Finished Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher. This is the eighth book in his popular Harry Dresden urban fantasy series.

In this one, Harry is called upon to investigate a series of attacks at Splattercon, a sci-fi/horror convention by the daughter of one of his friends. Someone is making people’s worst fears — in this case, characters from horror films — come to life. The result? A lot of dead and injured people. And, of course, Harry finds himself in deep trouble when he tries to put a stop to it …

I like the Dresden series a lot. Harry is a strong, funny, wise-cracking wizard, and I always enjoy seeing the supporting characters, especially Mouse, Murphy, Thomas, and Bob in his skull. (I adore Bob and his love of romance novels.) And I thought the Splattercon angle and all the magic and mayhem associated with that was a clever wink-wink sort of spoof of the horror genre. There’s also a nice twist with who is behind the attacks and why.

But I do have some quibbles. Mainly, I want something to happen with Harry and Murphy besides the two of them talking about what a bad idea getting together would be. We’re eight books into the series now — put Harry with Murphy or give him another love interest. But I guess this is just the romance writer in me talking. I want Harry to have his happily ever after … at least until the next book.

Also, I felt like I had read some of the magical stuff before and that maybe some of the world building/explanation could be cut down. I realize what Butcher is doing — explaining his world/magic to folks who maybe haven’t read all the other books. It’s the same thing all authors have to do (including me). Still, I thought it could be trimmed just a bit.

But overall, this another solid entry into the Dresden series. Thumbs up.

Up next: Get Real by Donald E. Westlake

Books in my TBR pile: About 15.