Storm Front (Jim Butcher)

I've read a few of the books from this series here and there and liked them, so I'm starting over from the beginning. Harry Dresden is a wizard, all trained up and powerful and everything, living in modern Chicago and hanging out an actual shingle identifying himself as such. There are lots of other wizards around (he's got a very chancy relationship with the White Council that governs wizards' affairs), but he's the only one that's out and public. He's called in as a police consultant to study some particularly gruesome murders that have a magical basis, and also hired by a woman as a private investigator to look for her husband, an amateur wizard who's disappeared. Naturally, these two cases come together in an unexpected but satisfying way. I really like Harry's voice and attitude. He's a good guy with some serious skills who throws himself into problems way beyond his level when there are people in trouble. He reminds me a bit of Travis McGee, in John D. MacDonald's wonderful series, with a layer of cool magic on top.