History Awesome / BloodRites

** It even gets a [[CallBack]] in ''Literature/BattleGround''

** Kincaid also states outright that he wouldn't have taken the job if he knew Harry was calling in Ebenezar--in fact, he'd be in ''another state''. Think about how badass Kincaid is, and then consider that he's [[HorrifyingTheHoror scared of Ebenezar.]]

** Kincaid also states outright that he wouldn't have taken the job if he knew Harry was calling in Ebenezar. Think about how badass Kincaid is, and then consider that he's scared of Ebenezar.

** Which is also a lovely call back to ''Summer Knight'':

*** [[spoiler: Mavra gets another Villainous Example. She manages to sneak up on Harry, deliver a chilling speech about how she's been watching him for some time now, and then has two of her Renfields try to scorch Harry alive with flamethrowers, while she laughs. Harry's shield can't protect him, and he ends up with his hand near useless for years after that. Creepy awesome at its best]]

--->"For my next trick," I panted into the startled silence, "anvils."
** This has the added benefit of being quite possibly [[CrowningMomentOfFunny the funniest thing to happen in the entire series]] thus far.

* Awesome moment for JimButcher: ''Blood Rites'' has two of the best opening and closing lines in all of fiction. Opening: "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault." Closing: [[spoiler:"'Hey. Why did you get ''large breed'' puppy chow?'"]]

* How Murphy handled Kincaid's SecretTestOfCharacter. Harry had enough sense to step back and let her whup Kincaid's ass while he was in safe watching distance.

*** [[spoiler: Maybe it's just me, but i thought Mavra gets another Villainous Example. She Managed to sneak up on harry. Deliver a chilling speech about how she's been watching him for some time now. and then she has two of her Renfields try to scorch harry alive with flamethrowers,while she laughed,and harry's force shield couldn't do much to help him either,he ends up with his hand near useless for years after that. Creepy awesome in its best]]

** This has the added benefit of being quite possibly [[CrowningMomentOfFunny the funniest thing to happen in the entire series]].

** Doubles up: Harry, who had no reason to believe Murphy hadn't started to break and was really, truly, out of it, only needed two words to be bet-his-life certain.

* Murphy refusing to break under the White King's mind control. Granted, that doesn't seem like much in this series, but not even Lara managed to do that before Harry managed to drain his power reserves and lets her in on the fact that he can't replenish them.

* Murphy refusing to break under the White King's mind control. Granted, that doesn't seem like much in this series, but not even Lara managed to do that before Harry managed to drain his power reserves and let her in on the fact that her father couldn't feed.

* Murphy refusing to break under the White King's mind control. Granted, that doesn't seem like much in this series, but not even Lara managed to do that before Harry told her that her dad was powerless.

** Even more impressive is the effect that Lara's power has on [[spoiler: Harry; just the smell of her hair is very nearly enough to make him drop to the ground and crawl back, and she implies that once she really gets going, it'll get ''worse''... and this is still only her ambient, unfocused power, against someone ''who still has True Love's protection''.]]

** The next book reveals that [[spoiler: it was simultaneously a villainous example for ''Mavra herself'', as she'd not only survived, but staged it all in order to collect blackmail material on Murphy.]]

* Awesome moment for JimButcher: ''Blood Rites'' has two of the best opening and closing lines in all of fiction. Opening: "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault." Closing: [[spoiler:"'Thomas, why did you buy ''large breed'' puppy chow?'"]]

* Harry, Murphy, and Kincaid's assault on Mavra's base, with the likes of Kincaid's impressive moves with his spear-slash-shotgun, Harry holding on to his shield despite his hand being burned away, and Harry and Murphy using the vampires' own land mine against them. And all without any of the children they saved getting hurt.

* Harry kills a Black Court vampire with a laser-guided frozen turkey dropped from an airplane passing overhead. Sure, it was someone else's curse that Harry redirected, but the end result had even the other characters going WTF.

* Harry, Murphy, and Kincaid's assault on Mavra's base, with the likes of Kincaid's impressive moves with his spear-slash-shotgun, Harry holding on to his shield despite his hand being burned away, Harry and Murphy using the vampires' own land mine against them, and killing Mavra. And all without any of the children they saved getting hurt.

* Harry, Murphy, and Kincaid's assault on Mavra's base, with the likes of Kincaid's impressive moves with his spear-slash-shotgun, Harry holding on to his shield despite his hand being burned away, Harry and Murphy using the vampires' own land mine against them, and finally killing Mavra once and for all. And all without any of the children they saved getting hurt.

* While it's an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, [[spoiler:[[BrokenBird Lara Raith's]] RapeAndRevenge against her evil father and turning him into her puppet to continue ruling the White Court as she commands certainly counts.]]

* The climax, where Harry [[spoiler:tricks Lord Raith into revealing his weakness--namely, his inability to feed due to Margaret Dresden's death curse--with Lara Raith as a witness, thereby allowing her to take over in a coup d'etat.]] Even ''Lara'', no slouch at political intrigue herself, is impressed. Harry might not resort to [[XanatosSpeedChess subtlety]] often, but when he does he is ''good'' at it.