The previous Mother Summer (by implication) wasn't killed, she abdicated ...

1. the mothers - how does a queen become a mother? like after a thousand yrs, old winter dies and mab becomes the new mother?

Essentially abdication.  The previous mother wearies of her duty and moves along.  There's been one new Mother Summer during recorded human history.  Mother Winter has never retired.

Maybe I'll start it again this weekend.

I agree, I think it's going to be a Who-Done-it, murder mystery.

I've tried getting through it about 4-5 times, and even tried the audiobook.  Fall asleep or lose focus every time.  Still love everything else he's written, so no big loss.  I'll celebrate when Peace Talks release is announced. 

I'm with you on that.  I'll get through it one day, but I've tried and tried.

Ah .... Gotcha.

I think Harry will travel back in time.  I think it'll explain several things that happened.  What's more, I think he's going to get SHOT back in time and he'll "skip" a few times, setting up the ability for him to wrap up a few loose threads (like the little Chicago fix, and who hit him with a car)

Yeah, and Jim's Beta Readers are AWESOME.  They usually pick up any oddities.

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding your question, but I'm reading this as in-story years between books, rather than book release dates? If that's the case I'm pretty sure we have confirmation that Peace Talks only takes place 3 months after Skin Game so no need for a contrived reason why Harry hasn't been doing anything for a year.

This!