I am super happy about the Olympian Affair, I want to know more about the characters. I have time to reread the first book, as I remember the overall story and characters but not the details.
I admit I am not super confident on Jim ETA for the next Dresden Book, but perhaps he surprises me 

Yes, I know what you mean, but I'll try to keep positive thoughts going.  Maybe we will all be surprised.

I'm going through another reread of the Dresden Files.  When I'm finished with that, I will also have to reread the first Cinder Spires book.

He wasn’t hired through Mab, Nameless is still Winter but probably arranged to meet Marcone in a social situation before signing on with him on his own initiative. Marcone is Chairman of the Chicago Historical and Art Society (in Dead Beat Marcone choose some choice art from Bony Tony’s find) we know this through Death Masks a rich man’s club. A wealthy lawyer would fit right in, we know from the Law Nameless collects artifacts in his office so that would likely be where Nameless would make his approach through Marcone’s hobby before establishing his chops with the Cancer Charity thing. Hell his plan may have been for Marcone to approach him after watching him for a couple of years, Marcone does not make major decisions without considering every angle, and recruiting a supernatural lawyer not through Monoc? At that point “John” would have become Mr Marcone, and warned as such. We know though that Marcone hired Nameless after Small Favour, he might have felt he had an Ace in the Hole with Namshiel and could finally take the risk. Gard would have had to be overruled on that hire.

Yes Cowl did engage the Sorceror who stole the litter, that and setting up Mavra in Chicago to lure Harry in were his contributions to Death Masks (he likely called in the favour gained in Grave Peril as Harry had been engaged to track down the puppies a couple of weeks earlier). As regards scent, what Mouse tracks appears to be more than just normal scent,  so the capability of being able to mask that may be problematic.

As pointed out Dresden uses mundane means as well as magical (Vince Graver springs to mind) so fingerprints are the obvious reason, and I have dealt with burned Justin as Cowl by pointing out that 24 years have passed, plenty of time to heal and the same for future Harry. The gloves may also be a countermeasure against his ‘scent’ rubbing off on things he touches, or Ash’s ‘scent’ rubbing off on him.

Your posts about Nameless are forcing me to reread The Law again.

Because he is paranoid about keeping his identity secret and thus leaving his fingerprints everywhere? In a City where the cops are better clued in than normal? In addition, his cowl is enspelled like Harry’s Duster, so presumably it (and the gloves) provides further protection as to his identity his aura could not be ascertained by Lea for example.

Here’s a thought, Cowl would have been around when Colin Murphy killed himself, but Colin ended up working for Uriel. Did Colin inadvertently put someone’s finger prints in the system CPD, FBI etc he shouldn’t have, and the Library of Congress have them?

If he was burned then would have been many years before, if Harry was born in 1974, he would have been 16 in 1990 when Justin burned. It is now 24 years later, and Cowl is even more powerful than Harry, with a a stronger healing factor, so he should have healed in the nearly quarter of a century since Justin went up given Harry’s progression since his own injury.

Of course Cowl could just be a habitual nail biter and his mother is trying to break him of the habit. “He’s not The Master Of The Future, he’s a very naughty boy!”

Because he is aware that Harry ticks off Marcone by calling him John? Which he would know working for Marcone.

This isn't to contradict anything you said but I noticed something in Dead Bead that I find interesting and applies to Cowl wearing a glove, or is it gloves?  In Grave Peril there's no mention of Bianca's assistants wearing gloves, they're just kind of hidden from view by their costumes.  However, in Dead Beat we have two statements made when Harry first meets Cowl outside of the bookstore.  The first is when Cowl gets fed up with Harry and throws power at him.  "Dorosh," he snarled in reply, and extended his right hand."   The second statement was made after Harry flipped the car on top of Cowl and the necromancer came out from underneath it. "As he straightened he wavered, then braced himself against a streetlight with one black-gloved hand."  And then in the short story Fugitive, Cowl raises a "gloved hand, in a salute" to the Nemean lion.

You may notice that it is never stated that Cowl wears gloves on both hands.  A gloved hand isn't mentioned when Cowl raises his hand to throw power at Harry, just that Cowl raised his hand.  Here's what I think is going on.  Jim knew that he wanted to keep Cowl's true identity a secret and thought of a clever way to misdirect his readers.  Harry wears a glove on his left hand after getting burned in Blood Rites.  Jim wants some of his crazier, though clever, readers to think that Cowl is future Harry.  Even Cowl's title of "Master of the Future" plays into this idea.  This tinfoil hat hypothesis has been posted on this forum, on Reddit and YouTube.  There are a lot of people who like it, but it's too obvious for my taste.  I think Jim has setup "Cowl is future Harry" as a red herring to throw some of his readers off Cowl's actual identity.

Also, according to the official Dresden Files timeline, Dead Beat takes place about 5 years after Storm Front and Battle Ground about 14 years after Storm Front, so Cowl has been wearing gloves or a glove for at least nine years.  Shouldn't any scars Cowl's hiding be healing up pretty good by now?  Is Harry even wearing a glove on his left hand any longer?  I'm not sure.  Jim may purposely not be mentioning this detail of Harry's appearance any longer, in order to keep the confusion going.

While speculation about what Mab would become without her mantle is interesting, I want to get back to the OP.  However, for the record I will state that Mab only has a trace of her original humanity left in her, so it's difficult for me to see how she would survive let alone function without her mantle, beyond taking on another mantle, like Mother Winter's or that of another immortal.   

Now to address the OP.  Near the beginning of Battle Ground, Mab tells Harry that the first time she saw him, Mab could tell that Harry had potential for true greatness.  By that, I think that Mab saw Harry's potential to become an immortal.  When we look back to Summer Knight, we find that Mab told Harry that she had seen him frustrate the Leanansidhe the previous autumn.  Mab did not say that was the first time she saw Harry, but it's good candidate for first time that she saw him.  At that time, Mab saw Harry outwit a particularly clever and powerful immortal.  Mab may have thought something like, "Imagine what this one could do if he lives long enough to gain knowledge, wisdom and gets the power to really use it."  Of course, that doesn't get us any closer to why Mab wants to change Harry; except it tells us that Mab was looking for someone who is clever enough to match wits with other immortals; perhaps she wants someone who is something of a trickster or in modern human terms, someone who can think outside the box.

Two questions come to my mind at this point.  First, who does Mab want Harry to outwit and how does Harry become an immortal and take or create a mantle for himself.  The second question is easier to answer, so I'll start with that one.

We saw that Lilly had the mantle of the Summer Knight placed in her by Aurora.  Then, when Aurora died her mantle jumped over to the nearest reflection of Summer, which was Lily.  So by extension, Harry is already prepared to take up and put on the mantle of a member of Winter Court.  I'm assuming the mantles of the Winter Queens are off limits to Harry.  So, without other possible candidates the most likely mantle Harry could inherit would be Kringle's.  Add to that, Kringle told Harry that "Many, many mantles are worn - or discarded - on Halloween night, wizard."  Potentially, that makes it much easier for Harry to become an immortal.  All he needs is for Kringle; or another member of Winter that has a mantle that would be available to Harry, to willingly discard it and for Harry to be the closest reflection of Winter.  Yes, Harry could kill another immortal, but we know how difficult that can be, and Harry would have to do it on his own to make certain the mantle passed to him or no one else could pick it up; and why would Harry want do this in this first place?  It's much easier for Mab to force the choice on Harry to pickup a discarded mantle than to force him to choose to kill an immortal and take their mantle.

Of course, there could be rules around how mantles are passed from one party to another that we haven't been told yet.  Perhaps Kringle; and therefore Odin, has to die for his mantle to automatically fly to the closest reflection of Winter.  If Odin were to discard Kringle's mantle, perhaps it would take an effort of will to pick it up so Harry would have to make the choice to do so.  We just don't know.  I assume that for any discarded mantle that comes from outside of Winter, Harry would have to choose to pick it up.  Of course Mab and Odin are masters at creating conditions that would pretty much force Harry; or any other mortal, to make such a choice.

My guess is creating a new mantle is something that usually takes ages.  For example, I doubt the Red Cap has a mantle.  Perhaps if he and his legend survives and grows over the coming centuries, then maybe a mantle will grow around him.  If this is the case, there's little point thinking that Harry might create a new mantle.  I suspect that Harry would have to develop almost god-like worship from a huge number of mortals to start building a mantle for himself, and why would he even want to do that.  I don't thing Harry proclaiming himself as "The Wizard of Chicago" is going to do it.  Harry could also try to pull-off a darkhallow spell, but that's not something Harry would want to do or could be convinced to do.

So, my best guess is Harry will get the opportunity; whether he likes it or not, to pick up a discarded mantle, and it will probably be from Winter, because this way Mab can keep Harry "in the fold" and at least partially under her control.  A sidetrack issue is created no matter where the mantle comes from.  Can Harry remain the Winter Knight; the mortal champion of Winter, if he picks up a mantle from an immortal?  I think he can and it should be pretty obvious why.  Harry could make the choice to live in the mortal world; which makes him nominally mortal in that he could be killed, just as Vadderung can be killed in the mortal world.  If Mab sends Harry on a mission he couldn't use his immortal abilities, because Harry would no longer be the mortal champion of Winter.  I don't think Mab would like this, because every time she sent Harry out on a mission she would be risking both Harry and the immortal mantel he carries.  Then again, there might be rules we don't know about that lesson this risk; I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Finally back to the "why" question, which involves who Harry would take on.  The obvious candidate for immortal Harry to have to outwit is Nemesis itself.  Harry might take on the Walkers individually as a mortal, but for the big boss Outsider I suspect Harry needs to level up in a big way.  After Nemesis there is the Prince of Darkness, though I don't know if we will be seeing him "in the flesh" so maybe not such a good candidate for sometimes-immortal Harry to face.  Plus, if the mortal Daniel Webster could out argue Satan, I doubt Harry needs to beat Satan to a pulp or anything like it.  Then there's Drakul.  We don't know how powerful he really is.  While Drakul is on earth he might be vulnerable, when he's in the Nevernever perhaps it would take god like powers to tackle him.  Facing those possible opponents are my best guesses why Mab wants Harry to level up in a big way.

I think the only other reason that might be motivating Mab, is she senses that her time may be coming to an end.  I'm reminded of a phrase from the movie The Usual Suspects, "It was his Will!"  Mab wants her "Will" to continue beyond her time, and to that end Harry may be the best instrument available to make that happen, but only if he becomes an immortal.  Even if Mab knows that she won't be there to see it, in Mab's mind she and Harry would be accomplishing "great things" together.

   

What kind of dates do you see Harry and Lara; or in their formal titles, The Winter Knight and the de facto Queen of the White Court, going on?

Will Lara want Harry to take her to Club Zero or do you think we will see them in a more formal setting, perhaps including ballroom dancing, maybe even a tango?  There should be multiple dates, so perhaps both.  Will they have to go to a Winter or Summer party, like the one Mab threw for Harry's birthday?  I'm thinking that would be a way for Mab to show Summer and the rest of the magical world that Winter and the White Court are now allies.

By the time they get to their final date will Harry and Lara's relationship have them growing closer to one another or will they be arguing as if they had already been married for ten years?  I'm assuming they will both be working on finding Justine and recovering the child; make that infant; unborn or born.  Do you think that will help unite them or drive them apart?  Of course, there is also the issue of Thomas and how what effect it will have on their relationship.  That is something of a wild card.  Thomas might be free by the end of Twelve Months or his release may not occur until after Mirror Mirror.

I'm guessing Twelve Months ends in a similar manner to an episode of the original Quantum Leap.  Just when everything gets settled Harry will get pulled into the Mirror Mirror universe, and maybe he will even say, "Oh Boy!".  Do you think that will happen just before wedding or will it occur after the wedding, but before the wedding night?

One thing I'm certain of; unless Lara can figure a way to remove Harry's love protection before the wedding, Harry will have to wear gloves whenever he goes out with Lara, otherwise he could burn her, and that wouldn't be a good look.  And Mab wouldn't like that either.

What's frustrating about this topic is that even if Harry has a conversation with Thomas while he is in Demonreach, I doubt it they would talk about Ebenezer.  They could, but it seems unlikely to me.  So, it might only come up two books after Twelve Months; skipping Mirror Mirror, if it comes up then.

I reread the scene where Harry explains the blood curse to Thomas.  Harry didn't mention the curse running from victim to parent and grandparent, so Thomas wouldn't have been clued-in from that conversation.

I agree with Mira.  Also, looking at the way Ebenezer freaked out and attacked Lara in Turn Coat, when Lara said she was going to travel with Harry, I'm pretty sure Harry made the right decision not telling Eb about Thomas earlier.  It just wasn't going to go well. 

Even if in a later book Thomas should show up in front of Ebenezer as a KotC, I feel fairly certain that Eb wouldn't believe what he was seeing.  Not right away.

This subject is for any odd or unusual situation or mystery you want to know more about or have explained.  Even if the mystery is something that Jim might never take the time to fully answer.

I was looking at the thread about the possible origins of the Red and White Courts of Vampires, and I started wondering about something Nicodemus said about the Red Court back in Small Favor.  Nic offered to help Harry wipe out the Red Court.  Specifically, Nic said of the Red Court, "They're large, well organized, dangerous to my plans, a plague upon mankind, and aesthetically repugnant. They're parasites who are inconvenient in the short term, dangerous in the middle distance, and fatal to any long-range plan. They need to be destroyed at some point, in any case."

Of course, there is no way to know why the Red Court were a threat to Nics plans until we find out exactly what those plans actually involve.  So far, I've haven't seen anyone make any detailed speculation on what Nic's long-term plan is.  I think there has been some talk about Nic; and by extension Anduriel, wanting to defeat the Outsiders, but do so in a way that probably wipes out most of humanity.  I could see the Red Court; if they were still around, not being very happy to see most of their food source disappear, but if Nic's plan involves the use of the Holly Grail or other items that were in Hades vault, I don't understand how the Red Court could get in Nic's way.

This isn't an huge issue or mystery like who fixed Little Chicago or who was responsible for Malcolm Dresden's death, but I don't want to see it get glossed over when Nic's plan or plans come into full view.

What odd or minor issue or mystery do you want to see explained?