Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
‘The Dresden Files’ series Book #8
Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages – Publisher: Roc (February 6, 2007) – Language: English – ISBN-10: 0451461037 – ISBN-13: 978-0451461032
Back of the Book reads:
There’s no love lost between Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the Chicago phone book, and the White Council of Wizards, who find him brash and undisciplined. But war with the vampires has thinned their ranks, so the Council has drafted Harry as a Warden and assigned him to look into rumors of black magic in the Windy City.
As Harry adjusts to his new role, another problem arrives in the form of the tattooed and pierced daughter of an old friend, all grown-up and already in trouble. Her boyfriend is the only suspect in what looks like a supernatural assault straight out of a horror film. Malevolent entities that feed on fear are loose in Chicago, but it’s all in a day’s work for a wizard, his faithful dog, and a talking skull named Bob…
17-Sep-08 to 20-Sep-08
Review: And I love horror movies because?
Rougly a year after his escapes in Dead Beat, Harry Dresden is back. We open in the middle of a warehouse, Harry and several other Wardens tight in a circle, all staring down at a young man, a wizard who used his magic for darker purposes. Found guilty, he is beheaded, as is the direction of the White Council. If a wizard is proven guilty of breaking one of the seven laws of the White Council, if sentenced to death, it is carried out immediately. And this seriously disturbs Harry. To Harry, the young man was no more than a child in wizard age, and was never taught right from wrong. But a soulgaze on the young man proved there was no helping him and it had to be done. Still, it doesn’t sit well with Harry.
As he is leaving, he is handed a note from the Gatekeeper. Black magic is afoot in Chicago, and as the regional Warden, it is his duty to find out the who, why and stop them. And just when Harry is about to start his investigation with a new and powerful ‘toy’, Molly, the daughter of Michael, an longtime friend of Harry’s, calls, begging for help. And true to Harry’s form, he can’t pass up a ‘damsel in distress’ and, against his own judgement, runs to her aid. However, she isn’t the one in trouble. Her boyfriend, Nelson, is. Seems he was arrested for beating up an older gentlemen, simply because he was the only one in the room. No blood on his clothes, no break in the skin of his knuckles… Something is very strange, and Harry’s determined to find out what’s going on.
The first of many areas, Harry glimpses around the bathroom of a conference centre in a hotel, using his Sight. What’s disturbing is the residual reflection he sees – and doesn’t like it one bit. The hotel is very busy, what with the SPLATTERCON!!! horror convention going on, and while talking with Rawlins outside the bathroom, something else goes down, and Harry runs to find out what.
With more questions and answers, the attacks are made by phonophages, made to look like the ‘bad guys’ fron the horror movies. Phonophages are sprirtual entities that feed on fear and are being either pulled or pushed from the Nevernever. The higher the fear, the more powerful they become. Harry needs to do two things. Stop the phonophages from attacking and find out who’s sending them.
The deeper we get into the story, the more complicated it gets. Just when Harry thinks he’s got it beat, a twist slaps him back – Molly has been kidnapped by more phonophages and is now being held in Winter’s Queen Mab’s ‘headquarters’, Arctis Tor, and with the help of Molly’s mother Charity, Murphy and Thomas, Summer Lady Lily and Summer Knight Fix, they go in and get Molly back. Once they’ve retreated and hare back with Father Forthill, Molly is given a choice, one that she has to make up herself. Can Harry handle what the Council might do to her?
Oh, how I love this series! Nothing is ever as it seems, and Harry is constantly battling others as well as himself. He relies heavily on his instincts and does the best he can with what he’s got. Considerate as he is, he’ll do whatever is necessary and deal with the consequences later.
Non-stop action, the plot not only keeps Harry on his toes, but the reader as well. No one can predict how the story is going to turn. Add in horror movie characters, add in magic and control of that magic and it makes for one heck of a story. What I truly like is how his personal life is entertwined with all that action, between Harry and Murphy, Harry and Molly and her family, Harry and Thomas, and Harry and his feelings of the Wardens and the White Council, Harry and Ebenezer, you not only get a real sense of what Harry’s dealing with, but you truly understand what it is about him; why he is the way he is, why he thinks the way he thinks. As a bookaholic who loves many different genres, Harry is one of the top characters where a reader truly gets the ‘inside look’ at the main character.
I can’t ask for better. I can only ask that Mr. Butcher keeps Harry coming. Serve me up more, please!
Rating: 
