I think Jim has hinted that one option for the series is to just wrap things up, particularly if he becomes unable to continue via sickness, etc.  So in that case, Murphy's further story and his plans for her may just not make it into the series.

Or fans, be careful for what you wish for, you may get it..  By that I mean, just because Jim says Murphy may be back at some point,I don't think it will be that simple.   It's her, but it isn't her any longer, she is Einherjar now and I doubt that it will be satisfying for either Harry or you.  The Allfather's rules are meant to be a kindness to the living, there is a good reason for them.  Gard accepts those rules and understands them.  If anyone should have pull with Odin, you'd think she'd be one of them.  She did love Hendricks, but she isn't wishing him back.

Given that he had the entire arc of his Dresden books planned out since the first one got published, I doubt that.

A good author always gives himself wiggle room because characters often have a way of taking on a life of their own.  If an author is too wedded to his timeline he often ends up ruining the series.

Come on guys, this "she can't come back as long as mortals remember her" is a thing Jim made up on the spot to avoid having to bring her back immediately (because he clearly was planning to write out his own personal pain of the last years in the next book and you can't have Harry happy for that). And it's in the series of books where Jim himself has said that Harry will have broken all the laws of magic by the end of the series. If Jim wanted Murphy out of the series permanently, he wouldn't have built in this backdoor.

 Or he is merely giving himself an option..

  Hasn't Harry already come back?  At the end of Changes when he was shot, he was mostly dead, very close to all dead.. He was already Winter Knight when he took that bullet through the heart, would have died then and there on the deck, but fell into the very cold lake before he bled out and into Mab's arms. Hmmm... Wonder if Uriel had anything to do with him stumbling over the side into the water after he was shot?

Yes, I agree, Uriel has had a lot to do with preparing Harry for what is to come.  That was the whole point of the risky soul walk about, and Harry came back with a better understanding of what soul fire really is as we saw in Cold Days.  He also learned how to keep the darker impulses of the Winter Knight mantle under control.  However the White Council doesn't know any of this, they are asking the same question you are asking, except not what will come back with him if he dies again, but what came back with him this last time when he "died."

I think Mab's reasons for wanting Molly dead if she dies are a bit different.  Mab is a control freak, and she feels that Molly isn't on the same page as she is. 

Lea makes a deal with Margarite LeFay to protect Harry, then while still fulfilling her given word, either allows Harry's father to be murdered or does it herself as part of a deal with Justin DuMorne.  DuMorne thinks he has won a great prize but Lea has simply offloaded the drudge work of teaching Harry basic magic skills until she can find a way to dispose of Justin.  A break between Justin and Harry (Did Lea have anything to do with that? Meaning, did she have another deal with whoever summoned HWWB?) allows Lea to get Harry to remove Justin for her and to top everything off, it allows Lea to make a binding deal with a young, desperate and naïve, starborn wizard Harry.

I think you give Lea too much credit for preplanning young Harry's life.  I think the original mistake was made by Margaret when she made the bargain to protect her baby in the first place.  The mistake was believing that the Fae would understand fully the ways of humans.  Since she was human once, Mab has this understanding, but Lea was born a Fae I believe.  Early in the books we discover her ways of "protecting" Harry are a bit odd, like wanting to turn him into one of her hounds for example.  I don't believe she "threatened" this out of malice as Harry thought, but because of her misunderstanding of human thinking she actually thought it was a good way to protect him.

P.S. New topic on the same character.  Thinking back to the dénouement of the Battle of Chicken Pizza in Changes, Ebenezer approaches Harry and Lea and asks her to leave so he can discus "family business" with Harry.  Ebenezer knew who Lea was and he knew that she knew about Eb and Harry's familial relationship.

It is one thing for Ebenezer to recognize The Leanansidhe; Lea is a very powerful figure in the Winter Court and Ebenezer has been around long enough to have had some experience with the fae, but as was pointed out in Battle Ground, Eb doesn't believe in casually dropping any information about anything, especially family.  Even if Eb guessed that Lea knew that Eb was Harry's grandfather, he still wouldn't have mentioned it, he might have said something like "White Council business" instead.

Yet he must have known that Lea was Harry's godmother, thus knew about Margaret and I bet his connection.  He also had to be aware that one of the main reasons for Harry's success in the mission was Mab's help when no one else was willing to help him take on the Red Court.  I think the reason for Eb wanting to talk to Harry out of Lea's earshot was his reassurance to Harry that even though he was now Mab's Winter Knight, he still had free will and could use his own judgement when Mab ordered him to do something he thought was wrong.

Did Ebenezer make his own deal with Lea?  I'm not speculating what such a deal might have involved, but those two know each other and not just by reputation.  It suggests something more is going on here and perhaps something important. 

I agree that there is a lot more to the original bargain, also that it will play a critical role in future events.

Maybe it's seasonal decorations. It's summer's time of power so it's winter's time to decorate.

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Re: Why did Dumorne put the mental whamy on when he did?
« Reply #35 on: Today at 06:15:38 PM »

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Quote from: Mira on Today at 01:00:10 PM

    It might have been Summer Knight when Mab took on Harry's "contract" with Lea.  The three favors he owed her for the "confidence" she gave him when he was sixteen to take on Justin.  Mab knew that what Lea did was mostly song and dance and that it is no small thing that a sixteen year old apprentice can take on, defeat and kill a fully trained warden of the White Council.


I think you are reading more significance into my statement "We don't know how Mab's intelligence network works." than is actually there.  All I am saying is we don't know if Mab had her own spies watching various starborn mortals and one of them reported to her about Harry's confrontation with Justin or if Mab had a conversation with Lea and asked her about the starborn mortal Lea was working with or if the Winter Queen has some kind of intellectus that keeps her informed about Lea's plans.  To simply my original statement, what I am really saying is, it is not important how Mab learned about Harry, only that at some point she became interested in taking the time to watch Harry in action.

No, I don't think I am, I'm following up on your comment that Mab waits until it's to her advantage to make her move.  I think it is important as to how Mab learned about Harry, I think she knew about him even before his actual conception, star born family planning.  However I believe she washed her hands of everything until the baby developed into a man.  Interesting don't you think that though Lea secured that bargain with sixteen year old Harry, no action was taken for repayment until Mab had need of him, then she took over the contract at the beginning of Summer Knight.  After further observing his work, which included unusually the loyalty of some of the wee Fae Folk, then she began to lean rather heavily on Harry for payment, also mentioning that she wanted him as her Winter Knight.  Note that she was also willing to go without a Knight for a number of years until she got what she wanted.  In other words Mab doesn't pick the apple off the tree until it is ripe and ready for picking..  She also is careful to look for worms in the apple..

In my version of events Lea knew exactly what kind of person Justin was; even if the White Council didn't know, or fully know, about Justin.  She always planned to turn on him at the first opportunity and gain the use of Harry's abilities for herself.  Justin probably never realized that Lea had been training Harry; apparently to just believe in himself, when Harry returned to face him.  It's a series of moves that the White Court of Vampires would approve of.

What would the White Court of Vampires have to do with Lea and Justin?  Yes, Lord Raith murdered Harry's mother, but I don't see any evidence that he had anything to do with either Lea or Justin.