History Literature / GhostStory

* FirstNameBasis: [[spoiler:The Angel of Death Harry meets speaks of people using their first names, unless pushed, at which point it becomes a FullNameUltimatum with the exact tone and style the owner of the name uses]].

---> [[spoiler:'''He Who Walks Behind''']]: Pathetic. Whimpering, mewling thing. Useless.\\
'''Harry Dresden (in a Peewee Herman impersonation)''': I know you are, but what am I?\\
[[spoiler:'''He Who Walks Behind''']] (slightly stunned): What?

** Played with in ''Ghost Story''. [[spoiler:Harry's ghost is fighting Corpsetaker's ghost, and she keeps trying to gloat at Harry, only for him to keep interrupting her with harder and harder spells. He mocks her for doing so, then he's reminded that as a ghost, his spells are CastFromHitPoints, and Corpsetaker has a lot more energy to spare than he does. In addition to her ego, she was simply expecting him to weaken himself attacking her.]]

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: [[spoiler: Justine invokes this in order to get Thomas to feed on her at the end. By being with a woman she does not love, it strips her of her protection. Then she can be with Thomas]].
* GodsHandsAreTied: Harry meets several angels in his journey, including an Angel of Death. And while many note a desire to help mortals, they cannot because it would interfere with Free Will. As an Angel of Death notes it wasn't just a singular choice that lead the injured man to his potentially fatal predicament, however a myriad of choices, some not of his own making but by other mortals, did make this situation. In her mind it would be wrong to unmake all those choices.

** Fitz cares about the runaways under his care. And they care about him. [[spoiler:It;s this brotherly love which helps Fitz break them free of Aristedes' control. It is also for their sake Fitz returns to face the man when Harry tells him Aristedes would soon just kill the lot of them now that they have seen him injured]].

* TrustPassword: Besides the above mentioned questions to Harry to prove himself, Harry tells [[spoiler:Fitz the homeless teen]] to Nicholas Christian. Harry has the person repeat a moment from Nick and Harry's past to get Nicholas' help.

** Murphy notes to Molly that [[spoiler:not picking a superhero name and letting people and the papers name her the "Ragged Lady" for her ragged clothing and habit of leaving bloodied rags of clothng around her victims]] has led to an increase in PMS jokes. Molly is somewhat apologetic about the matter, but it is pointed out that to some, that association makes her ''more'' scary.

* AfterlifeExpress: Right at the start of the book, Harry narrowly misses the "southbound" train barreling at him. [[spoiler:When the Corpsetaker is destroyed by her own wraiths, her screams are drowned out by the sound of the same train]].
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Harry finally realises that Molly's feelings for him go beyond a mere crush. He also feels sorry that he cannot reciprocate them.

** When Daniel is facing off against [[spoiler:Aristedes]] blade-to-blade, he sarcastically asks [[spoiler:Aristedes]] where he got his knife from. After the other replies that he got it 'from the last fool to try a blade against [him],' Daniel gets this line in -

*** And it becomes doubly badass in universe - by using of all his names in the "right way," the angel is demonstrating she basically owns him.

* TheReveal: The identity of Harry Dresden's murderer. [[spoiler: Back in ''Changes'', a Fallen Angel (implied to be Lasciel) ''lied'' to him by saying everything that had happened was his fault, pushing him to order a hit on himself by Kincaid.]]

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Deconstructed, as the main conflict of the book started after Harry [[spoiler:wiped out the Red Court of vampires.]

* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: [[spoiler:ArchangelUriel]] reveals to Harry that [[spoiler:he was unduly influenced by a Fallen saying a lie with seven words that led him to wanting to die after becoming the Winter Knight.]] To balance things out in the end, [[spoiler:Uriel is able to give Harry seven corresponding words of Pure Truth to help him see through Mab's manipulations.]]

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:Uriel and Captain Jack]] play a mean game. Harry is needed and they ensure he will end up in the right place at the right time to help save his friends [[spoiler:all because Captain Jack lied to Harry, with or without Uriel's knowledge is not clear. It worked out as Karrin is able to move on emotionally from her current rut, Molly is finally grieving over her actions in helping Harry commit suicide, Morty has become a stronger and better man, Chicago is free from some of its worst malevolent shades, and Corpsetaker is on her way to hell. And while Harry is still the Winter Knight, Uriel's final act of Seven Words of Absolute Truth assures him he is not as screwed as he once thought]].

** [[spoiler:ArchangelUriel, in turn, becomes this to Harry. When a Fallen speaking a lie to him at his lowest point pushes him into such despair he choses to commit suicide, Uriel has an opportunity to balance the lie with an equal truth. When Harry is at a similar low point, with Mab proclaiming her victory and outlining malevolent plans for Harry, Uriel gives Harry hope that he ''can'' remain who he is despite being the Winter Knight]].

** Harry realizes he was holding it during a specific event near the end of ''Changes'': [[spoiler:letting Molly, a mentally sensitive apprentice who's mostly untrained in combat, join him in retrieving Maggie. The mass of emotions from the battle came dangerously close to driving her insane, and as of ''Ghost Story'', she's a lot more paranoid and broken than she used to be.]]
** Karrin feels [[spoiler:Sunbeam Monroe held it for not traveling with a partner and as a result being an easy target to kidnap]].
** Harry realizes he held it by [[spoiler:not having one of the crazy Lecter Specters manifest and free Mort from his bindings]].
** Mort does not ask [[spoiler:Karrin Murphy or her crew for protection when it became clear the ghosts attacking him were using mortal thugs]].
* IgnoredExpert: Morty feels like this when, [[spoiler:despite him being known to the Chicago Alliance as an ectomancer, his testimony that Harry Dresden's spirit came to him and is with them in Murphy's home is not accepted completely. It takes Mister the cat reacting to Harry's shade with love and the word of a crazed Molly for them to believe it could be possible.]]
* ImmediateSequel: ZigZagged. ''Changes'' ends with Harry in the water, hearing a sound like a train. ''Ghost Story'' picks up with Carmichael's ghost pulling Harry off some tracks and narrowly avoiding said train. The story ''technically'' picks up right away... But because of time differences between the mortal and spirit world, by the time the plot proper begins, Harry finds out it's been 6 months since his death.

* ItsAllMyFault: [[spoiler:Harry believed that all the trouble in ''Changes'' was directly his fault. It is then revealed a Fallen influenced him to so believing this, leading him to kill himself]].

* NotSoDifferent: Harry tries to argue that [[spoiler:Molly and Thomas aren't that different from him. Molly is the Rag Lady because of a lie Harry was told by a Fallen Angel. Thomas was tortured by a skinwalker.]] Averted because [[spoiler:Uriel says Molly wasn't the one lied to by the Fallen. Her freewill was not influenced by one. And Thomas, though influenced by the torment, he is still alive and has a choice. So they are different than Harry's predicament.]]

* TheReveal: The identity of Harry's murderer. [[spoiler:Back in ''Changes'', a Fallen Angel ''lied'' to Harry Dresden by saying everything that had happened was his fault, pushing him to order a hit on himself by Kincaid]].

* RuleOfThree: [[spoiler:In exchange for a tale of Harry's past she didn't know, Lea agrees to answer three questions.]]
* RuleOfSeven: [[spoiler:A Fallen Angel spoke ''seven'' words to Harry back in ''Changes''. These seven words were a ''Lie''. To balance the scales, Uriel spoke seven words of pure Truth]].

* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: It is revealed Harry [[spoiler:went through this with his planning his own assassination. His back was broken and he saw no way to save Maggie but to go to Mab and become her Knight. He couldn't stand the thought of becoming a monster and arranged for Kincaid to kill him after Maggie was saved and for Molly to remove the memories of the plot]]. It is then revealed [[spoiler:this was invoked by a Fallen whispering a lie to Harry during a MomentOfWeakness to shove him into a tragedy by adding an incredible weight of guilt to his mind]].

** Harry looks upon [[spoiler:Uriel and tells him to not even try the "Mysterious Ways"-BS and things he is not meant to know before making him choose whether to go onto the next train or stay on Earth as a shade. He was twice screwed with, once by a Fallen lying to him, and the other by Captain Jack's lie of vagueness. He deserves to have some key questions answered if Uriel is all about openness and honesty]].

* YouOweMe: Harry bluntly tells [[spoiler:ArchangelUriel]] he is owed some straight up answers to allow him to make an informed choice. [[spoiler:Uriel, after a moment, sees that Harry has been jerked around by one of his subordinates to come back to Chicago and was ''lied'' to by a Fallen]]. So, he agrees to give Harry the information he asks for.

* CrazyAwesome: Literally. At the climax of the story, Mort explains to Harry that only insane ghosts can manifest in the physical world. Harry thinks back over all the things he's done over the past thirteen books, decides that he's more than crazy enough, and promptly manifests.

Not to be confused with the 1979 novel by Creator/PeterStraub, or its 1981 film adaptation.

----

----

* TheBusCameBack: Ron Carmichael, last seen in ''Fool Moon'', appears [[spoiler:as a being working for Uriel helping fight the dark things Uriel fights]].

* {{Deconstruction}}: This book deconstructs Harry's genocide of the Red Court in the previous book. They were a major political and financial power, and now that they've suddenly disappeared, there is a vacuum ready to be filled by new enemies. Molly confirms this when talking to [[spoiler:Harry's spirit. It turns out that there were numerous threats which had previously given Chicago a wide berth, based purely on the reputation of its resident wizard. Now that he's gone, the city's pretty much going to hell. Molly has been attempting to deliberately set herself up as TheDreaded through the persona of the Rag Lady, but it's a long, slow process, and the emotional toll it's taking on her is intense.]]

* YearOutsideHourInside: Common in spirit stuff, in the Dresden Files, time is malleable for spirits. Time in the Inbetween flows faster than in the real world. Harry finds that his short stint there covered 6 months of real time. Bob implies Uriel and Mab arranged this on purpose so he'd be there to stop the Corpsetaker at a critical moment. Bob also explains he can make this happen in his skull.
* YouAreNotAlone: [[spoiler:Molly's current path and choices leaves her going at things alone. When Karrin and Father Forthill try to get her see she isn't alone, she rebukes them and ignores them. While training with the ''Leanansidhe'', Harry's godmother tries to teach Molly she isn't alone and needs others to survive. She does this by pushing her to her limit and then summoned servants of the Fomor to attack. Had Harry not been present, she would have died and she makes it clear Molly knows this when things are over]].

* SuicideByAssassin: [[spoiler: Harry hired Kincaid to kill him so Mab couldn't use him, and then had Molly erase his memory.]]

* TimeAbyss: [[spoiler:Harry meets Uriel at the end of the book, who has been around since before the Universe existed (roughly speaking that is 13.798 billion years plus or minus 37 million years), before even Time existed. And Uriel reveals that he likes watching Star Wars because it makes him feel "young."]]

* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: It is revealed Harry [[spoiler:went through this with his planning his own assassination. His back was broken and saw no way to save Maggie but got to Mab and become her Knight. He couldn't stand the thought of becoming a monster and arranged for Kincaid to kill him after Maggie was saved and Molly to remove the memories of the plot]]. It is then revealed [[spoiler:this was invoked by a Fallen whispering a lie to Harry nearing a MomentOfWeakness to shove him into a tragedy by adding an incredible weight of guilt to his mind]].

* RulesLawyer: [[spoiler:Because Lea took up Harry's mantle of Molly's Mentor, he argues that if Lea is meant to emulate his style, if being harsher about it, then she must give Molly enough money for some food and a place to warm up on the cold night. Lea resists but Harry points out these are her own rules she previously stated, so she must follow through on his demand]].
* SaintlyChurch: St. Mary's makes another appearance. [[spoiler:And unlike the last time a ghost tried to enter back in ''Grave Peril'' Harry could enter the holy place.]]

* ScyllaAndCharybdis: [[spoiler:Lea, Harry's godmother,]] ends up in this situation as she has two obligations she must fulfill. First, [[spoiler:she must honor her word to Harry and answer the his question about who killed him.]] On the other side [[spoiler:she is bound, presumably by Mab, to not tell Harry who killed him.]] She is forced to fulfill both by [[spoiler:using ExactWords and being true from a certain point of view.]]

** Later, [[spoiler:to save the children Aristedes had under his control from both the police and a pissed off Murphy, Molly gets them taken not to St. Mary's, but her father and mother knowing that there is one place Murphy wouldn't go after them for the crimes they committed.]]
** The Better Future Society's main location is a good place for those in the Chicago Alliance or Paranetters or other visiting people to rest up.

** Harry [[spoiler:has all the Lecter Specters and Guardian Ghosts enter him before he enters the Corsetaker's base to allow the surprise ambush to work]].

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Murphy does not believe Mortimer when he says Harry's shade is following him... until Mortimer makes references to things only Harry and her would know about.

** Many characters who are experts in the spirits, like Father Forthill and Morty [[spoiler:note there is something queer about Harry's ghost. Morty bases this on a magical scan and Forthill by Harry entering St. Mary's which should block all ghosts. Whatever is the reason for these differences, they don't know but Morty is scared this some trick aimed to capture him.]] It is later revealed these suspicions were founded as [[spoiler:Harry was different from ghosts because he isn't one. He is an astral projection and what's running around is his pure ''soul'' without the protection of the shade.]]

** Justin [=DuMorne=] shows himself to be this. He isn't necessarily cruel to Harry when teaching him magic, but he is strict and demanding. When he asks something of Harry, he doesn't like to repeat himself. If Harry misbehaves, he will strike Harry, but never in anger. When Harry excels at magic, like casting a spell for the first time, he is warm and comforting.

* TakingYouWithMe: When [[spoiler:Molly is fighting Corpsetaker in her mind, [[TheSpock Spock!Molly]] side wants to burn the mind while Corpsetaker is inside. [[TheKirk Kirk!Molly]] wants to find another solution. It takes an idea from Harry to avert this from happening]].

* TemptingFate: Harry is able to convince Mort to help him. Mort agrees to give Harry one hour of his time, stating that nothing serious should happen. With these words, Harry knew Mort was serious when he said he wasn't a hero.

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: This is the thirteenth book in the series, and Harry is dead. [[spoiler: Well, until the end. Or, depending on your point of view, he never was dead in the first place]].
* ThrowingDownTheGauntlet: [[spoiler:When trying to stop Corpsetaker from leaving with Butter's body, Molly resorts to a mental battle with Corpsetaker as a final means of delaying her to save her friend's life]].

* ProperlyParanoid: When dealing like scum and monsters like the Fomor, blood tests, security questions, and holding off on invitations are smart things. [[spoiler:As a result, despite Mister, Molly, and Mort saying the shade is Harry, Butters has Bob shadow him when they went to save Father Forthill, presumably to kill if Harry was not Harry or went evil]].

* MeaningfulEcho: Harry said in ''Changes'' the world could burn if it meant he would save his daughter. [[spoiler:Uriel notes that his apprentice Molly and Karrin would suffer greatly as well. And because of his actions, they are suffering.]]

** Molly is fighting [[spoiler:Coprsetaker and is on the verge of defeat (which would leave Corpsetaker in possession of a powerful and dangerous body). Not even Uriel could help, but then Mort comes in unexpectedly and saves the day]].

** Mort is one of a very narrow field. He can control ghosts with his magic and will and does it carefully enough to help make sure those that can't move on don't end up going crazy and kill people.

* NewMeat: Of the Chicago Alliance, Daniel Carpenter, son of Michael and Charity, is basically this. He is strong in a fight but doesn't always read the situations well and leads to some mistakes, like [[spoiler:announcing in presence of a White Court vampire Karrin has two Swords of the Cross in her protection]].

* TheKidWithTheLeash: Butters has been holding Bob's leash since Harry's death, and Bob is happy to serve as his combination magical tutor and genie-in-a-skull. It helps that Bob's personality is a reflection of whoever holds his skull, or however the holder views Bob (which is why Bob's personality is so unchanged in Butters' possession: Butters' knew Bob when he was Harry's, so he thinks of Bob's personality the way Harry did). And Bob is more than happy to serve as Butters has the internet and TheInternetIsForPorn.

** Harry points out that the reason he uses fire is because it is universally useful. Even intangibles like ghosts recoil from fire as they have a hard time separating their memory of fire and flame from their current existence. Harry also points out that even though something might be invulnerable to death from burning, they almost always still feel pain from it and can be stalled with it.

* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: [[spoiler:Corpsetaker knows Morty is a decent level practitioner and an expert on ectomancing. When Harry [[NiceJobBreakingItHero led the insane shades to her which she ate and became more powerful]] she leaves Morty alive, though tied up, in a room with a pit filled with wraiths. Wraiths are just seriously deranged and degraded shades. Even after seeing Harry manifested into the physical world, she doesn't think about Morty.]] Cue BigDamnHeroes.

* GoodIsNotDumb: Butters states Father Forthill may be a man of peace, but it doesn't mean he is stupid. This is because [[spoiler:he knew when he went to face Aristedes, before Murphy and her group could get there, it was to give the man a chance to end things peacefully. However, in the likely event Aristedes decided to get violent, there would be people coming along shortly to handle the matter the other way]].

* GoodShepherd: Father Forthill continues to be one. He works with the Chicago Alliance, which includes the mob and vampires, to help protect Chicago and other places across the world. He [[spoiler:does not fear Molly, reprimanding her when she has erred, trying to help her see she needs people]]. He helps orphans and [[spoiler:upon learning about Aristedes' actions regarding said orphans, goes there unarmed to confront the man]].

** Harry sees a few in his trip. When he first spots one and tries to open his Sight on it, the angel warns him against such an action, going so far as shutting Harry's Sight off before it even comes on because "it would hurt him."

* HesitationEqualsDishonesty: Butters inability to swiftly answer [[spoiler:Aristedes' question about the missing swords dooms the facade Butters and Daniel had going]].
* HesJustHiding: [[spoiler:Murphy refused to accept Harry's death, including after she ''met his ghost'', because she had never seen a body. When he shows up as a ghost, she refuses to believe it's really him, even after getting his identity confirmed by Mortimer the ectomancer and Molly's Sight, all because she doesn't want to admit that he's dead.]] [[invoked]] To be fair, [[spoiler:in the end, Murphy's point about the body was valid as it was snatched up and preserved by Mab and Demonreach. Thus, technically speaking, Harry was never exactly dead in the first place.]]

** [[spoiler:ArchangelUriel, in turn, becomes this to Harry. When he was pushed such a despair he chose to commit suicide because a Fallen speaking a lie to him at his lowest point, Uriel repays the damage. When Harry was at a similar low point, seeing Mab over him proclaiming her victory and malevolent plans for Harry, Uriel gives Harry hope that he ''can'' remain who he is and still be the Winter Knight]].

** Harry realizes he was holding it during a specific event near the end of ''Changes'': [[spoiler:letting Molly, a mentally sensitive apprentice who's mostly untrained in combat, join him in retrieving Maggie. The mass of emotions from the battle came dangerously close to driving her insane, and as of ''Ghost Story'', she's a lot more paranoid and broken than she used to be.]]
** Karrin feels [[spoiler:Sunbeam Monroe held it for not traveling with a partner and as a result was an easy target to kidnap]].
** Harry realized he held it by [[spoiler:not having one of the crazy Lecter Specters manifest and free Mort from his bindings first]].

* IgnoredExpert: Morty feels like this when [[spoiler:despite him being known to the Chicago Alliance as an ectomancer, his testimony that Harry Dresden's spirit is with them and came with him to Murphy's home is not accepted completely. It takes Mister the cat reacting to Harry's shade with love and the word of a crazed Molly for them to believe it could be possible.]]

* IHaveYourWife: Or child. Or sibling. Or neighbor. Or ''pet''. Another tactic of the Fomor to get at people. They will use what they can.
* IKnowYourTrueName: Harry realizes when two angels speak his True Name with perfect inflection at him, any attempt to fight them would be a moot one.

* InsultBackfire: Harry insults [[spoiler:Lea's "teaching methods" with him as he noted how he turned out. She just smiled and pointed in just under forty years, her methods helped push him to kill the entire Red Court. A truly magnificent feat]].

** [[spoiler:ArchangelUriel]] throws Harry's boast of “I will make Maggie safe. If the world burns because of that then so be it. Me and the kid will roast some marshmallows” back in his face. He noted that "the world" would include [[spoiler:Murphy's deep depression and anger, Molly's slipping sanity, and all the other problems caused because of a few of Harry's choices.]]
** One notable example, showing just how ''bad'' things have gotten. When we first see Harry trying to teach Molly about shielding spells, it's with her younger brothers and sisters throwing snowballs at her. Her shield fails, she's pelted with snow, and it's a hilarious and heartwarming moment. Cut to ''Ghost Story'', and she's again practicing shields. Only this time, it's [[spoiler:[[TheFairFolk Leanansidhe]] throwing ''hunks of ice'' like a major league pitcher, and Molly's as far from her warm, safe, loving home as you get.]]

* ItsAllMyFault: [[spoiler:Harry believed that all the trouble in ''Changes'' was directly his fault. It is then revealed a Fallen influenced him to so believing this, he would kill himself]].

* TheKidWithTheLeash: Butters winds up holding Bob's leash by the end, and Bob is happy to serve as his combination magical tutor and genie-in-a-skull. It helps that Bob's personality is a reflection of whoever holds his skull, or however the holder views Bob (which is why Bob's personality is so unchanged in Butters' possession: Butters' knew Bob when he was Harry's, so he thinks of Bob's personality the way Harry did). And Bob is more than happy to serve as Butters has the internet and TheInternetIsForPorn.

* FriendToAllChildren: Nicholas Christian specializes in finding missing children. Over his several decades long career, [[spoiler:he had found and saved seven children while they were still alive]].
* FullNameUltimatum: Harry learns that, part of being angels, includes knowing how to say his Name perfectly. Twice two offended angels spoke it but without any power, showing Harry quite clearly they could destroy him but choose not to.

** Seeing Chicago through ghostly eyes, Dresden realizes that while he's always assumed Morty was on the sidelines of his city's various UrbanFantasy-style conflicts, the little ectomancer has been dealing with his ''own'' slate of macabre challenges and mysteries, all along. Ones that Harry, for all his experience with ''corporeal'' menaces, never even suspected was happening.

* {{Ghostapo}}: [[spoiler: Nazi-dressed Evil Bob commands a spirit realm shaped like the Nazi defenses on the beaches of D-Day, patrolled by werewolf Nazi soldiers Harry dubs wolfwaffen.]]

* GrammarNazi: Harry still has a bit of this. It shows when he notes the battlefield he looked upon was ''devastated'' not ''decimated''. The later technically refers to the destruction of just one in ten buildings (hence the "deci-" prefix).

** Murphy noted to Molly [[spoiler:not picking a superhero name and letting people and the papers name her the "Ragged Lady" for her habit of leaving bloodied cloths around her victims]] has led to an increase in PMS jokes. Molly is apologetic about the matter.
** Harry [[spoiler:rushed out of the Big Hood's home and across the Threshold to talk to Murph and her people and now cannot reenter uninvited]]. Murphy is not amused by this.
** Harry didn't consider [[spoiler:Mort was protecting the crazy ghosts from the Corpsetaker, to prevent her from consuming them, and now Harry just brought them to her]].

* DumbassHasAPoint: From [[spoiler:Evil Bob]]'s perspective Harry is an infant wizard with potential but clouded by stupid things like morality. However, when Harry claims that killing him isn't in the being's self-interest, the being replies that it lacks "self-interest." Harry rationally points out [[spoiler:that Evil Bob hesitating in killing Harry for even a second has no apparent rational basis, as Bob is stronger and in the superior position, serving the Corpsetaker would be best done by killing Harry, and Evil Bob isn't stopping to talk for Harry's sake]], therefore the hesitation is caused by [[spoiler:Evil Bob]] believing Harry alive would be better off for it than a dead Harry, ergo it is in its self-interest. Egro the being has some level of "self-interest." The being realizes there might be some validity to this and will think on it later, but now must kill Harry.

** Because of the above example, [[spoiler:Harry makes Mab the same offer because if she tried differently, by forcing him to do her will he will have the motivation of "a garden statue."]]

** When Harry meets the Guardian Angel at the Chicago-between, he uses his Sight to see the gun turn into a silvery sword. Later, he sees an identical one on the Angel of Death helping the being as an angel.

---> '''Harry:''' That was possible something significant.

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Harry still moves to rescue those who are in need, [[spoiler:from Fitz and his kids, to his closest friends]]. Special mention goes to a flashback seen from Harry's youth when [[spoiler:he saw He Who Walks Behind brutally kill a gas station attendant named Stan Harry met, while trying to rob Stan]] and this evil act galvanized him, setting him on this path.

** Ghosts operate on this. If they believe, even just on an instinctual level, they should be able to ride in a car, they won't fall through the seat. If they believe snow shouldn't affect them, five feet of snow is no longer cold. If they believe they should be able to walk through walls, they can. Well, assuming wards and thresholds aren't blocking them.
** Also, the nature of the wall comes into play as well. A wall of a house is meant to keep beings out of the domain. A wall around a cemetery is meant to keep things ''inside''. This means Harry cannot just pass through on his way out of his grave. He will need the gates to be open to escape.

** As a result of Winter Knight Harry being tasked with [[spoiler:educating and preparing Molly Carpenter to survive and his sudden death, Queen Mab now considers this ''her task'' and sets Harry's Godmother Lea to train Molly in very harsh and nearly sadistic means to ensure the girl's survival. Her mental health and state of her soul not included. Harry later argues that debt won't mean anything if Molly dies from not having a warm meal and safe place to rest for a short time. Lea agreed, if begrudgingly, and gives Molly money for such a meal]].

** Bob offers to replay for Harry "That time Molly sprayed herself with acid and had to remove all her clothes in the lab". That event happens during the short story "Day Off".
** Several references to "A Restoration of Faith". Nick Christian makes his first appearance since that short story, and Harry recounts the later's involvement with it.
** Harry notes the presence one of the Alphas he's not seen in a while, struggling to remember her name (Marcy). Marcy's return to Chicago after several years away and reconnecting with the Alphas is mentioned in "Aftermath". Similarly the Fomor servitor's title of "Turtlenecks" also originates from "Aftermath", the term coined by Murphy.

** Inez, the spirit of a little girl in the Graceland cemetery who Harry meets. She is generally friendlier and more polite than most versions of creepy kids, but she is still unsettling, not the least because she died a couple of centuries ago and has an extensive amount of knowledge about spirits and shades, and is convinced by long experience that Harry will become "a monster." [[spoiler:It is implied that Inez is a proxy for Mab, talking through a conduit because she couldn't come in person, what with being occupied as part of Harry's life support on Demonreach.]]

* DareToBeBadass: Harry tells [[spoiler:Fitz he can either be a man who will always be on the run or turn back and save his friends, Father Forthill, Butters, and Daniel from Aristedes]].

** Upon realizing [[spoiler:Harry is not a ghost but his pure soul wandering around]] he is told, that if he "dies" this will be his fate.

* AbnormalAmmo: Sir Stuart uses a large gun to blast a wraith to oblivion. Harry finds out that, much like everything else a ghost can do, it is powered by memory. Stuart makes a great effort to recover that energy each time it is used. [[spoiler: Harry finds out later that he can use magic again if it is powered by his memories of using magic. However, if Harry does not recover that energy he himself will eventually dissipate since, as a ghost, Harry is made of nothing ELSE but memory. Harry, being Harry, realizes this just a bit too late.]]

* ArmyOfTheAges: Harry leads an army of ghostly warriors through the Nevernever to fight a spirit enemy. One memorable scene shows the enemy having set up pillboxes and other defenses. An 18th century grenadier produces a number of black-powder grenades, and then asks a 1920's mobster if he can borrow his Zippo for a bit.

** [[spoiler:Thanks to Mab, Demonreach, Uriel, and the efforts of a certain "parasite", Harry is brought back at the end.]]

** Kemmler gets a mention when Harry recalls it took the White Council seven times to make sure he stayed dead.

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: Harry cannot get on a path to What-Comes-Next without solving his murder first. He can, however, get onto the Hell Express.

* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: Molly engages [[spoiler: Corpsetaker]] in a mental battle in order to rescue [[spoiler:Waldo Butters, whose body Corpsetaker has stolen. Then Corpsetaker tried to steal Molly's body in turn and was almost successful]]. The battle itself is represented as an actual battlefield, with Molly waging her end of things from a mental copy of the bridge of the [[Franchise/StarTrek Enterprise]]. Molly plays a scorched earth policy to delay [[spoiler:Corpsetaker, and almost suicides to prevent Corpsetaker from winning -- until Harry convinces her to call for help, at which point Mort hits Corpsetaker point-blank with a swarm of ''very'' pissed-off spirits.]]
* BeardOfSorrow: [[spoiler:At the very end we find out that Thomas has one as well]] because of Harry's death in ''Changes.''
* BequeathedPower: Harry witnesses [[spoiler:Sir Stuart throw his pistol over a binding ring of fire to him. The only way this could be allowed is if the power was no longer Stuart's, to which Harry equates him having to amputate part of himself. At first Harry thinks he just got a powerful gun with one shot to it, but later comes to realize it is more than that. It is a symbol of power and authority over the protector spirits and the Lecter Specters. Once this happens, Stuart crosses over but now a weakened shade like the other protector spirits]].

* BotheringByTheBook: Harry threatens to do this to [[spoiler:Queen Mab]] if he even suspects that [[spoiler:she has messed with his mind in any way]]. He will follow the orders exactly, showing zero initiative, forcing the person to manage every detail of his missions.

* BreakTheCutie: Molly. [[spoiler:Her overt madness is a BatmanGambit to scare away some of the nastier critters lurking around Chicago, but helping Harry arrange his own murder and then being as sensitive as she is at the battle of Chichen Itza -- and close proximity to the spell that wiped out the Red Court -- seriously hurt her, which is not being helped by Lea's "Neitzsche and Darwin were Sentimental Pansies" brand of magical training.]]

** Upon recognizing the first person he met was Ron Carmichael, Harry briefly thinks back to when he last saw him dying to fight a loup-garou to protect Murphy ten years ago.

** When Molly uses a sleep spell on some mind-addled minions of the big bad, Harry notes to Murphy it's not too different from what he used on her like in ''Grave Peril.'' [[spoiler:Harry doesn't tell Murphy that the spell Harry used took ten minutes of hard concentration to not break anything in Murphy. Molly did it to multiple targets with more softness than Harry ever could ''in seconds''.]]
* CallOnMe: When fighting [[spoiler:Corpsetaker in her mind, Molly is planning to destroy her own mind rather than it be taken over and used to harm her friends and loved ones]]. Before that can happen, Harry suggests this trope and has his ally send a message [[spoiler:to Mort. He hears it and comes to the rescue vanquishing Corpsetaker's shade with the very horde of wraiths she used to torture him]].
* CastFromHitPoints: It is revealed that just about every ability a ghost can have (other than simply existing and traveling) is fueled by memory. Ghosts are composed of the memories of the person they were before. Use up all the memories and it is bye-bye. [[spoiler:Harry comes dangerously close to this without realizing it.]]

** Similar to ''Small Favor'', this book conspicuously lacks any mention of [[spoiler: Thomas Raith]] until the end, when Harry reasons he must have subconsciously blocked himself from thinking about [[spoiler: his brother]] to avoid the shame he would feel thinking about how much pain he caused must have caused [[spoiler: him with his suicide]].
** Harry's first question to Lea with their deal, [[spoiler:"If shades are memories, are the memories truth?"]] and her response that [[spoiler:they are the truth but his brain isn't the only place these memories are stored. As he is dead, he isn't limited by the 3 pound flesh organ in a skull. The only thing that limits what Harry remembers is himself.]] This becomes key when Harry realizes who his murderer is and what exactly happened.

** When Daniel is facing off against [[spoiler:Aristides]] blade-to-blade, he sarcastically asks [[spoiler:Aristides]] where he got his knife from. After the other replies that he got it 'from the last fool to try a blade against [him],' Daniel gets this line in -

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Aristides used subtle mind magic to convince his crew of children to do crazy things, like firing into the house of Karrin Murphy.]]

* DareToBeBadass: Harry tells [[spoiler:Fitz he can either be a man who will always be on the run or turn back and save his friends, Father Forthill, Butters, and Daniel from Aristides]].

** While certainly badass during [[spoiler:his fight with Aristides the sorcerer]], Daniel Carpenter displays shades of this during his first appearance, [[spoiler: blurting out in his over-enthusiastic and dour-but-righteous zeal that Murphy has two of the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Swords of the Cross]] and that they should be used. The problem with this is that there is a member of the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent White Court]] in the room, who had no idea that Murphy had the Swords in the first place.]] The vamp attempts to use this information to [[TooDumbToLive blackmail Murphy into being her]] [[HornyDevils next]] [[EmotionEater meal]], leading to a [[TalkToTheFist swift]] and [[PistolWhip brutal rebuttal]].

* GoodShepherd: Father Forthill continues to be one. He works with the Chicago Alliance, which includes the mob and vampires, to help protect Chicago and other places across the world. He [[spoiler:does not fear Molly, reprimanding her when she has erred, trying to help her see she needs people]]. He helps orphans and [[spoiler:upon learning about Aristides' actions regarding said orphans, goes there unarmed to confront the man]].

* HesitationEqualsDishonesty: Butters inability to swiftly answer [[spoiler:Aristides' question about the missing swords dooms the facade Butters and Daniel had going]].

* IronicName: Aristides, the Fagin leader of street urchins and basic scum, shares his name with a 5th century BCE Athenian statesman known for his integrity and a 2nd century Catholic saint.

* NervesOfSteel: Karrin has faced warlocks, a chlorofiend, emotion eating vampires, and stood with Harry against the Red Court. Will of the Alphas has faced vampires, ghouls, warlocks, and a Skinwalker. Father Forthill has faced vampires, and other dark forces in his life. [[spoiler:Of the three, only the good Father is not scared by Molly's new persona, the prospect of her coming to a meeting, and her sudden arrival. He shows this again by going to face Aristides]].

* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:When Aristides was badly beaten and Fitz stood up to him, defying him before Zero and the other runaways, Aristides tries to force Zero to attack Fitz with a magical compulsion, the one who genuinely cared for him, the one who would protect him and defend, who loved him like family, Fitz stood firm and ordered Zero to drop the weapon, to no longer listen to Aristides. The love of brotherhood between the two young boys was enough to wrest Zero free from Aristides' will and then all the boys]].

** Later, [[spoiler:to save the children Aristides had under his control from both the police and a pissed off Murphy, Molly gets them taken not to St. Mary's, but her father and mother knowing that there is one place Murphy wouldn't go after them for the crimes they committed.]]

** Harry bluntly tells [[spoiler:Fitz that because Aristides was not only seen injured by his crew of children but Fitz was how the attackers got into the stronghold, even if they didn't fight him now, he was no longer an invincible powerhouse in their minds. So, it would be easier to just kill the whole crew and start from scratch again.]]