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Garrett was, himself, the source of the feminist conspiracy among the Godoroth and Shayir in Petty Pewter Gods.

Gods take on the qualities imposed upon them by their believers, as demonstrated by Imar and Lang looking the same because both cults used the same mass-produced idols. While Garrett never actually followed either pantheon during this case, the simple fact that he'd seen them meant that he did acknowledge their existence, if only by way of resenting their misbehavior and incompetence. As the Godoroth had only one believer left, and the Shayir, only a few, having Garrett admit that they existed would've given him a small, but discernable influence on how they manifested and behaved: not enough to force a new shape on them or make them clean up their act, but at least enough to impose a new idea on some of them.

When Garrett was being held captive by the Shayir, and every goddess in their bunch had taken her turn hooking up with the prisoner, he recalls he had a dream in which all the lovely ladies from both pantheons walked out on their male counterparts and started a new, sexy faith he'd actually be happy to convert to. This dream didn't just confirm Garrett's a dog at heart, it initiated the conspiracy between the Godoroth and Shayir goddesses. Prior to that, there was just Imara plotting to save her own skin, and Adeth working to disrupt the competition and kick off a fight between pantheons. Magodor and the others might remember having been secret allies for a long time, but the actual conspiracy was wholly a product of Garrett's subconscious wish-fulfillment grafting itself onto deities whose dwindling followers' meager faith wasn't enough to stabilize their personalities.

Lastyr and Noodis left something radioactive in Playmate's stable.
Kip set up his workshop at their instigation in the back of the livery stable, where Playmate daily spent hours tending for his animals' needs. The two Visitors were struggling to repair their damaged skyship, which may have had radioactive components, and the pair wouldn't necessarily realize if the natives of Karenta were more susceptible to radiation's carcinogenic effects than their own species. Kip himself didn't get out to the stable often enough to be harmed by exposure to the "hot" materials his Visitor friends had innocently left lying around, but Playmate worked there every day. Fast forward a year or so, and poor Playmate begins suffering chronic pain from the cancer he's diagnosed with and treated for in the most recent novels.

Spike is working undercover inside John Stretch's criminal organization.
The ratman cop is a close associate of Relway's in Red Iron Nights, and seems every bit as dedicated to law and order as his colleagues. None of the other novels so much as mention him, however. Knowing Relway, it'd make sense for the Director to assign his old partner from the Specials to a deep-cover mission, keeping tabs on his own kind. Spike initially investigated Reliance, then took up service with John Stretch after Reliance got busted for keeping human clerks as book-keeping slaves.
  • For an even sneakier possibility, Dollar Dan Justice could actually be Spike, who's craftily worked his way up to become John Stretch's right-hand rat. Garrett wasn't used to telling different ratmen apart when he met Spike, and given how other ratfolk would likely treat a known cop among them, Spike could've taken pains to alter his own appearance and scent when he first went to work with the Specials. Later, when Relway determined that having an undercover Watchman close to John Stretch, Garrett, and Singe would be useful, Spike changed his look again, was equipped with an anti-mind-reading hairnet under his fur, and began to work his way into the boss rat's crime ring. The Dead Man saw through this mental shielding long ago, but he knows Garrett would feel morally-obligated to tell Singe about her admirer's secret agenda if he learned about it. Revealing this would needlessly hurt Singe's feelings and spoil the Dead Man's chance to feed Relway disinformation via Dollar Dan/Spike, so Old Bones keeps quiet about the matter and lets Dan believe his hairnet is working fine.

Medford Shale died some time before Wicked Bronze Ambition.
Garrett mentions at Strafa's funeral that his new in-laws are his only family. Medford had been his last blood relative, alive as recently as Cruel Zinc Melodies.
  • There was a significant time jump between Cruel Zinc Melodies and Gilded Latten Bones Medford could have just passed from old age in the between times.

Eleanor is not haunting her painting, she's haunting Garrett himself.
It's all but confirmed that they have a deep and mutual love of one another. The painting is just a convenient object to reside in since it stays in his office and her ghost isn't strong enough to manifest on it's own since the death of her husband.

Both Garrett and the Dead Man have the Algardas' personal relations all wrong.
Although Strafa did bear Barate's daughter Kevans, the Dead Man's own prudishness prevented him from actually probing their minds deeply enough to discern the circumstances. In fact, it's Strafa's mother with whom Barate conceived Kevans, making Kevans the legitimate product of husband and wife rather than a result of Parental Incest. When Strafa was fourteen, her pregnant mother fell deathly ill with a disease that neither magic nor medicine could cure. To save the baby, the Shadowslinger used her magic to transplant her unborn second granddaughter into Strafa's womb, allowing Kevans to survive her biological mother's death. Due to the very strict laws that govern inheritance among nobles in Karenta, the Algardas couldn't publicly admit that they'd tampered with a pregnancy in this fashion, so they let the rest of the Hill believe Strafa was Kevans' biological mother, not just her surrogate. Sadly, Kevans herself heard about her "incestuous" parentage from Hill rumors before her father and sister could explain the truth, leading her to fear molestation and create the compliance device.

Doris and Marsha had a magical "trick up their sleeve", like Garrett himself often uses, in Sweet Silver Blues.
The grolls demonstrated an ability to blend into their surroundings like chameleons in that novel, but this ability is never used again by them in any later book, even under circumstances (e.g. stalking the "silver elf" vehicles in Angry Lead Skies) when it would've come in very handy. Out-of-character it's possible that Cook simply forgot about this power of theirs - it certainly wouldn't be the first time a detail slipped by him - but a more plausible in-Verse explanation would be that Doris and Marsha were relying on some magical trinket to achieve this effect. Morley's Hand Wave claim that the grolls just don't like to admit to that special power was a fib that Dotes used to protect the big fellows' privacy. By the time the triplets show up again in the series, they've used up their trinket's power and can't blend into the background anymore.

John Stretch's rise to prominence in the ratfolk underworld happened in the wake of Cold Copper Tears.
The young ratman was heavily involved in collecting regular rats for Chodo's siege of the enemy Loghyr's island, just as he'd one day collect them for Garrett's own campaign to exterminate the Faction's escaped Big Creepy-Crawlies. This earned him contacts within the cross-species criminal community that served him in good stead during his later split from Reliance.

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