The demon Chaunzaggoroth told Harry both his parents died unnatural deaths.  Assuming the demon wasn't lying, we can easily guess that Harry will want payback if the perpetrator is an obvious bad guy like Cowl or Lara Raith. (I don't think either of them are responsible.)  There won't be anything he can do if Justin DuMorne was the murderer and was solely responsible for Malcolm's death.  (No Justin IS dead.) 

I think the reason why Harry hasn't tried to determine if Chauncy was telling the truth about the deaths of both of his parents isn't that he had nowhere to search.  Harry is a wizard with both major and minor contacts within the supernatural world and on the White Council.  Aside from supernatural beings, Harry could have asked Ebenezer, Luccio or even Morgan when he was dragging him around in Turn Coat, if the Council had any knowledge of Malcolm Dresden's death beyond when it occurred. 

How did the White Council know Harry was Margaret LeFay's son?  Presumably the Council either knew this before Harry became Justin's ward or they learned about it after Justin died.   In the first scenario the Council approved that Justin was teaching Harry.  In the latter scenario the Council did an investigation after Justin died and discovered the truth then.  Ebenezer met Malcolm Dresden and may have even soulgazed him, but that doesn't mean he reported this meeting to the Council.

I'm not saying anyone on the White Council could give Harry the information he'd be looking for.  It's possible none of them know anything about Malcolm Dresden other than his name, date of death and possibly his profession.  So why didn't Harry ask any of the three people I named if they knew anything?  OK, maybe asking Morgan is a stretch because of the stress and time constraints Harry was working under in Turn Coat, but there were times both onscreen and off when Harry could have asked either or both Ebenezer and Luccio about Malcolm Dresden.

Here's my answer to the above question and I've said this in another post.  I think Harry knows there is a potential volcano of anger over the death of his father just waiting to erupt if he discovers his father was murdered.  Before he learned the truth about his mother's death Harry could tell himself that Chauncy was lying.  He can't do that any longer.  I think deep down Harry is afraid to ask any further questions in this area, so he blocks any and all thinking about this at all.  So the question I am asking in the subject of this thread is what will Harry do if:

1. Ebenezer murdered his father on orders from the Council?
2. The Council knew Justin had Harry's father murdered but looked the other way because Justin didn't do it himself, meaning he didn't break any of the Laws of magic, and they felt safer with a former Warden teaching Harry?
3. Lea murdered his father because of a deal she had with Justin?
4. Lea knew Malcolm Dresden was going to be murdered but did nothing because Malcolm's safety wasn't covered by her deal with Margaret?
5.  Or some other really ugly scenario featuring the above players or anyone else Harry trusts or at least doesn't think of as pure evil?

You see, I think that just because Harry's life was turned upside down after Changes and he's had to adjust to an entire new set of threats and responsibilities that he still hasn't faced his greatest emotional challenge.  Sooner or later the truth will come out about Malcolm's death and Harry will be faced with a real moral dilemma.  I think Margaret LeFay's murder will have been simple by comparison.  A bad guy wanted revenge and a bad guy got revenge. 

What do you think will happen?  Perhaps this will be when LTW teaches Harry how to deal with anger?  Perhaps you think Harry has other issues or mysteries that will bring him personal grief.  Discuss.   

   

Yes!

But it feels like the moment has passed. That was a huge, huge offer Harry got after Turn Coat, and I can't believe he never pursued it.

I used to think LTW could help Harry with the problems the Winter Knight's mantle creates for him, but I'm no longer certain that's the case.  Harry was angry about the way he was mistreated by Justin, by the Council after Justin's death, by the continued harassment of Warden Morgan, finding out his mother was murdered by Lord Raith; and I bet part of the reason Harry has never talked about the possibility his father was also murdered; even though he has good reason to suspect that was the case, is that it could unleash a volcano of anger that Harry would have no way to control or vent at anyone or anything.

Now Harry's more immediate problem is the Winter Knight's mantel pushing violent aggressive images and feelings on him.  However, a lot of those images and feelings aren't about deep seated anger issues, they're often territorial or sexual in nature, and they get ramped up to intoxicatingly dangerous levels by the Knight's mantel.

I'm not certain there would be a match between what LTW could teach Harry and what he is going through now.  Plus, there are times when Harry needs to draw on the vicious power of Winter to get the job done.  If Harry suddenly went Zen Master cool, not only could that get real boring real fast it might create problems of its own.  The level of suppression Harry would need to completely master Winter Knight's mantel might slow him down when he really needed to let go and kiss ass.

If Harry gets some degree of training from LTW, I won't be surprised if most of it happens off screen.  Harry has a conversation or two with LTW in Peace Talks.  Maybe Harry gets a simple lesson or two, and then in the next book Harry tells us he has been practising meditation techniques LTW taught him after PT or had him study after PT.

We don't necessarily know what Martha's comment was referring to, as Harry has been meant to be a lot of things.  Though that could be it.

Jim has said that the Council has a lot of info but hasn't yet put two and two together, so at large, they may or may not know until they actually think about it.

Yea, some people think Martha Liberty was saying that Harry was meant to be an enforcer for Justin, and I believe I read a post a long time ago, where someone suggested Harry was meant to be part of whatever scheme Margaret cooked up with Lord Raith and Duchess Arianna.  That one a total WAG, because we don't have a clue of what that scheme was, just that Ebenezer was against it.

As far as non-plot moments; maybe we should call them minor plot moments, I'd like to see Harry tell Murphy about her father, though I don't think Harry could just blurt it out, it would have to be prompted by something Murphy said about her father that would push Harry to talk about meeting her dad.  Though I suppose Harry would also have to mention that he met Detective Carmichael.  That would be an interesting conversation to read.   

My prediction was Peace Talks would have between 54 and 56 chapters, so it's 4 chapters past my highest guestimate now.  I predicted Jim would finish between April 18 and May 12, so I'm still in the ballpark there.  At the time I made my prediction Jim was averaging one chapter every 8 days, but now he's averaging one chapter every 4 to 5 days, that's why Jim's finish date may still fall within my estimated time frame.

I'm wondering if Jim has only 1 to 3 chapters to finish or if it could be more like 8 to 10 chapters, or something in between.  I hope it's a lower number.  Jim is attending a Con around the July 4 weekend in Layton, UT.  (I should go to that one.)  Maybe he could read 3 or 4 chapters, like he has done in the past.  (That's probably not going to happen, but it's a fun idea.

There's a possibility it was Leanansidhe according to WOJ whatever the godmother deal was, it's something Harry will duel Leanansidhe for. Could be Malcolms murder.

There is more than one plausible explanation to this WOJ that involves the Leanansidhe.  One is that Lea was aware that Malcolm was going to be murdered but did nothing to interfere with the crime because protecting Malcolm wasn't part of the deal she made with Margaret.  Had she determined that protecting Malcolm was necessary to protect Harry she would have done so.

Another, more sinister explanation, is that Lea herself is the murderer.  Perhaps part of deal Margaret made with Lea was to protect Harry from supernatural threats.  Being a practical member of the Winter Court, Lea would have realized that the best way to protect Harry was to see that he could eventually protect himself, at least from the most obvious threats.  In order to achieve this goal, Harry would need someone who could teach him how to use his magic.  Justin DuMorne would fulfill this role until the time when Lea would teach Harry to defend himself from Justin. 

Under this scenario it's likely that Lea made a side deal with Justin to remove Malcolm.  Lea didn't have any animosity towards Malcolm and because of her respect for Margaret she made Malcolm's death as peaceful as possible.

By the way, even under the first scenario where Lea isn't the killer, just an impassive viewer; Lea may have decided that should Harry develop magical ability, Justin would be be a good teacher.  Again being a practical sidhe, this decision saved Lea from the type of effort she had to put in to train Molly.  The fact that Harry is institutionalized during his childhood in either scenario was irrelevant to Lea.  in her eyes it may have helped protect Harry from more mundane threats he might have faced as he moved from place to place with his father.         

Wasn't there an ongoing power struggle between White Council factions when we last saw them in Changes?

Yes, and we have no idea how it played out.  So I'm expecting we'll get some kind of explanation of what happened.  The only guess I can make in Senior Council member Cristos gained more power. 

Now that I think about it, I think the White Council is in something of a fragil state.  It's not really united, and I think that because of the prediction we got from Rashid in Turn Coat when he said to Harry, "It's not your hour" to challenge the Council to combat.  That suggests the White Council is or will become a total mess at some point.

Progress: Jim's up to chapter 58 now.  Whoever predicted PT will be 62 chapters long is still on track.

Well, yeah, they've gotten their butts handed to them when we've seen them fight characters with Plot Armor. I'm just judging from the information we got between Ghost Story and Skin Game, which kinda indicated that the Council was scrambling, to the point that they pretty much ignore North America to maintain order in Europe (with the exception of Bill, Carlos (currently out of action), and maybe another warden or two I can't remember).

Regardless, I phrased it poorly; I didn't mean that the Council was losing , especially not open confrontations. I meant that the Council was fighting a war of attrition, and not doing great. I mean, one dead wizard is more of a blow than, what, a hundred dead Fomor servitors? I don't know how many of them there are, I'm just going based on Fantasy Rules (for every "hero," there are approximately one quadrillion orcs/goblins/Red Court Vampires/Lilliputians.)

Your post makes me wonder about Marcone and the White Court and what kind of losses they have been taking to hold onto the territory they claim within Chicago.  I remember the negotiation session Murphy had with Marcone's proxy in Ghost Story when they traded small bits of territory.  I don't remember the specifics of what their negotiation was about, but the important thing is that Murphy's people and Marcone would have to be willing to fight to hold on to what they had against the Fomor.  The same is true for Lara Raith and the rest of the White Court.

Now Marcone and Lara could use hired guns, but that would get pretty expensive because they would have to be highly trained people to go up against Fomor servitors.  Not the same thing as hiring people for a one time job like Marcone did in the Raith Deeps.  It makes me wonder how much Marcone and Lara would want a settlement with the Fomor or if either or both would really like the White Council to go all out against the Fomor and solve their problem for them.

As of April 4th, 2019, the current draft of the novel is up to chapter 56. 

I must say wow the book is getting long and Jim is really knocking out chapters lately.

We should have had pool going to guess how many chapters this book will have.

As of March 28nd, 2019, the current draft of the novel is up to chapter 52. Progress! 

Peace Talks may end up being the longest Dresden Files to date, at least in the number of chapters.  Cold Days had 53 chapters and the highest word count.  Now look at the various issues PT may cover.  Obviously something is going to happen at the talks Harry will have to deal with.  We haven't seen anyone from the White Council since Changes, so there's bound to be some drama with the Council beyond Harry providing security for White Council negotiators.  In Cold Days, Thomas told Harry that Lara was getting scary.  As we can expect the White Court to be a part of the Peace Talks I expect we will get some White Court drama too.  Marcone should also play a role here.  Then there's what's going on with Ivy might be called in to help negotiate a settlement, so we may see both her and Kincade.  Plus, isn't she a teenager now?  That alone could provide some interesting complications.  After Molly showed up in the Christmas eve short, short story; I think it's a good guess she may represent the Winter Court in some fashion in Peace Talks.  Murphy might be doing rehab after all the injuries she suffered in Skin Game, but she might have a scene or two with Harry.  Plus, there's the whole "Murphy's funeral" thing Jim trolled us with.

Now some of the above guesses may not play out, but I bet most of them do.  Plus there are the wild cards to consider.  What complications could Mavra, Cowl or Elaine bring to the story?  Finally, I know some people have thought the Eebs could show up as the leaders of the new Red Court.  I'm not betting on that one, but you never know.

So I'm going to make another guess, just for fun.  Peace Talks will end up having 55 total chapters, give or take one chapter.  I think it's fair to say Jim is getting pretty close to the end.