Introducing Garrett, P.I. [Paperback]

This is a collection of the first three (of currently 13) Garrett PI novels, Sweet Silver Blues, Bitter Gold Hearts, and Cold Copper Tears. They introduce first Garrett and the background war in the Cantard, and then TunFaire, and finally by the end of Tears we have a pretty good overview of Garrett's various friends and companions. These stories all date from the mid 1980's, and like with Cook's Black Company, this was groundbreaking stuff back then, and remains incredibly readable today.

Sweet Silver Blues is the first of the Garrett PI novels, with Garrett as a detective living in a gritty, noirish city called TunFaire, which is kind of like Lankhmar but populated by elves, dwarves, ogres and other things, as well as humans. TunFaire is part of Karenta, which has been fighting a dirty Vietnam-style war with rival nation Venageti, over silver mines in a place called the Cantard. Every male has to do 5 years military service; Garrett is an ex-Marine.

Now one of Garrett's old marine buddies is dead, and there is a Will to prove, which names a woman who was an old flame of Garrett's back in the war. So Garrett, needing funds, takes the case and goes back the Cantard, with some hired help.

Glen Cook has made a wonderful world come alive here - or rather, he has described a hard, nasty place wonderfully well. This book takes the conventions of both fantasy adventure and pulp noir, combines them, and subverts them beautifully. There are femmes - fatale and otherwise - vampires, elves, unicorns and shapeshifters. Everyone has an agenda of their own, and a pretty clear role outside of "Garrett's sidekick #1" etc.

Bitter Gold Hearts is the second volume in the Garrett PI series, and unlike Sweet Silver Blues, largely takes place in TunFaire, and Garrett's case is a missing person...or two. Garrett is hired by a Stormwarden, one of the more or less crazy wizards who live on "the Hill", the nicer part of TunFaire, to find a missing heir. There are a few pretty girls to complicate matters, of course. Through all of this, Garrett has to manage dealing with criminal kingpin Chodo Contague, who feels he owes Garrett a favor.

This a much more of a true detective story than the first Garrett novel Sweet Silver Blues. There are mysteries aplenty, and the Dead Man is starting to shine here, with his collection of bugs re-enacting military campaigns on old maps. And in the background, Glory Mooncalled is starting to shake up the long stalemate in the Cantard, which can only be good...can't it?

Luckily, Garrett is on hand to deal with things, be they pretty girls needing a place to sleep, a jug of beer that needs drinking, or, if all else fails, solving the damn case. As usual, the book starts with Garrett waking up hungover and opening the door to the wrong person: as he tells it "I'd had a chance to give her the up and down, and she was worth a second look. And a third and a fourth. There wasn't a lot of her, though nothing was missing, and what was there had been put together quite nicely." If all that sounds interesting...well, it is: Bitter Gold Hearts is Glen Cook at his best, with humor, witty dialogue and a plot that never stops.

Finally, Cold Copper Tears follows Garrett right after the case of Bitter Gold Hearts, with Garrett being hired by a priest to recover some lost relics, and a pretty girl needing protection all at the same time. To top it off, someone has put a price on Garrett's head, and that someone has thereby invoked the wrath of Chodo Contague, amoral underworld kingpin. Garrett finds himself battling an ancient eunuch cult with the help of a gang of street girls, led by the entrancing Maya. Garrett and the Dead Man are up against something old and powerful here, and there is a case to solve and lives to save.

Once again Glen Cook has written a page-turning read full of noiry goodness, with a wide cast of characters well written. This is a gritty fantasy detective story, and yet the characters all seem very real - Chodo is filled with menace, Dean is long-suffering, Morley Dotes is...Morley Dotes. TunFaire is vividly drawn, and is becoming a character all of its own.

Garrett Takes the Case - the next three volumes with Old Tin Sorrows (one of the best and most distinctive Garrett stories), Dread Brass Shadows and the long out of print Red Iron Nights is out in early 2012. Presumably the rest of Garrett's story will follow in about six-monthly intervals.

Probably one of the best fantasy detectives with a comedic bent. Garret, Morley, and crew become welcome and warm characters.

This book is a re-issue of the first three books about the (mis-) adventures of Garrett, P.I. I have followed this series since it first started in 1989.

Garrett is a veteran of five years in the Royal Marines in a world without any gunpowder weapons, e.g., swords,bows, clubs, etc. His home town is TunFaire, the capital city of Karenta, in a world which is populated by various critters...dwarves, elves, ogres, trolls, and whose geography has some dim resemblance to St. Louis, MO. Despite the nominal existence of an Imperial family and the functioning presence of a Royal family, hence king, most of TunFaire's important decisions are actually made by exceptionally powerful wizards who live in the high-rent district, above the rest of the city, called The Hill.

I have found this an immensely entertaining action series, well-written, narrated in the first person...and every so now and then some profound thoughts are slipped in. If yhou try this, I hope you get as hooked on Garrett and his associates as have I...I am presenbtly waiting imp;atiently to see book 14 in the series appear!

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars