Don’t get me wrong...I’m glad to get Dresden back, especially after a long hiatus. There were some strong points to the story, especially Battle Ground. But Characters acting out of character and  dubious or incoherent plot points all took me out of the story. Rather than being immersed in Dresdens world, I was constantly booted out by the glaring flaws in the storytelling.

Yes battleground was action packed. Yes battleground had interesting reveals. But peace talks/battleground was also dumb.

Exhibit A) Thomas. If Justine is nemfected, in what way does throwing your life away help in any way shape or form. Even if it was just a gambit to buy some time, he didn’t tell anyone about the situation, so how can he reasonably expect his child and love to be saved? Thomas is many things, but not dumb. A big part of the plot hinges on Thomas being dumb.
Exhibit B) Thomas ending up in Demonreach. This is an odd turn to say the least. We have never seen a wampire that’s alive yet unable to heal itself. Basically if they’re alive they’re healing. That’s been true the entire series. But suddenly Thomas is dying, and Harry’s solution is to entomb how at Demonreach? That’s gimmicky. And a serious contingency of nemesis’ plan is for Thomas to end up entombed there. That just doesn’t track.
Exhibit C) Harry’s conjuritis or whatever it’s called. What point did this serve? It’s a weird tonal shift. And it’s extremely odd Harry’s never heard of it. And it doesn’t seem to tax Harry. If he can be dropping 1000 pound anvils on blampires, why doesn’t he do that instead of inneffectively yelling “forzare”

So what happens in chapter 2?