That's my feeling as well; Peace Talks should give us a wider look at what's going on in the world, and we can reconnect with a lot of the elements (mostly the White Council) that we've missed since really Turn Coat—we saw the Council for about five minutes in Changes, then a bit of Ebenezer. Don't get me wrong, I liked that we saw a lot more of Vaderrung in the last few books, but Marcone has been conspicuously absent, the White Court has basically been entirely gone, and we've seen virtually nothing from Summer (yes, we got Lily and a Titania scene for the first time, but I want to know what they're doing and check in with Sarissa)—three factions that will certainly have a significant presence in Peace Talks.
I'm going to be a happy lad when I get to dive in to political maneuvering, underhanded backroom deals, bluffing, posturing, and cat's-paws. Along with all of the characters we've been missing, of course.
None of this is to say that I disliked anything about the previous books; I don't think Jim's ever written a bad one (that he's published, anyway; I have a bunch of garbage novels that will never see the light of day, which I occasionally print and ritually burn to cleanse myself, and I assume Jim wrote some stinkers when he was learning), I just missed the connections with the larger narrative, as KurtinStGeorge seems to.
I can go along with that. It's been too long since we saw what was going on in the larger world, and esp. the 'real world', of the Dresdenfiles, as opposed to Faerie.
One thing I always liked about the DF is that Harry, his magic, and the supernatural elements were seamlessly woven into a very gritty, very 'real' background world. This was true all the way from
Storm Front up to
Turn Coat, though I noticed in TC that we seemed to be getting kind of detached, and in
Changes and since that gritty side of the story has been deemphasized. I recall things like Harry meeting up with Karrin in the café in a Wal-Mart for a late night conference, or when he lost his temper and blew up the garbage dumpster, and Karrin reminded him of the consequences for various people. Little things, but effective.
There were moments of it, for ex when Harry materializes out of Faerie in the middle of a Bass Pro shop, but it such moments were exceptional.
I'm hoping we get some more of the grittiness.