Storm Front, by Jim Butcher

A sophisticated, darker (a bit--in a different way), more adult Harry Potter sort of book.

Harry Dresden is a wizard in Chicago. (He says he is the only wizard listed in the phone book anywhere in the country.) He lives in an apartment with very little technology--because his energies quickly short out any sort of electronics. He's a man who has seen it all--or nearly all, certainly more than we non-wizards. He battles the dark forces using, well, plausible magic. As a friend of mine says, when Butcher describes the magic that Harry is using, you say to yourself, 'Yeah, I can see how that could be so." Harry's closes friend is a police detective, with whom he consults on her weird cases that she knows have to involve magic and forces she doesn't understand.

I first became a Harry Dresden fan when a friend got me started watching "The Dresden Files" on the SciFi Channel. Then I bought a book in the series--not the first--and was able to read only a few chapters before passing it on to a friend who also liked "The Dresden Files." He has inhaled the entire series now, but I just finally got around to reading the first in the series. And I inhaled it. I'm not even much of a sci fi fantasy fan, but I liked it very much. Give it a try. If you feel the need, as my friend and I did, to read all the titles in the series you'll have plenty more "good reads" ahead of you.