Completely awesome.

I mentioned, the other day, that I was starting to read Jim Butcher's Cold Days.  Well, I read half of it the first night, then finished it the second.  It rocked. 

If you're looking for a new series of books to get into, and you like modern fantasy--the main character is a honest-to-God wizard for hire in Chicago--I strongly recommend Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books.  I've got an Amazon link to the first book (there are currently fourteen in the series) over to the right, under my blog list. 

The first book is Storm Front--Dresden goes up against bad guys that do murder from a distance by using the power in thunderstorms to explode their victims' hearts from a distance.  Dresden himself is an awesome character: likable and snarky, with a desperate need to do right and help people.  His sidekick, Bob, is an air elemental that shelters in a skull (and is a major pervert, and a hell of a lot bigger of a smartass than Dresden). 

Seriously, if you're interested in gritty, realistic (sort of) detective stories, as well as urban fantasy, and you haven't run across the Dresden Files, you need to give them a try.