Proven Guilty

Jim Butcher

5/9/2007

Although Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the yellow pages, has been avoiding Michael Carpenter and his family. When Michael's oldest daughter Molly calls Harry for help, he has to respond. He doesn't want Michael, a holder of one of God's angelic swords, to know he is harboring a dark angel in his psyche. But Michael is one of Harry's closest friends although Michael's wife Charity barely tolerates Harry. When Molly calls for help, Harry responds.

Molly calls at the end of a day that was already bad. Black magic is in Chicago and Harry is supposed to locate it since he is now a Warden for the White Council. On his way home from an execution, someone tries to run him off the road and kill him. Then he was in the midst of a solitary magical ritual when Molly calls. When he goes to pick her up at jail, he learns Molly had left home over a year earlier and is fighting with her mother. They aren't speaking, Molly didn't finish school, and she has gotten involved in a group of young people into drugs and horror. This weekend she is helping coordinate a horror film fest.

Something strange has happened at the film fest. A man was almost beaten to death by a creature that was straight out of one of those horror films. Harry has to help Molly and the group, especially when more people are killed and panic is started. He knows that black magic has been brought into the weekend, causing panic. The fear levels are then used to feed the black magic. Now Harry has a few challenges - stop the supernatural beings invading the film fest, find the black magician in Chicago, protect Michael's family while he is called away to do God's work, avoid whoever is trying to kill him, do Warden's work for the White Council, hide a dark angel from his friend the white angel, and get a rebellious teen ager and her mother back together.

Jim Butcher pulls all these threads together into a fast moving, dark, enjoyable fantasy tale that stands alone as well as continues the Dresden stories. Because these are told in first person narrative by Harry, even the most horrific scenes are tempered by Harry's humaneness and streak of ironic humor. When I put down the book I felt like I had just gotten off an exciting merry go round.

Proven Guilty is a good adult fantasy novel continuing the story of a likeable protagonist who often feels like he is getting the shaft but ends up the victor anyway. Harry may be a wizard, but he's totally human as well. Proven Guilty pulls the reader in to enjoy the life of the only wizard who advertises his expertise for people who believe they are having problems with the supernatural. Often they are and he can help. If you haven't discovered Harry Dresden yet, check him out.

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Storm Front
Fool Moon
Grave Peril
Summer Knight
Death Masks
Blood Rites
Dead Beat
Proven Guilty
White Night
Small Favor