I think the Philip Marlowe thing is just idiots saying "detective in a cheap office, who takes dangerous cases from attractive women because he's broke" and then pigeon-hole the character. I saw one blurb that called it a cross between Philip Marlowe and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and aside from killing vampires, there is not the slightest resemblance, similarity or other congruence to Buffy Summers.

However, the maturation and expanded perspective of Harry Dresden, both as a character and in relation to other characters in the books is one of the high points of the series. Also his development as a wizard/evil-fighting-guy. It seems like authors can't really get a handle on how to portray a wizard-type, but Butcher seems to avoid the common traps so far. As I noted in my subject line, of all the characters to recur from Storm Front (and not everyone is in every book), it seems that Harry's relationship develops and expands with each one. Susan Rodriguez and Karrin Murphy in particular, but also Morgan, Toot-toot, and the surviving villains. And they do so in a way that does not sell out their original portrayals or undermine the antagonistic elements to their relationships. In other words, villains don't stick around on lame pretexts because the author thinks they're cool or they get positive responses from the audience, or suddenly/gradually do a 180 on the character. When a relationship turns positive or sours, there are good reasons for it. In some of them Harry and the opposing character come to understand one another better, though that never is used as an excuse to justify truly evil characters. Continuing in this vein is the fact that there are short-stories published from the points of view of a vampire who turns up later, Karrin Murphy (both in the "Side Jobs" anthology) and John Marcone (in a multi-author anthology, "Dark and Stormy Knights" ), all of which give interesting perspectives on how he appears to other people with whom he interacts (and make it clear how seriously they all take him, when from his PoV, his bumbling and desperation can distort the reader's understanding of how much he accomplishes).

Far and away my favorite Conan writer, except for Howard, of course. Even then, I thought RJ's books were better as stand-alone entertainment, it's Howard's unique vision of the character that sets him apart, and his status as the creator of the character and setting gives him the legitimacy edge over RJ. Interesting note - RJ's novelization of Conan the Destroyer (film with Arnold Schwarzenegger & Grace Jones) actually contained much more sex than the film did. Conan is no Two Rivers lad to stammer and blush when chicks hit on him.