Peabody, Cowel, and the other Necromancers.

[Walter the skull]

Not all of these people can be working with each other.  In Dead Beat everyone wanted a copy of Peabody's book on the Earlking.  Cowel wanted Harry to give him the book.  Harry refused, so Kumori proposed that Harry destroy the book as a compromise.  This suggest a few different scenarios. 

1.  Cowel was confident he could get another copy of the book or he already had a copy of it.  If he was on the same team as Peabody, you would think Peabody would've either given him an author copy, or just told him what he needed to know. 

2.  Cowel thinks he can kick the other the necromancers asses and get a copy from one of them.  The question is why would Cowel risk it?  The other necromancer seem to be more dangerous than Harry.  Does Cowel simply like Harry, or does he think Harry could be useful to him.

3.  The other necromancers wanted the book, so did they not have access to Peabody? 

4.  Peabody doesn't want to tell Cowel or the other necromancer what they need to know or share his author copy with them.

5.  Peabody was not working for the same team as Cowel during Dead Beat, but some time between then and Turn Coat changed teams.

6.  Kumori's offer was bs and they would've just take the book from Harry as soon as he set it down to destroy it.

I'm trying to figure out how Peabody fits in with the characters in Dead Beat.  He wrote the book, so I think it would be kind of strange if he wasn't involved to some degree.

What do you think?

[g33k]

Peabody wasn't particularly a necromancer.  He was (presumably) a "Black Council" agent.

The Kemmlerite's were a different organization.  It's not impossible some members overlapped, but the two groups are / were distinct.

[morriswalters]

Cowl didn't need either of the books.  He wanted Bob the Skull. He had a copy of the book on the Earl King.  Since he had been tracking them down and destroying them.  The more interesting thing here is that he knew of Bob and he knew that Harry had him.

[Walter the skull]

g33k:  I know Peabody isn't a necromancer. When I looked at the title of the thread, I can definitely see how it looks like I think he is.  I need to rethink the title of the thread.

Morriswalters:  Do we know for a fact that he had a copy of the book?  Bob being Cowel's end goal is a good point.

[morriswalters]

"Is that what you're doing?" I asked. "Going around trashing copies?"

"There were fewer than a thousand printed," Kumori confirmed. "Time has taken most of them. Over the past month we have accounted for the rest, but for two here, in Chicago, in this store."

That would appear to cover it.

[Yuillegan]

Morris is right, Cowl had no need of the book. Indeed - it seemed like none of them really did. More like they were covering their tracks. I wouldn't be surprised if Peabody had left other secrets in that book and wanted it removed. I suspect going through Peabody's works would yield interesting information.

Walter, I find your typo of "Cowel" rather than Cowl interesting. We have always assumed Cowl is called such because it is his pseudonym, and because he wears a cowl over his face. But that is because of the way Jim writes.

What if his actual name is the phonetic "Cowl" and so could actually be Cowel or Cowell? Like that awful music judge Simon Cowel?

It reminded me of Howl in Howl's Moving Castle, in that he has several identities depending on which world or kingdom he was in. His real name was Howell (a welsh name).

A hell of a misdirect on Jim's part.

[Walter the skull]

Morris:  That does indeed show that they are trying to destroy the books.

Yuillegan:  That's a cool observation.  I read Dead Beat in 2007.  I've listened to it on audio a few times after that, but I never looked at how it was spelled.  Its funny because I've been a lurker on the forums for a while, and I never noticed the spelling.  It's like when you read and you come across a word with a missing letter. Your brain kind of just places the letter in there. 

[g33k]

2. ...  Does Cowel simply like Harry, or does he think Harry could be useful to him.

Cowl's treatment of Harry is a recurring topic online.

My own favorite theory is that Cowl is Harry (and Kumori is Molly), come back from the future.  We're pretty sure there WILL BE a time-travel book, eventually, so we're expecting to see some Future-Harry action revisiting (one or more of) the existing casefiles; my theory is we'll see Harry-as-Cowl-POV re-takes on all the stories where Cowl appears (all the way back to Bianca's ball...) .

Cowl's magic is remarkably akin to Harry's, and Kumori & Molly share a "Japanese-esque" casting-cant.  I think we'll see Harry cosplaying a Darth-Wannabe villain (to his mingled delight & chagrin)!

... 5.  Peabody was not working for the same team as Cowel during Dead Beat, but some time between then and Turn Coat changed teams.

Cowl wasn't actually working with the Kemmlerites.  He was one of their peers, and they seemed to think of him as "one of their own" (so presumably he had been Kemmler's student at some point).  Onscreen, though, Cowl (uniquely of the necromancers) expresses only disdain and dislike for Kemmler, no reverence or respect.

Because of their mutual rivalry, nobody noticed that Cowl was actually trying to undermine all the Kemmlerites, collectively; not merely each of them, individually...

Most likely, Cowl was already working with the Black Council at this point.  That puts Peabody into Cowl's camp, I think, but not an ally or available to any of the other necromancers.

... 6.  Kumori's offer was bs and they would've just take the book from Harry as soon as he set it down to destroy it.

Harry doesn't need to set it down, he could just Fuego it straight out from his hand, or boost a VentasServitas with Hellfire, or...  Well, lots of stuff.  And Cowl&Kumori know it.  The book is a fraction of a second from destroyed.

What they DON'T know is that Harry needs the book (to pay off Mavra)...  Unless of course Cowl is Harry, in which case future-Harry is just playing through the charade, because he needs "everybody" to know that Cowl is a badass villain...

... [Peabody] ... wrote [Die Lied der Erlking], so I think it would be kind of strange if he wasn't involved to some degree ...

I think the book is decades-old, as of Dead Beat.  I don't think he wrote it with the Kemmlerites in mind, nor intending necromancy.  It's just turns out that summoning the Erlking on Hallowe'en is their best shot a raising a huge number of potent ghosts.

They might have tried to take Peabody himself, but... well... extracting someone locked inside WC headquarters at Edinburgh isn't exactly their best shot...