Proven Guilty (Mini-Review)

Proven Guilty is the eighth book in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series. In this entry Harry Dresden is warned of black magic occurring in Chicago. The hard task of tracking down a black magic user is made even harder when Harry must save congoers of a horror convention from their worst fears. Yep, some dark creatures are able to turn into what a person fears the most. As if that isn't hard enough, Harry must also reconcile Molly Carpenter with her mother.

I loved how this book expanded on the character of Charity Carpenter. In the past books of the series, Charity seemed to be a little overbearing. The only reason given for her attitude was due to her hating Harry since she believed that he was putting her husband in danger. In this book, however, it is shown that she has a past that she has hidden from everyone. Even her husband. This secret past ends up creating distance between her and Molly. By the end of the book I was much more sympathetic to Charity than I had ever been in the series. However, the brief moment where Charity thinks Harry is having sex with Molly just makes no sense.

I like how this book handled Molly Carpenter and Harry Dresden's feelings for each other. While Harry is attracted to Molly he is adult enough to know why that relationship would not be a good thing and controls his feelings. He even considers how he could accidentally tell Molly that he wants her sexually. At the end of the book he makes it extremely clear to Molly that he won't pursue the relationship she is expecting. Molly, on her end, is a young adult who has hormones raging through her body and already idolized Harry before. So she acts the part of a young adult not understanding the difference between liking a person and sexually wanting a person. Plus crushing on an older person during that age isn't strange. I know I had a couple of crushes on teachers. The only problem with those kinds of crushes is when you try to pursue them.

While in canon I like Molly and Harry keeping their distance from each other, outside of canon I really like them as a pairing. Though it is one of the ships I like but think would ruin the series as a whole. Harry might have an active libido, but he knows the differences between right and wrong. And doing the nasty with a minor is the wrong thing to do.

This book again brings faerie politics back into the picture. Harry ends up having to ask Lily and Fix, two former allies from a past book, for help. But because Lily is now the Summer Lady and Fix is the Summer Knight, they can't help Harry as much as they want. It's also during one of their conversations that Harry finds out that Queen Mab might be going mad. Though this is a rumor that if right spells out big problems in future books.

Karrin Murphy and Harry Dresden finally talk about a possible relationship between the pair. After all this time they are completely honest about their feelings. Murphy at the moment doesn't want a relationship with Harry due to her failed marriage being with a colleague and the fact she isn't looking for anything serious at the moment.

There are a few moments in the book where the evil creatures take on the forms of memorable horror villains but Jim Butcher can't or won't say their names. Such as one takes on the form of a xenomorph from the Alien franchise and another takes on the form of Chucky from the Child's Play series.

I would recommend Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher to fans of The Dresden Files series, urban fantasy lovers, mystery lovers, and horror fans.