Ghoul, Goblin

Ghoul, Goblin is a hardback graphic novel written by science fiction and fantasy author Jim Butcher and illustrated by Joseph Cooper. Set in the world of Butcher's contemporary fantasy/mystery novel series, The Dresden Files, Ghoul, Goblin takes place in the series' continuity, between the events of the novels Fool Moon and Grave Peril.^[1]

Plot

Cairo, Egypt, 1917: During World War I, British Army Major Talbot storms into a crowded café and demands that three Arab men vacate their table for him, ignoring the warnings of the young Captain Lawrence. One of the Arabs seizes Talbot's arm and warns that his foolish actions will have very unpleasant consequences, not just for him but for his whole family.

Present Day: Harry Dresden, after narrowly surviving an encounter with a sea monster in Lake Michigan, returns to his office and is greeted by Prescott Tremaine, the Deputy Sheriff of Boone Mill, Missouri, who explains that Carl and Sarah Talbot – the eldest of seven Talbot siblings – were both killed by apparently supernatural means. Harry agrees to travel to the town. Harry confides to Prescott that supernatural killers love to gloat over their work as much as mortal serial killers do, so Prescott arranges for him to be present at the Talbots' funeral the next morning. The only unfamiliar face Prescott notices is a gravedigger, whom Harry's "sight" reveals to be a goblin. The goblin attacks Harry and avoids retaliation by grabbing Prescott's girlfriend, Ambre, as a hostage, before escaping.

Harry consults with his oracular skull, Bob, whose encyclopedic knowledge of magic and the spirit world includes the fact that the Talbot family is cursed; Major Talbot disappeared two weeks after the incident in the Cairo café, and his body was found wrapped in a mummy sarcophagus in the British Museum. He left six children, all of whom, along with their descendants, have suffered various gruesome deaths over the following years. Noticing the differences in the murders of Carl and Sarah – one was brutally mauled, as if by an animal, the other poisoned – Harry shares his theory that there are two supernatural killers in town, rather than one.

List of characters

References