The Law

[vincentric]

The nasties were Ice Spiders from Winter originally placed to stop Harry or others on the way from Edinburgh to Chicago, by Maeve. This confirms the Way to Demonreach is also in Winter.

Again, you have no evidence, just speculation. The spiders could have been summoned just like Binder's goons are. Maybe Peabody or his ally just had a standing pact with them like Eb with the bird guys in Changes. We just don't know enough to make conclusive statements.

[Basil]

Peabody set the spiders to watch the Way from Chicago to Scotland, not Mab. He's been wary of Dresden, since he was one of the few Wardens that Peabody couldn't influence.  They showed up to assist on the Island as well.  Even assuming the spiders are somehow associated with Winter, Mab was having quite a few rebel issues until Cold Days cleared that right up. 

I think Peadbody and Rashid know different Ways to the Island as evidenced that they arrived at different Island locations.  Keep in mind, that the Ways work as travel short cuts because different spots near each other in the Real World can be very far apart in the Never Never and vis versa. I don't think it's like a bus route where you get off at your stop.   

As for what is on the Other Side of the Island, I suspect it is the realm of Hades -- not the vault, but the prison.  Hades made it pretty clear how very similar Hades is to Dresden -- down to pet preferences. 

[Arjan]

Maeve was there in te background and she had summoned the spiders.

[JTass]

OK, I just got my monthly credit from Audible yesterday and listened to The Law last night into today, so I'm coming a bit late to this party.

I have to say that right off the bat, there were a few things that really struck me in terms of Harry's attitude/behavior:
First off, Harry goes on and on about Trip's epic stupidity in not bowing to Harry's intimidation techniques. There are a couple of flaws in this train of thought. Harry relied almost entirely on his reputation to intimidate Trip. This fails magnificently when Trip either hasn't heard or doesn't believe the stories about the Wizard of Chicago.
The second time Harry threatens him, Trip hits the nail on the head when he says that he asked around about Harry, and everyone agrees that Harry is known for being a guy trying to be a White Hat, and that Harry doesn't have the stones to do anything more than rough him up a bit.

Secondly, for various reasons (PTSD, ethical conflict, battle fatigue, or whatever), Harry threatens Trip but has no intention of actually enforcing the consequences. The is either enormous stupidity or arrogance on Harry's part. Trip might not be the brightest bulb in the knife drawer, but he's cunning enough to recognize that Harry is bluffing.
In the same vein as the old saying "Never give an order that you know won't be obeyed," one should never make a threat without being willing to follow through on it. If someone calls your bluff, it makes you look weak and reduces your credibility.

[Mira]

I have to say that right off the bat, there were a few things that really struck me in terms of Harry's attitude/behavior:
First off, Harry goes on and on about Trip's epic stupidity in not bowing to Harry's intimidation techniques. There are a couple of flaws in this train of thought. Harry relied almost entirely on his reputation to intimidate Trip. This fails magnificently when Trip either hasn't heard or doesn't believe the stories about the Wizard of Chicago.

Harry's mistake was not taking into account the Supernatural world and the government's attempt to explain away what happened.  Hence the explanation that basically something was in the air and water that cause hallucinations, so don't believe your lying eyes.. So Trip's reaction, "oh it's the heebie jeebies, this isn't real got to go and lie down now."  So in a sense since Harry most likely had some say in the coverup he was hoisted by his own petard when Trip failed be scared and instead fell back on the idea that he was suffering from a from of PTSD flashback and needed to go take a nap.

Secondly, for various reasons (PTSD, ethical conflict, battle fatigue, or whatever), Harry threatens Trip but has no intention of actually enforcing the consequences. The is either enormous stupidity or arrogance on Harry's part. Trip might not be the brightest bulb in the knife drawer, but he's cunning enough to recognize that Harry is bluffing.

Or what he recognized was, Harry wasn't a killer, because Trip is a killer, so it takes one to know one I guess, but at the same time he failed to recognize how dangerous Harry is... A lot of Trip's language was straight out of "The God Father," he is very much in the mold of the guy that married the Godfather's daughter at the beginning of both the movie and the book. He is a real bully,jerk, small time crook, not someone with brains.  Cunning isn't exactly the same as smart, being cunning enabled Trip to exploit women for his own gain, but if he were really smart he wouldn't have ended up swimming with the fishes,courtesy the St Louis Mob.

[Dina]

Hello everyone!
I just finished reading The Law (kindle version). I have not read this thread yet because I wanted to comment without any influence. Obviously SPOILERS AHEAD
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I liked the general plot and I was very glad to have Harry back in action, especially in the PI business. Still, I think some things were off, especially at the beginning. Particularly, Harry seemed too undecided, between being a harsh, cold bully (which he claims to hate) and being regretful of all the spilled blood in the battle, and therefore going to peace. I mean, I understand the general demeanor is "I can be violent, but not a killer" but still felt weird.
I also think that the relationship with Marcone is weird. It should not be a revelation for anyone, let alone Harry himself, that he respected Marcone and Marcone respected him. Still, Harry has ground to treat him with comptempt. Yes, Marcone fought for Chicago, he risked his own life to save a lot of lives. But he also exploits many of those lives, he is a gangster, not Father Forthill 
I also thought that in the meeting Dresden was generous with them, they all owed him more than what they gave him. Dresden saved the life of the man, that should have some merit. I am glad Marcone did not ask for the life of the hag, I wish Harry had thanked him for that after Mab left. (I am not schizophrenic about Marcone, I just try to see the whole picture. The man is amazing, he is clever, ruthless, brave and fair according to his own code, but he is also a criminal. I acknowledge the good things he does).

Things I liked a lot:
   No Maggie 
   Bob
   Paranoid Gary and Will
   A Mister cameo
   Harry actually checking to see if Maya was not tricking him. 
   A reference to the search for Justine.
   Max! I loved him (Max Valerous has to be a fake name, right? Like the man is a Palladin, with a D&D name).
 I actually will be happy to read some stories about Max in the future. He could be a good friend of Michael. Perhaps Jim could one day make a collection of short stories about people "touched" by Dresden, where Dresden appears and is an important character, but it is not the main one, and not the narrator. We could have Marcone, Will, Paranoid Gary, Butters, 
Goodman Gray, Lara, Max, a random police officer (perhaps the one that cameos here), Fitz, Morty and yes, Maggie. We lack women, so perhaps Gard instead of Marcone. (Sidhe are complicated, I do not want to see Elaine, and there are no other interesting women).

Other things I did not like
Woman punished for taking revenge against a jerk (I agree in universe she should, they are good reasons, but I still wish the men acknowledged more of what the jerk did to her, and took that in consideration for lessening her punishement. The meeting where there were many men deciding things and she was not even able to speak was cringeworthy, even if the final decision went to a woman).
Bob not realizing Talvi Inverno meant Winter Winter, so obviously a vassal or something from Winter.

[Dina]

No Mouse, but we get introduced to a Basset Hound Peppermint, a friend for Mouse? No Toot so this must be set more than 2 weeks before Little Things. Marcone’s reaction to losing the Castle to Harry strongly suggests he was not responsible for the Boom, especially after a car bomb attempt on the Munstermobile ended badly for him. He never repeats a mistake. The Merlin is even more strongly a candidate for that.

We don’t see the Gargoyles, obviously they are being saved for NEXT BOOK.

I think Nameless and Ms Laplander and Max will likely end up in Goodman Grey’s stories, and The Law is a good way of introducing them to the Dresdenverse. Max I think will be in NEXT BOOK following his invitation to Game Knight (you bet everyone is calling it that behind Harry’s back).

Sorry about the double post. I began watching the thread and I wanted to say that Game Knight is perfect 
Also, if it is true that we will have Goodman Grey stories, Max will be a given, I agree.

Yes, he does, and at that point in time, he is dealing with his grief and injuries, the castle is still
being repaired and remodeled.  So in many ways it would be best if she remain at the Carpenters for the moment.  Notice Mouse isn't at the castle either, he is with her.  Except for Marcone's threat to sic the city health department on him, Mouse isn't mentioned either.

What? Marcone did not dare to threat Mouse, I am sure?

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Try looking up Valerious Maximus, a Roman, Harry would be familiar with the name as his works are heavily used in teaching Latin.

Marcone threatened McAnally’s the pub, not Mouse the pup, a poster reading too late.

A couple of revelations about Nameless which link into the files.

1. Nameless worked with (not for) Kemmler. This is the first instance of an associate of Kemmler NOT being a Kemmlerite. This is important, Nameless would have known about Bob and the information he contained about The Word, and given what he is would have been dismissive of the Kemmlerites. There is exactly one other character who also fulfills those criteria. COWL.

2. Nameless was kicked out of Arctis Tor after the attack on it, suggesting he was complicit in it, we know that attack was by the Circle /Black Council and we know COWL is a member.

On this basis I have put forward the theory that Nameless is Cowl. We have for years been saying that this or that  character is/was Cowl, but what if we met Cowl first? That Cowl in his actual persona been keeping out of Harry’s orbit but close enough to keep an eye on the Wizard who has unexpectedly ruined his plans before? Harry only went to the Gold Coast to visit Thomas and Justine, and the last time he was there he and Eb were attacked by Outsiders. Was Nameless or Laplander responsible for whistling them in? Was Nameless colluding with Nemesis?

Cowl provided the infected Athame which infected Lea in Grave Peril, he adopted the disguise to avoid being recognised. Lea would have recognised him from Winter if he were Nameless, and using magic to disguise himself would have made his stick out like a sore thumb. He was also delivering the Sword to Mavra as part of a wider exchange and was responsible for an unspecified gift to Mr Ferro.

Mavra wanted Harry to find The Word in Dead Beat, but no one, not Mavra or Cowl knew Bob contained the Word, so Mavra may have been working for Cowl.

[Dina]

Thank you, I just finished the thread. I am now aware of the confussion about Mouse. I still find weird that Marcone chose to threat the pub. I mean, we know he would never threat a child, so Maggie is safe. And he would not threat Eb because he is too powerful, but he could threat any other of Harry's allies. Probably not the Knights (Namshiel is not stupid) but the Alphas, Morty, Lamar, Rawlins, the paranetters, Gary, Forthill. For different reasons, I would think it is OOC for Marcone to do something to most of them, but he could have make the threat knowing how Dresden would react. But McAnally's? Accorded neutral territory? Protected by the placard, I believe? With an angelic owner? And a place of reunion for many supernatural folks? It is weird. 

I saw your theory about Cowl. It is possible, but my main objection is that I believed Harry knew Cowl before. I mean, he thought Cowl was hiding his identity because he knew him. And Harry never met the nameless son until now.

By the way, I loved that Harry used his brain in this novella. Like Mira, I thought the novella got better with time and for me in part was for that. In the beginning is as @JTass said, Harry seemed weird making not credible threats.

Oh, I wished we had seen at least a glimpse of Inverno after being defeated again for an (alleged) mortal.

[morriswalters]

Mavra wanted Harry to find The Word in Dead Beat, but no one, not Mavra or Cowl knew Bob contained the Word, so Mavra may have been working for Cowl.

Cowl knew evil Bob  resided within Bob and thus had the Word Of  Kemmler.  It's why he took Bob from Murphy's house. He didn't need the book.

This was what Marva feared.

I've read Kemmler's book. I know how the Darkhallow works. And I know how to turn necromancy against the Black Court."

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Exactly, he didn’t know Harry had Bob but Harry carelessly left him out in Murphy’s, Cowl saw Bob, recognised him and couldn’t believe his luck, he had The Word, without having to retrieve the actual document.

My guess is that people were aware Kemmler had a stash and thought that Bob was part of the stash, so they were looking for the stash rather than Bob specifically, however Justin took Bob on the defeat of Kemmler,  (which means Justin and Cowl were not working together, Justin must have been working for someone else) When Boney Tony found the stash everyone was alerted a copy of The Word existed and converged on Chicago.

It is worrying that Kemmler had his stash in Chicago, relatively close to Demonreach and likely birthplace of the Starborn of the next cycle. Unlikely to be a coincidence.

[vincentric]

Exactly, he didn’t know Harry had Bob but Harry carelessly left him out in Murphy’s, Cowl saw Bob, recognised him and couldn’t believe his luck, he had The Word, without having to retrieve the actual document.

My guess is that people were aware Kemmler had a stash and thought that Bob was part of the stash, so they were looking for the stash rather than Bob specifically, however Justin took Bob on the defeat of Kemmler,  (which means Justin and Cowl were not working together, Justin must have been working for someone else) When Boney Tony found the stash everyone was alerted a copy of The Word existed and converged on Chicago.

It is worrying that Kemmler had his stash in Chicago, relatively close to Demonreach and likely birthplace of the Starborn of the next cycle. Unlikely to be a coincidence.

Has to be a big coincidence doesn't it? After all Kemmler doesn't know where Demonreach is located so stashing his stuff in Chicago was just too lucky

[morriswalters]

The stash as you call it was hidden somewhere, it doesn't say where. It may have been Justin's from the attack on Kemmler, and the book doesn't speak to the location of Justin's lair. The book suggests that Cowl knew Harry had Bob and he followed him when he had to abandon ship and take Bob away from the safety of his threshold. Here's the relevant quote.

"You still don't have the Word. How are you going to manage the Darkhallow without it?"

For an answer, Cowl carefully lowered the hammer on my revolver and turned away. And he laughed, quietly, under his breath.

This is just after Kumori has taken Bob from the kitchen.

I doubt you'll agree with this but PG and DB are complementary. DB actually gives the reason for the attack on Arctis Tor. And there are at least two ways that Cowl could have known that Harry possessed Bob.

[Mira]

The stash as you call it was hidden somewhere, it doesn't say where. It may have been Justin's from the attack on Kemmler, and the book doesn't speak to the location of Justin's lair. The book suggests that Cowl knew Harry had Bob and he followed him when he had to abandon ship and take Bob away from the safety of his threshold. Here's the relevant quote.

Or it could have been a very good guess.  Or better yet, like Justin, Cowl may have been a Warden before he went warlock, or he could have gotten inside information from Peabody if he was corrupted that early.  If he had inside information, Cowl would know that the Wardens didn't recover Bob when they killed Kemmler.  Who that we know of retired not long after that? Justin. Cowl may have known about that as well as know about the adoption of Harry and Elaine and why Justin adopted them.  He would also know because of his inside information that after Harry killed Justin and Elaine fled, again no Bob was found.  For some reason he didn't believe that Elaine had him, so that would leave Harry.  So he had Harry closely watched after that, and after Harry was on his own Bob was allowed out of his skull once in a while on missions.. That wouldn't go unnoticed by Cowl or his spy.

[morriswalters]

There are a thousand ways to interpret what happened.  So any or all of that could be true. Butcher sketches a story and lets the reader add color and detail with their imaginations.

What the text implies directly is that Cowl knew Harry had Bob and under what conditions Harry would expose him in a way that would let Cowl obtain him.  Cowl never sought either of the two books in the same sense as the other Necromancers. As the leader of the Black Council, of who we assume that Peabody is a member, he had access to the source of one of the books, Peabody.  There is a antagonist who knew about Bob.  Lash. 

One of the more interesting things in the book at second glance is how well Lash can manipulate Harry's reality. Harry receives a phone call from her.