very good story and I have been reading these books for a very long time and even when some lefty cultural stance annoys me, I still read and enjoy the story. And these stories are no exception. Some character or some comment from Harry will annoy me but I’ll still read and enjoy each story.
The stories are self-sufficient and can be read alone without the need to jump into the next one. And because the stories were written for various anthologies some of them have oddball plots that were picked to fit in to some overarching theme. Like in Brief Cases there is a western story called “A Fistful of Warlocks” that was written for an anthology called “Straight Outta Tombstone.” And likewise for other stories that had themes relating to weddings or relationships or even beer or baseball. But even the stories that you would think would be just a throwaway Butcher puts in the work and makes the story hang together. And in these short stories sometimes Harry isn’t even the narrator. Thomas Raith, John Marcone, Karrin Murphy and even Molly Carpenter each narrate a story. And especially in the case of Thomas and Marcone I think these add a lot of interest to the story because of the very different point of view of these characters from Harry.
Just as with the rest of the Dresden Files these books cannot be enjoyed unless you already have read the first few books about Harry. But it is good to know that Jim Butcher takes the time to make even his short stories worth reading.