Proven Guilty (novel)

Infobox Book
name = Proven Guilty
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Proven Guilty
author = Jim Butcher
illustrator =
cover_artist = Christian McGrath
country = United States
language = English
series = The Dresden Files
subject =
genre = Fantasy/Mystery
publisher = Roc Hardcover
pub_date = May 2, 2006
english_pub_date = May 2, 2006
media_type = Hardcover
pages = 406
isbn = 045146155X
oclc =
preceded_by = Dead Beat
followed_by = White Night

"Proven Guilty" is the 8th book in "The Dresden Files", Jim Butcher's continuing series about wizard detective Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. "Proven Guilty" had a release date of May 2, 2006.

Harry Dresden has spent years being watched and suspected by the White Council's Wardens. But now he is a Warden, and it sucks more than he thought... So when movie monsters start coming to life on his watch, it's officially up to him to put them back where they came from. Only this time, his client is the White Council, and his investigation cannot fail -- no matter who falls under suspicion, no matter the cost.

The [http://www.christianmcgrath.com/mainpages/proven-guilty.html cover art] by illustrator Christian McGrath depicts Harry on a street corner with his glowing staff. On Butcher's website, the first 3 chapters may be previewed.

Plot summary

The story starts with Harry Dresden watching an execution of a sixteen year old. Morgan chops his head off. This causes Harry to get upset by what he has seen. Ebenezar McCoy asks Harry to help the White Council with something off the record. McCoy asks Harry to search out why the Summer and Winter courts have not attacked the Red Court of vampires. He also gives Harry a note from the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper asks Harry to search out the use of black magic in Chicago.

Harry then leaves from the area and gets a visit from Lasciel. She reminds Harry that she is there to help him in any way. As Lasciel leaves Harry gets hit by car from behind. Murphy takes Harry to his apartment after all the information from his car accident is taken down. Harry at his apartment calls up Fix, the Summer Knight, so they can arrange a meeting to talk with the Summer Court.

He then goes to his sub-basement to talk to Bob and check on his project Little Chicago, a scale-model of Chicago Harry has built for his magic. He ask Bob if Little Chicago is ready for a test drive. Bob says it is ready for a test drive but Harry isn't too good with delicate magics which are needed to work in the scale model. He starts getting ready to use Little Chicago when he gets a call from Molly Carpenter who apparently is under arrest and is asking Harry to bail her out. He brings Mouse, his dog, along and goes to the police building that has her. Harry realizes that he is being followed by someone but waits to see if they do anything.

When he finally reaches the building he sees that Molly is waiting for him and that she has tricked him. Molly wanted to Harry to bail out her boyfriend. Harry at first refuses but bails out her boyfriend Nelson as long as she agreed to let Harry descide what to do next afterwards. They find out that Nelson was arrested for assault which he says he had not done. Nelson was arrested because there was no one else could prove that someone else had assaulted the old man. Harry pays a taxi for Nelson to take to the airport for a movie producer. Then Harry decides to take Molly to her parents.

When Harry gets to Molly's home he gets to meet all of her siblings. There is tension in the air because Molly had ran away. When Michael sees her is clearly very happy to see his daughter while Charity is upset. Charity and Molly start to fight between themselves and only stop when Michael tells them to stop. Michael is leaving on a "business trip" and ask Harry to get Charity and Molly to talk to each other.

Molly leaves with Harry to SplatterCon!!!, a horror movie convention, where the assault happened. There he meets Rawling, a cop who is guarding the crime scene. Harry uses his Sight in order to See the what had happened in the scene. When he finish using his Sight the power goes out. Harry realizes that something is about to happen and with the help Rawling provides, goes out and figure out what is happening in the hotel.

Rawling and Harry move towards a movie threater that is being attack by something. The being that is attacking is the Reaper who has taken down three people and who is about to take down a fourth person. Rawling shoots him but nothing happens and Harry finishs him off by blowing him away. When everything is clear Molly comes up to them and realizes that one of her friends has been attack. They find out one of the victims is already dead. Detective Greene, head of Homicide, asks Harry what happened but doesn't believe Harry's story. Murphy saves him from Greene and takes him back home.

The next day Murphy takes Harry to the hospital where the victims were taken. When they first arrive they find out one of the victims has already died. He first visits Molly's friend and uses his Sight to look at her and notices that she has been psychic attacked. He also notices two holes at the sides of her head but can't explain what it is. They go to the next victim, who is catatonic, and Harry uses his Sight. Harry realizes that she isn't ever coming out of that state. They go to the victim Nelson supposely assaulted whos name is Pell. Harry Sees him and finds out hes going to make it. Pell tells them that he was attack by Hammerheads: another horror movie monster. Harry also realizes that the things that attacked the people are phobophage: beings that feed off fear.

Harry must go to meet Fix the Summer Knight at McAnally's Pub. Fix brings along Lily the Summer Lady. Harry wants to know why the Fairy Courts have not attacked the Red Court/ Harry quickly realizes that they can't really him because Titania the Summer Queen has stop them from helping him. Harry with some clues finds out that the fairy courts have to do things together or one will be able to defeat the other. Mab has not decided to attack the Red Court so Summer can't attack the them. They still need more information so Harry tells Lily to contact Maeve, the Winter Lady. Maeve arrives but doesn't want to talk about it until Harry convinces her otherwise. She tells them that Mab has not decided to attack the Red Court and doesn't know why.

The meeting is finished and he does back to the convention to get ready for another attack. Harry makes a kind to magical web so that he can at least detect when the monsters are going to come. Harry then sees someone walking down the hall and something about him is wrong. Murphy comes down and talks to him who says hes Darby Crane. Harry comes and meet him as well; Harry feels tension from Crane. Then Crane's lawyer comes and tells them to leave him alone. Murphy and Harry leave for the room they got for the night when one of Molly's friend comes tell them that Greene is questioning Molly. Harry tells her to call two numbers while he goes and deals with Greene.

As Harry is going to deal with Greene he meets a reporter to help him out and ask her to wait for signal to act. When he gets there he sees that Greene is with Rick, Murphy's ex-husband, and both of them are question Molly. Harry interferes being his usual self, which makes Greene angry. When thinsg start to get out of hand, the reporter comes in and starts questioning Greene about what is happening. Harry then tells Molly to wait at the lobby to wait for her mother.

Murphy and Harry then go to his hotel room to get ready a spell to send the phages back at the summoner. He gives Murphy two candles that will notify when the phages are trying to come though. One candle is for Murphy and one is for Rawling. Harry waits but gets a call from Nelson who is panic and Harry tells him to go St. Marys church. Then Molly knocks on his door and asks him to use the his bathroom to clean up. Then Harry gets another knock from Charity who knocks out Harry when she sees Molly come out of the bathroom.

Then he feels that the phages are coming and has little time to act against them. He manages to send three phages to the summonor but misses one. Harry goes and fights that phage and manages to beat it up. Rawling helps Harry to find the summonor but they are attacked by Crane's lawyer who runs over Mouse, Harry's dog, and knocks out Rawling and Harry.

When Harry wakes up he realizes that he is bound by magic manacles that don't let him use magic. He also notices that Rawling is handcuffed to a pipe. Crane's lawyer is guarding them and he appears not to be completly human. Crane's tells him that he is trying to sell him and that the highest bider is Duke Ortega's widow from the Red Court. Harry then upset Crane which he shoots Rawling in the foot. Harry gets out of the manacles with the help of Lasciel. He gets Rawling out and both get out of the building they are in.

When they get outside they are being followed by Crane's lawyer who takes down Harry and Rawling. Then Crane, about to kill Rawling, is thwarted when Thomas (Harry's brother) comes from no where and shoots Crane's lawyer with a shotgun. Then he points his shotgun to Crane who doesn't make. Crane's lawyer survives the blast from the shotgun but is attacked by Mouse who knocks him out.

They find out that Crane is actually Madigal Raith, Thomas's cousin, who feeds off fear as well. They also find out that he isn't to blame from the attacks in the hotel. When they seem to get ready to leave they get attacked by a Scarecrow who has already killed Crane's lawyer. Harry, Thomas, and Mouse go fight him while Madigal runs away. The defenders, including Rawling, manage to get in a van and run from the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow doesn't give up easily, so it takes a Harry a little spell work to shake him off. They get Rawling to a hopital to care for his foot. Then they follow the trail to the summoner.

The trail leads Harry to the Carpenter's home. They notice that the house has been attacked. Thomas and Harry split up to find anyone around. Thomas finds Daniel the oldest son in the treehouse who tells them that the rest of his family is in a panic room. Daniel has been beaten up and falls unconscience. Harry goes there and finds that Charity is there with all of her children. They are missing Molly though. She was taken by the phages. Charity, Harry, Thomas and the kids all go to St. Mary's Church.

There meet with Father Forthill the priest of the church. Charity settles her kids while Harry goes on walk to the rest of the church to think. Harry realizes that he somehow send the phages to Molly and feels guilty about it. Forthill finds him and tries to make him feel better about what has happened to him. Forthill tells him that Nelson seems to be suffering drug withdrawal. One of Charity's kids finds Harry and tell him that Daniel is awake. Daniel tells that the phages attack the house and that Molly and him tried to distract them from the rest of the kids. Harry looks at Daniel with his Sight so he can never forget what he did to that family. He looks at Nelson by accident and notices two small circles in his head. Then realizes what has happened. He goes to Charity and asks her about her magic.

Charity tells Harry about her being a witch, how she met Michael, and their present family history. The reason Molly and Charity have been fighting is because Charity gave up on her migic while Molly does not want to give up on it. Then they go to Harry's apartment to track Molly.

Harry then asks Charity to get something of Molly's so he can find her using Little Chicago. This is the first attempt to use the miniature city for Harry, and this it might be fatal. Lasciel is not going to let Harry die in the attempt to do this; she stalls him but fails. Little Chicago works but the tracking spell doesn't. Then Murphy comes to Harry's apartment and suggests using Charity's blood to track Molly. Harry realizes it goes to a gateway to the Nevernever, through one of the theaters in the convention.

When they get to the movie threater they meet up with Lily and Fix. They can't help Harry but Harry gives the debt that Lily owes him to Charity, someone who they can help. They go into the threater and have fight with a couple of phages. Lily opens the gateway to the Nevernever and it leads to Arctic Tor: the captial of the Winter Court.

Lily tells Harry that she and Fix cannot go with Harry. She gives Harry a fire butterfly to protect them from the cold and to guide them. Harry, Murphy, Thomas, and Charity to the castle fortess and realize it has been attack by someone using Hellfire. They keep moving until they are ambushed but a army of phages. Thomas and Murphy stall them whie Charity and Harry keep searching for Molly.

They find her at the top of a ice garden. The Scarecrow is stopping them from taking her. Harry and Charity fight the Scarecrow who seems to be more powerful them a normal phage. They are almost beaten when Harry find out his weakness and uses the fire butterfly power to destory the Scarecrow. When he threw the fire at the Scarecrow he also hit the Winter wellspring which upset every being in the Winter Court. They run out of there and they make it though the gate. Harry realizes they have been used by Lily to distract the beings of Winter.

They go back to the church and Molly decides give herself to the White Council. The meeting is set up and only two of the Senior Council can make it to the meeting. The Merlin and The Gatekeeper which does not go well. The Merlin votes to have Molly executed right there and then. Harry stalls them by telling them to let the Gatekeeper vote. Which at that time the Gatekeeper opens the door and lets Listen-to-Winds, Eb McCoy, and Martha Liberty in who are attack by Outsiders. They also have Michael with them. They vote not to execute Molly and she becomes Harry's apprentice, similar to Harry's being taken in by McCoy after the murder of Justin Dumourne. Harry and Molly are put under the Doom of Damocles. Harry makes Molly go live with her parents which she isn't happy about.

Murphy tells Harry that she has lost SI and is demoted to Sergent. At Harry 's apartment Ebenezer McCoy tells them that there has to be traitor within the Senior Council. Harry also thinks the same; Dresden and McCoy refer to this new power as the "Black Council".

Plot points introduced

* Lasciel: Harry continues to negotiate with Lasciel (the Fallen who inhabits the coin he touched in Death Masks). She aids him in one combat by creating an illusion overlaying a darkened room. She tries, and fails, to prevent him from a spell she believes would be suicidal. Harry tells Michael about Lasciel.
* Queen Mab: Harry goes into Arctis Tor, the heart of Winter to rescue Molly Carpenter. There are some suspicions that Mab may be insane. He still owes Mab two favors.
* The War: Due to Harry's efforts, the White Council is successful in defending against a Red attack on the Venatori Umbrorum in Oregon. The Reds counterattacked at Captain Luccio's boot camp for new warders. It remains evident that there is a traitor among the White Council but his or her identity is still unknown. Harry and Ebenezar list as suspects Capt. Luccio, Morgan, Injun Joe, the Merlin, and Ancient Mai.
* The Council: Harry outmaneuvers the Merlin and becomes responsible for Molly Carpenter under the Doom of Damocles.

Characters

Characters that return are in bold, major characters are Italic.
* "Harry Dresden": Professional wizard and main character of the book
* 'Bob': A intelligent air spirit who lives inside a skull in Dresden's sub-basement laboratory, formerly owned by the infamous necromancer Kemmler
* Thomas: Harry's half-brother, White Court vampire. During this book he moves out of Harry's house, but his source of income is unclear.
* Molly Carptenter: Michael Carpenter's daughter, a young wizard
* Charity Carpenter: Michael's wife and Molly's mother. A skilled arms/armor smith and melee combatant. Has distrusted Harry since her introduction because his appearance often means that Michael will be in danger.

Minor Appearances
* Michel Carpenter: a Knight of the Sword, bearer of Amoracchius (King Arthur's sword)
* Fix: The Summer Knight
* "'Fr. Forthill": priest of St. Mary of the Angels church.
* Lasciel: One of the Fallen. Harry touched a coin and made contact with her in Death Masks
* Lily: The Summer Lady
* Mac: owner of McAnally's tavern
* Mister: Dresden's 30+ pound house cat
* Mouse: Harry's dog, described as part wolly mammoth (introduced in Blood Rites). More clearly established as more than a mere canine.
* Donald Morgan: Commander of the Wardens, second in command to Captain Luccio. Generally Harry's nemesis, but here agreeing with Harry about Molly's fate.
* "Lieutenant Karrin Murphy": Director of Special Investigations. She is busted to Detective Sgt. because she was away from an investigation for a day helping Harry.

New Characters
* Darby Crane: Horror movie producer and also Madrigal Raith, a White Court vampire who feeds on fear
* Lucius Glau: Crane's lawyer and a jann (child of a djinn and a mortal).
* Detective Sgt. Greene: Homicide detective assigned to investigate one of Harry's cases, a skeptic about magic.
* Nelson: young drug addict who Molly ensorcells to be afraid of narcotics to help him end his addiction
* Rawlins: Police officer who sees Harry in action and later becomes an SI detective
* Rosanna: young (and pregnant) drug addict who Molly ensorcells to be afraid of narcotics so that her addiction won't harm her baby.
* Lydia Stern: New reporter for the Midwestern Arcane

Proven Guilty in Other Media

Proven Guilty is not yet available as an audiobook.

External links

The first three chapters of the book may be found on the [http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/8/fullpreview.php author's official site] .