[4] Harry shares a TV panel with a Vatican priest, Father Vincent, and São Paulo University Professor Don Paolo Ortega, a disguised Red Court Vampire noble.

Father Vincent hires Dresden to recover the stolen Shroud of Turin while Ortega challenges Harry to a duel to end the war between the White Council and the Red Court.

Dresden's onetime lover, Susan Rodriguez, escorts him to a high society art sales charity event run by Johnny Marcone, where the Shroud will likely be sold.

With the Knights, he captures the imposter and forces him to reveal that Nicodemus plans to use the Shroud to create a deadly plague curse at O'Hare Airport, an international travel hub.

Dresden fights his duel with Ortega at Wrigley Field, overseen by The Archive (a little girl containing the sum of humanity's written knowledge) and her bodyguard Kincaid.

Shiro entrusts his sacred sword Fidelacchius to Dresden and reveals that Nicodemus is now going to St. Louis by train to spread the plague curse.

Dresden's White Council mentor, Ebenezar McCoy, wipes out Ortega's Latin American compound by crashing a satellite into it.

Victoria Strauss, in a review on SFSite.com, wrote that "Death Masks is Butcher's most assured book yet, a smooth melding of inventive storylines, dark supernatural themes, edge-of-your-seat adventure, strong characterizations, and irreverent humor".