There has been a trend of the Dresden Files novels getting longer, though Skin Game had a lower word count than Cold Days.  Also, if you compare the Cinder Spires book with the first book of the Alera series; well, there is no comparison.  "The Aeronaut's Windless"  a much longer and more involved story.  Now we know Jim has had various life issues which have contributed to Peace Talks taking so long to get done, but does anyone else think (because I do) that Peace Talks is going to be a more complex story (or have more stories to tell within it) than what we usually get from a Dresden Files novel?  I mean Skin Game had a pretty basic story idea; a heist story where Harry was forced to work with Nicodemus and both of them would try to double-cross one another.  There were of course unexpected complications, but I'm just talking about the main plot of the novel.  Many of the early novels had easily identifiable A and a B plots.  For example, in "Blood Rites" Harry is trying to stop an unknown foe who is using an entropy curse to kill people on a porn movie set and at the same time he's organizing a strike team to find and kill Mavra.  These A and B plots are often related to each other in ways that Harry didn't understand, but again, I'm just talking about the basic plot structure, not how various elements might be blended into the overall story arc. 

I'm thinking that in Peace Talks, Jim has more balls to juggle than in perhaps any other Dresden Files book before it.  If you've read the preview first chapter you know that So if you didn't read the spoiler there are two issues that Harry will be involved with in some manner.  However, that leaves many other potential complications that in themselves may become their own, let's call them C and D plots.  Not to mention that the first issue in the spoiler is a rather open-ended one.  It's not a straightforward idea like, I want you work with Nicodemus and “I expect you to skin them alive” or "They've taken our daughter."  We can only guess where this story element may go and there is really nothing in the earlier novels that might give us more than a tiny hint of how this could play out.

Jim has said that Changes, Ghost Story and Cold Days could be described as an internal trilogy within the series, that turns it in a new direction.  I would argue that Skin Game should be added to this list and call it a quadrilogy within the overall story arc, because SG settles the issue of the "parasite" inside Harry's head we learned about in Ghost Story and it demonstrated that Harry; though at times with some difficulty, was learning to control the Winter Knight's mantel.  So we had Harry's life deconstructed in Changes and it has taken until the end of Skin Game to see that a new life is now possible for him.  So now that Jim has fully turned the ship around that means Harry will face more complicated situations to untangle and I think they begin in Peace Talks.

Just to give one example, we don't know what the future holds for the White Council and its most prominent members.  In Changes it almost seemed like a civil war was possible or that a coup was about to take place.  I suspect Jim was setting up serious complications and likely endings for one or more characters on the Council.  I won't be surprised if we see one or more of those complications or endings happen in Peace Talks.  That is just one possible avenue Jim might explore.  Think about all the other possible complications that might arise, and even if only one or two come to a boil, you've got a bigger and hopefully engaging novel for us to (eventually) read, and one that takes some effort to tie together.  All that said, I'm hoping that really soon we will read that Jim has finished or as he has often done in the past, he announces that only the denouement is left to write.   

PS: If you would like to make a guess at likely complications or plot twists we might encounter, feel free to do so.  I think it's about time we start compiling a prediction list and later see who came closest to the mark.       

I never read this series.  I'll have to give it a listen.  I'm getting a little tired of the Iron Druid series.  I just started the sixth book and it feels a little meh to me.  The next Alex Verus book doesn't come out until July and I don't know when the next Rivers of London novel will come out.  Any other suggestions? 

Too bad there isn't something in the text about Mab: and now that I think about it Titania, being shorter than the average fae, because then I think you might have something.  However, that might not be a real clue either because I believe Mab can be any height she wants to be.  I do remember that Lea is taller than Mab, though I can't remember what book I read that in. 

If Mab = anyone else, I have to go with Ms. Duck's theory of Mab = Molly, though I don't really buy that one either. 

Wel you can look up the length of each book put them in a graph and extrapolate. You will probably find they are getting longer.

Yea; and I don't see any reason why that might change in Peace Talks.  Look at all the characters and potential plot and subplot threads we can expect to see in Peace Talks:

Harry and the White Council.
I'm not just talking about Harry's status within the Council and how much he's distrusted by some members of the Senior Council.  There is also the question of the Council itself.  Is it politically fractured or have the Merlin and Cristos come to some kind of (probably temporary) understanding?  Will LTW meet with Harry and begin teaching him to control his anger as Eb suggested some time ago?

Thomas, Justine and baby make three are what we know about.  What we don't know is how this effects Thomas and Lara's relationship.  We also should get a clearer picture of what moves Lara has been making.  Plus, some think Lord Raith might start making a comeback or be put down for good.  I'm in the later camp, but if anything happens involving LR that will complicate things.

Then there are the Fomor themselves.  The Peace Talks are supposed to be about them and their place in the supernatural world.  I expect the guy (Lord something or other) Harry threatened in Skin Game to be on hand.  Maybe even the Fomor leader (King Korb?) will make an appearance.

What other complication? 
Oh yea; Molly, her new job career, and her parents reaction when they find out.
A teenage Archive and all that may imply as the talk's arbiter.  Plus her bodyguard. 
Marcone acting as host.  No, Gentleman John won't be involved at all.  Sure.
Someone unexpected is bound to show up even if they try to remain hidden.  Cowl, Mavra, Cat Sith (I don't think so - too soon.), plus we could meet a new major character like Drakul.   

I'm sure I've missed other potential plot threads and twists.  (Feel free to name them or to make a guess as to what they will be.)  So there's no reason to think PT will be a shorter read than Cold Days and I'm fine with that.  To my way of thinking this book should be a major turning point in the series.  It should lay the ground work that leads us up to the BAT.

What we have heard is what we gotta go with. Life and situations sometimes get in the way of both work and art.

Agreed.

On a different point, I recall reading on this forum that after Jim finished Peace Talks he would jump right into Mirror Mirror.  However, on rewatching the Q&A Jim did at the last Con he did this year, Jim said he would be getting back to the next book in Cinder Spires series.  Does anyone here know if the idea that Jim would continue with the next Dresden book was just wishful thinking on someone's part or did Jim originally say he would do this but has since changed his mind?

We could be if you are also ruggedly-good-looking, intelligent, and witty while being humble and kind to animals. LOL

Well, if Cozarkian fits that profile we must be identical triplets because you just described me.  Though I don't like to brag; you know, the whole humility thing, I can't deny who I am.   

To get back to the OP, we might think of some relatively new questions, but such issues will probably not have much meat on the bone.  In other words, they will probably be issues or ideas which have very little written in the books to go on.

For example, I've thought about Harry at the beginning of Skin Game, where he states that he has been thinking about his life, but what I mostly got out of that soliloquy was that Harry wondered who he could trust.  I imagine that was partly due to Nemesis; Harry can't risk openly discussing it with any of his friends, and partly due to neither Mab nor Molly answering his calls, but we later learn that Harry also felt he wasn't being visited very often by his friends. 

However, I would really like to know if Harry thought about anything else besides that.  I mean he had an entire year on the island.  He couldn't have spent the entire time learning how the island functioned and doing Parkour.  To get more specific, at the end of Cold Days Mab told Harry that the athame Lea received from Bianca was tainted and the infection spread from Lea to Meave.  In Ghost Story Lea told Harry's shade the reason she went gonzo on the Red Court was she owed them payback for the treacherous gift (meaning the athame) Bianca gave her.  Has Harry thought about this at all?  He knows or should remember that there were two powerful wizards (necromancers specifically) who were pretending to be Bianca's flunkies, dutifully retrieving and presenting Bianca's gifts.  Cowl and Kumori didn't contest this observation when Harry told them he recognized them from Bianca's party.  Cowl even played some one-upmanship on Harry by telling him that many things of consequence happened at that party that Harry wasn't aware of.

So we know Harry couldn't do any investigating while he was stuck on Demonreach, so there wasn't anything he could do concretely, but I hope in a future book this comes up, and hopefully it doesn't hit Harry out of the blue.  He's smart enough to have put the pieces together.  He should even be wondering how much his knowledge is worth.  I mean Lea would certainly be interested that other people besides Bianca were involved in giving her the tainted athame, and Harry knows that at least one of them (Cowl) is still alive.  Perhaps Mab would like some payback as well against a wizard or wizards who were instrumental in Maeves nemfection.  Without their specific identities Harry might not have enough information to make a deal, but he's an investigator, it's kind-of what he does.  So Harry should have thought about this topic and perhaps others while he was stuck on Demonreach Island. 

So we can talk about this and other things Harry might have mulled over, but I'm not sure there will be much textural evidence to backup any ideas we might come up with.

I thought it might be fun to look at some minor issues in Proven Guilty.

Harry hits the Winter Wellspring with Summer Fire which causes every Winter Fae on the border with Summer to rush back to Arctis Tor to try to kill Harry.  After getting back to Chicago Harry discovers that this was what Lily hoped would happen.   Harry figured out that Lily and Maeve were working together because when time got slowed down around Arctis Tor, this allowed Summer forces on the border with Winter to leave their defenses and go attack the Red Court and only Maeve had the ability to mess with time and how it flowed around Arctis Tor.  (OK Mab or Mother Winter could do the same thing but Lily wasn't talking to either of them.)

So here's mystery #1:  Did Harry have to specifically hit the Winter Well Spring to make this plan pay off?  Because if he did it seems like a real low probability move by Lily.  Harry could have fried Eldest Fetch without ever touching Winter's Well and how could Lily even predict Harry would have to get to the top of Arctis Tor in order to rescue Molly?  Theoretically, the battle could have taken place downstairs or in some room within the castle or on the stairs leading to the top.  Perhaps Maeve might have suggested where Harry would have to go to find Eldest Fetch and Molly. 

Even so, what if Harry hadn't hit the Well with Summer Fire and instead used Summer Fire to knock down a wall or parapet that was an integral part of the castle.  Would this have had the same effect on the Winter Fae at Summer's border?  I can't prove this but I have a feeling it would have been the same or near enough to make no difference in the overall result.  The way Jim has written about Mab's palace; though admittedly that's very little, suggests Arctid Tor is almost alive, and perhaps even sentient.  The way the castle reacted to blood being spilled on its floor is suggestive of the first and in Cold Days Harry mentions some lights and or shifting colors within the walls that he decided were probably unsafe to stare at for too long.  This suggests Artic Tor is more than another pretty Faerie Ice Castle.  There may be a specific psychic connection between Arctis Tor and all of Winter.  Someone could stand outside and throw rocks or even Hellfire at it and it wouldn't cause a reaction but an attack using Summer Fire or perhaps any specific Summer magic would cause all of Winter to come back to defend their Capitol.  So that's my answer to my own question.   

Minor mystery #2:  Was Maeve surprised that Lily's plan worked?  Maeve didn't think very highly of Lily so I wouldn't be surprised if she expected Lily's plan to fail.   If this was the case that would mean Maeve wasn't happy she had to slow time and allow Summer to attack the Red Court, but she had no choice if she wanted to continue to deceive Lily.

Minor mystery #3:  Was Maeve surprised that Harry survived his encounter with Eldest Fetch?  I'm guessing Maeve knew about Eldest Fetch because during the final confrontation with the Scarecrow Harry realizes he's dealing with a fetch, but one that has been granted extra power.  This suggests Nemesis involvement, though it doesn't absolutely prove it, but what else explains this?  If Maeve expected Harry to die than except for continuing to reinforce Lily's trust in her, Maeve didn't have a very good day.  She had to help Lily attack the Red Court which, even if it wasn't a full ally was at least a useful asset, and the annoying wizard survived another violent encounter that should have killed him. 

Do you have any different explanations or other questions about unsolved Proven Guilty mysteries that; as far as you know, haven't been discussed yet?