Proven Guilty

Proven Guilty (2006) Jim Butcher

I started this book several weeks ago, and then put it down because I remembered why Harry had been annoying me so much for the past several books.However, I decided to give Proven Guilty and Harry another chance.

At the start of the book I was still annoyed with him–he’s been stupid about the whole Lasciel and I never understood why he refused to trust Michael–especially immediately after the original incident. So the more he whined and worried about Lasciel, the more annoyed I became at him for not doing what he should have done in the first place.

But, once I get into the story, I managed to forget that I was annoyed with him, and from then on things really moved and quickly the story became one I had difficulty putting down.

At at White Council Warden’s meeting, Harry is given a note from the Gatekeeper, warning him that there have been acts of black magic in Chicago. Because Chicago is Harry’s area, he’s responsible for discovering the source. However, because the Gatekeeper told Harry directly of the problem, he is able to deal with the situation in his own way, instead of having to act precisely as the Merlin says.

Before he can take steps to solve this problem, another arrives on his door, in the form of Molly, Michael and Charity’s daughter, who has gotten herself into a heap of trouble and come to Harry for help, since she’s not on speaking terms with her mother.

What I especially liked about this book is how much Harry has matured, and how he finally is starting to deal with his issues and problems, instead of ignoring them. (That’s a little unfair of me. Harry wasn’t ignoring his problems, he was just refusing to deal with them in a reasonable manner.) I also liked how the story came together, pulling together the different parts of Harry’s life, and calling upon Harry’s strengths to help him solve the problems that he has is dealing with.

If you have not read a Harry Dresden book before, this book provides sufficient detail about Harry’s past and the past of the other characters. However the strength of this book–for me at least–lies in seeing how much Harry has changed over the course of this series, and how much better he is now at dealing with and solving problems.

If you’ve read previous Harry Dresden books, then this is a book you don’t want to miss.
Rating: 8/10

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