Only hindsight will tell us for sure, and for that we need more books, but the way Skin Games was written could be necessary to set up books in the rest of the series.
As Rajan Khanna pointed out this book does not have the epic feel of the previous books. But who can ride that kind of a roller coaster of emotions without taking a break? This could be Jim Butcher's break and set up for even more epic novels. We know there is a 3 book climax coming eventually.
Only time, and ultimately more books, will reveal the truth.
*goes back to sitting in corner and drums fingers impatiently waiting for the next book(s)*
PS: nice article Alan
