Glen Cook’s Garrett P.I. series has often been likened to the hardboiled detective noir novels of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, but set in a magical Medieval-style city laden with elves, pixies, dwarves, trolls and other fantastical creatures. It’s Sam Spade meets the Discworld, but is more than merely the sum of these parts. These books are gripping and gritty and just a whole heck of a lot of fun; straight up first person mysteries featuring a loveable and trouble-prone rake, the titular Garrett, his genius business partners and urbane best friend, an increasing assortment of minions and other ne’erdowells and the inevitable troupe of luscious vixens over whom Garrett (who, as he will often inform you, isn’t dead) can’t help but get a little het up.

This outing begins with Garrett finally off the market, and out of the street, seemingly inextricably bound to one Tinnie Tate, red-headed vamp and entitled heiress. Having finally captured his undivided attention, she prefers to keep her man on a very, very tight leash; instead of prowling all of TunFaire searching out bad guys as the city’s premiere private dick, Garrett is instead a company man on the payroll of the Tates, spending his days heading off copyright infringement and petty larceny and his nights entangled in the arms of an increasingly shrill and unreasonable Tinnie.

Then an attempt is made on his life, his best friend, Morley Dotes, turns up mortally wounded, and a gaggle of assorted dark magicks suddenly threaten a city newly under the grip of a major reform, and Garrett finds himself out of his girlfriend’s watchful, wrathful eye and back in his old house under the care of his aged housekeeper, Dean, his business manager, Singe, and his partner, the Dead Man (an ancient member of the now extinct Loghyr race, for whom mere physical demise is no impediment to utilizing his several well-honed brains). Throw in the discovery of a relationship between Morley and the mercurial Belinda Contague, dread ruler of the city’s organized crime; several winsome callgirls; a tribe of ratmen; most of Garrett’s old retinue; a good deal of the City Guard; Crown Prince Rupert; and a renewed flirtation with the powerful sorceress grandly known as the Windwalker, Furious Tide of Light, and the house on Macanudo Street becomes the epicenter of much excitement when someone very powerful indeed tries to silence Garrett and Morley permanently… but for what reason, no one knows.

The Windwalker we’ve met before, in the last Garrett book, 2008’s Cruel Zinc Melodies (yes, they all have some kind of metal in their titles, and yes, with “gilded latten”, I think the well is running dry there), and practically all the motley characters we’ve met over the tales are either present and accounted for or at least mentioned in passing here (we even learn of the fate given to the Goddamn Parrot, may he rest in peace).

It’s strange seeing Garrett so out of touch with his usual milieu, having been kept as Tinnie’s lapdog for so long that he doesn’t even know the names of the popular criminal drinking establishments anymore; it’s like meeting up with Mike Hammer after he’s moved to the suburbs, joined the PTA and taken a job as night security guard at the local mall. As Garrett himself notes repeatedly, he is way off his game here, and one can’t help but wonder how much of that is echoing the author’s own feelings. It’s been a couple of years since the last Garrett book came out, after all, and Cook has been fairly heavily involved in his best-selling Black Company novels, in addition to his Instrumentalities of the Night series, in the meantime. Maybe getting back to Garrett was hard work. It certainly feels like it -- especially for the first half of the novel, when it seems like our favorite TunFairian P. I. has suffered a partial lobotomy.

One thing also to be looked at askance is the amount of female attention Garrett gathers unto himself in this book. It is all very well for him to wax jealous about the doting bevy of beauties fussing over his half-elven friend Morley, but the beat-up former Marine -- as Garrett fashions himself -- is not lacking in that department, by any means. Indeed, barely a chapter goes by without some sweet young thing propositioning him, or at least looking at him speculatively… and this book has some very short chapters. Not a complaint -- Garrett’s apparent rough charm is a big part of his, well, charm -- but definitely worth noting.

The mystery in this one throws up its surprises, and thankfully by the end of the adventure, Garrett is back to his old self and back as the center of his particular universe. A few troubling scenes between Garrett and Singe -- the unusually brilliant ratgirl whom he took under his wing several novels back and who now has taken on what can only be called airs -- portend potentially interesting times ahead, as do several other plot points that never really go anywhere here. I do not find this troubling (well, except for the part when Singe slapped Garrett and he was like, yeah, cool, whatever) because I choose to believe it means there will be another new Garrett book on the cards in the not too distant future, always a consummation devoutly to be wish’d.

That is not to say that this novel is an outright joy, nor even among my favorites of the series. It’s pretty light on the action and very heavy on the relationship melodrama. Garrett’s short hand reporting style is often opaque -- Cook doesn’t spell things out for the reader, and you really have to pay attention to pick up on all the subtle nuances of body language that he is forever referencing -- but there are parts of this one where he might well have been writing in a foreign language. (Upon reflection, however, this may just come from me being as out of practice in reading Garrett as Cook initially seemed in writing him.) Also, I think the word “sociopath” is used too many times, and applied to too many people. Indeed, I begin to wonder if our narrator quite knows what it means.

But all told, this is a largely enjoyable and by no means unworthy addition to the legend of Mama Garrett’s number one son, and one that has put me in forcible mind of just why I so love this series; I now want to take up Sweet Silver Blues, the first Garrett P.I. installment, and read all thirteen from the beginning again. If you like fantasy, like crime novels and yet somehow haven’t read these books yet… do so!

  -- Rachel Hyland