I disagree on the timing of when Justine was infected by Nemesis.  If fact, I'm going to start a separate thread on this topic.

I'm near the end of rereading; well, mostly re-listening to all of the Dresden Files case file books.  On my first read through and then listening to the audio book of Peace Talks, I just assumed that Cowl was around but keeping out of sight.  He makes a good suspect for summoning the cornerhounds and I think there was even a WoJ that came out a few years ago that Cowl is sometimes operating in the background but we just don't see him.  (Yes, I know there were threads on this subject back in the day, I don't think any of them caught what I'm about to mention.)

However, this last time I was struck by what Warden Chandler said to Harry just after Harry left the Raith chateau:
Chandler’s smile didn’t falter. But it took on an aspect of granite, somehow. “No one’s that disingenuous, Dresden. The Winter Lady gets you quarters inside the svartalf embassy. Not long after, a known personal agent of Lara Raith and a frequent ally of your own gets inside, somehow, and attempts to assassinate Etri. Hours later, you visit the assassin’s significant other, then have a meeting with Ms. Raith.”

“Um,” I said. “Sure, I mean, when you put it like that, I see how that might look a little suspicious… ”

I swear, sometimes I just want to hit Harry upside his head.  He either doesn't know how to defend himself from false allegations or he misses an obvious clue.  In this case it may have been both.  By the way I'm not accusing Chandler of anything specific.  He just happened to be the warden who spoke directly to Harry.

Harry should have mentioned that Chandler's description of Harry's day left out his meeting with the two current KotC and one former KotC.  That by itself goes against the narrative that Harry was consorting with nefarious characters all day.  Perhaps even more glaring, Harry could have asked, "If you were following me around, why didn't you help me and Senior Council member McCoy when we were attacked by Outsiders today?  You must have seen that after I visited Justine, I didn't leave immediately.  I was checking for magical trace energy outside of her apartment when McCoy appeared.  We had a brief discussion before a herd of cornerhounds came after us.  It would have been nice if there had been some wardens around to help out."

I'm wondering if all of the wardens followed Harry around or if they did it in shifts.  Actually, it makes sense that Ramirez did the following, he's the one who had the magical ink on his hand that would allow him to follow Harry around.  He could have contacted the other wardens through magical means when he wanted all of them to confront Harry outside the Raith estate.  That makes Warden Ramirez's actions look very sloppy or makes them look very questionable. 

Plus, Ramirez was obviously more than physically injured by what Molly did to him.  There's more going on with Ramirez than what has been openly stated.


   

 

I actually like Lara as a continuing love interest. She won't be as hands-on as Murphy (As an active sidekick at least, personal life will be the exact opposite.) but if she's assigning Freydis to him and giving him money and information then she taking over Murphy's roles. ...


And wouldn't it be like Jim to remove Harry's protection and still have Harry's touch burn her when he kisses the bride.

I agree that there is some chemistry between Harry and Lara, even if she is a monster.  I could see a bond building between them during the next story.  I suppose that at some point the dates between them will collide with Harry dealing with supernatural shenanigans.  Near the end of the story during the final date both Harry and Lara are forced to fight, but not simply to survive.  Each of them will be willing to lay down their life to help the other survive, neither of them knowing the other is still up and fighting. (Or some variation of this scenario.)  No greater love than to lay down your life for another.  So Lara getting burned by Harry on their wedding day isn't an impossible idea, just an unlikely one.

I know this idea is more than a little fanfictionee.  (Yes, I just made up a new word. Deal with it. )  Aside from being a shipper's delight it would create a real dilemma for Lara.  if the members of the White Court found out Lara had fallen in love it would probably destroy her credibility as the leader of the Court.  I don't think Mab would very happy with this turn of events either.  She talked about combining bloodlines.  That couldn't happen if Lara gets burned every time she touches Harry.  Plus, Harry would also be tortured by both his desire for Lara and the Winter mantle pushing him to rip her cloths off.

I know someone out there is thinking that Harry knows that Justine found a way around this dilemma, but would Harry want to share this idea with Lara?  It's not something he would be comfortable with, but I'm pretty sure that Lara wouldn't have a problem with it.

What I think is far more likely to happen is a that a real bond will appear to be forming between Harry and Lara, but Lara's demon will assert itself in a really nasty way and this will derail any possibility of a lasting romantic relationship between these two characters.     

I think “nanny” rather than “Bodyguard” Harry has made an enemy of Nameless and Miss Lapland, as a fellow Scandinavian Freydis will be able to give Harry the skinny on them. Typical rivalry between the Swedes and the Finns. I can see Harry running Freydis ragged.

This also equalises his position with Marcone.

Well, yes but does Marcone even need Ms. Gard any longer?  He might need her as a liaison to Vadderung.  Though her magical talents are considerable Marcone has Spiny Boy to advise on matters involving magic.  Perhaps Marcone might keep Gard around for sake of appearance; he doesn't want his partnership with Thorned Namshiel to become known to the general magical community.  Mab, Lara, Odin and anyone else at the post Battle of Chicago meeting already know this because Harry told them by addressing Marcone as Sir Baron, but none of them are likely to talk about what they learned there.  It's possible that Gard doesn't know, unless she witnessed Marcone change during the battle.  Even if Gard doesn't know I would expect her to find out, she's too capable not to figure it out. 

If Ms. Gard was no longer acting as Marcone's bodyguard, then she could become Harry's bodyguard.  For professional reasons Gard couldn't tell Harry anything about Marcone beyond very general information, but knowing that she had potentially critical information would be irritating to Harry, making Gard  a fun choice.
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Who is to say that the new apprentice is an established character? The supercharged magical atmosphere of Battle Ground will have set off any number of prepubescent Wizards to be. Harry is likely to be dealing with a 10-12 year old, whose parents consider Harry a better bet than the White Council. That means someone who knows i.e. a Paranetter family.

When you think about the potential favors Harry owes to the survivors who followed his Banner during the Battle of Chicago, this makes sense.  Someone who saw Harry in action and suddenly found out their son, daughter or younger brother or sister was showing signs of magical talent, Harry would be the logical choice to that person to approach.  They wouldn't know anyone in the White Council, but they would know Harry.   

First, I'd like to know what Rudolph said after the event.  Was Rudolph saying something like, "It's not my fault, I didn't meant to shoot Murphy." or was Rudolph in so much physical pain that he didn't say anything that anyone could make out. 

The second thing is consider how afraid Rudolph must be of Dresden after being nearly crushed to death by Harry's magic.  I know that Rudolph has incredible powers of denial, but he has good reason to believe to Harry would kill him if he tries to weasel his way out of this one.  All Harry would probably need to do to get Rudolph to change a plea from Not Guilty to Guilty is simply show up at a Court Hearing and stare Rudy down.

That said, I have no clue what Jim wants to do with Rudolph.  I could see it going from the extreme of Rudy having a redemption arc to the creep picking up one of the Blackened Denarius coins.   

Currently, I don't believe that Elaine is Kumori, but the earlier thread on this topic got me to ask myself some questions.  These questions have little or nothing to do with that thread, but I think that asking the right questions, usually the simplest questions, might lead to some insights or lead us to ask other questions which have importance to the overall story, regardless of whether Elaine is Kumori.

First, if E=K how did she meet Cowl?  More specifically, when and where did Elaine meet Cowl?  If Elaine is Kumori, barring time travel, Elaine/Kumori must have of met Cowl prior to the events in Grave Peril.  We know this because in Dead Beat Harry recognized that he had seen Cowl and Kumori working as Bianca's flunkies at the vampire's masquerade party in Grave Peril.

However, that creates a problem that some readers might claim precludes Elaine from being Kumori.  After Harry killed Justin DuMorne, Elaine ran away and found sanctuary with the Summer Court, or more specifically with Aurora.  Plus, in Summer Knight, Harry told Elaine that he had searched for her.  I think he said, "I searched for you in fire and water."  So Harry used magical means in an attempt find Elaine, but because she was hiding in the Nevernever Harry's searches were futile.  If Elaine was hiding all that time, how could she have met Cowl?

There are a couple of ways around this objection.  First, for reasons we currently have no way of knowing about, Elaine might not have been the only wizard spending time with the Summer Court.  Elaine could have met Cowl in Summer and fallen under his influence there.  It's possible, but I don't think it's likely.  The reason I don't think it's likely is an Occam's Razor thing.  Unless Jim decides to kill off Kumori and leave her identity a mystery that is never solved, at some point; if E=K, we will get Elaine's backstory and learn how and why she joined forces with Cowl.  Having Elaine first meet Cowl in Summer would force Jim to create additional backstory to explain why Cowl was visiting Summer.  Unless this reason neatly ties in with events in the larger world, this would make the story more complicated than it needs to be.

The second and more logical way for Elaine to have met Cowl is before she went to Summer.  Cowl could hidden Elaine for a few days and either won Elaine over to his cause through persuasion or nemfected her and the implanted personality within Elaine convinced her to work with Cowl.  Cowl could have told Elaine that the only way to remain hidden from the White Council was to disappear for a while and suggested the best way to do this was to approach Summer for help.  Again, the nemfected agent within Elaine would have agreed with this plan and could have directed Elaine to nemfect Aurora once she was in Summer.  In theory, the real Elaine might not even know what she had done.  Elaine might have to have been made into a fine thrall for that to happen, but within the rules of the Dresdenverse it's something that's possible.

This leads to another possible objection; but more importantly, to other questions which have greater relevance to the larger story and to Harry specifically.  As I stated above, in Summer Knight Harry told Elaine that he had searched for her.  So, why didn't Harry find Elaine before she went to Summer?  For one thing, we don't know when Harry learned how to do that kind of a magical search.  Harry might not have learned how to do such a search until after he moved into Ebenezar's place and by that time it was too late to find Elaine.  It's at this point where the questions become really interesting.  If prior to his final showdown with Justin, Harry had learned how to do a magical search which could find Elaine in the mortal world, maybe Harry didn't have the time to perform such a search.  How much time did Harry have before the Wardens found him?  More specifically, exactly how long after Justin's death did the Wardens find Harry and why were they even looking for him or Justin at all?  Finally, whose idea was it to send the Wardens out in the first place?

Even if Elaine isn't Kumori, I think these latter questions may be pivotal to finding out who the other traitor is within the White Council.  Yes, through some arcane timey-wimey means, the Gatekeeper might have seen something to alert him, but do you really think Jim will use that device a second time?  He could, but IMO it's just too convenient, too easy a solution.  I think someone within the Council was in communication with Justin and when the former warden failed to make contact, they set out to find the reason why, or they knew about Harry, guessed what happened to Justin and sent the wardens to find Justin knowing they would find Harry.

I am looking forward to the time when we finally get a flashback scene which features Harry's battle with Justin but one that also tells us when and how Harry was captured by the Wardens.

Mantles are made from the nine we have seen, they do not occur naturally. The only mantle concerning Harry which he owns in on his duster, and over the fireplace in the Castle. Mab owns the Winter Knights ass (does Harry now have a snowflake tramp stamp?)

What is more likely is that Little Chicago inadvertently created an embryo genius loci for Chicago(massively accelerating the natural process) and that Harry bonds with it in the same way he did with Demonreach, so when Harry passes, another wizard can bond with it as the new Wizard of Chicago. Harry had Soulfire after Small Favour so that may have inadvertently kick-started the process, and embryonic Genius Loci escaped the model during the fire (mirroring the Great fire of 1871 which led to major rebuilding) passing into and connecting with the Ley Line network (which Harry modelled in Little Chicago) to draw power.

Demonreach is special and old amongst genius loci, so Chicargo would not be able to gift the same powers to Harry, at least not during his lifetime, but it would for example give Harry a home field advantage in being able to draw more power as he anticipated with the Sanctum invocation involving Demonreach, especially as it will be a big genius loci, whilst operating within Chicago itself, maybe as much as he was able to wield in in Battle Ground.

It is a logical power up given Harry’s recent progression and WOJ about Harry becoming more involved locally in civil affairs, far more than the creation of a Mantle.

I don't think you read my post beyond the first sentence.  I said quite clearly that I doubt the possibility of a mantle being created by Harry becoming the Wizard of Chicago.  What seems more likely to me is Harry becoming recognized as a power in his own right by signing on to Mab's accords as a Free Holding Lord, just like Marcone and the Semi-Immortal Shape Shifter Guru in Ukraine.

   Oh it would be a real hoot if Marcone became the third signer.

I very much agree with you and hope it happens.   However, Marcone would have to have a hell of a good reason to agree to help put Harry on the same political level as himself.