I came across this article on Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe detective series. I've been meaning to pick up the series (because of the comparison made to Dresden Files on some covers), and this article definitely increased my interest, and I see a lot of parallels between what the reviewer says about Chandler's character Harry Dresden and what I see in Harry. Some highlights:
"Chandler wrote that ‘P Marlowe has as much social conscience as a horse. He has a personal conscience, which is an entirely different matter."
"His personal conscience believes that law and justice are not necessarily the same thing . . . and that violence and law-breaking can be the right thing to do."
"
t is hard to imagine Marlowe self-consciously . . . worrying that some local atrocity signals the end of an entire civilisation." - OK, so maybe this is something Harry and Marlowe don't have in common 
The article is worth a read for DF fans, and is available here: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/reviewofbooks_article/7851