Review

Rating: 8

I started reading The Garrett series of books by Glen Cook in the late ’80s before I got married. I recall that I really enjoyed the stories I read, but I lost track of the series after perhaps three books.

I stumbled across them again while browsing through the Science Fiction Bookclub listings. They have them grouped together into “omnibus” editions- two or three novels in a single book. The first of these is the Garrett files, which includes the first three Garrett stories: Sweet Silver Blues, Bitter Gold Hearts and Cold Copper Tears.

I am pretty sure that these are the three stories I read two decades ago. But I have enjoyed them as much as the first time around. Garrett is your typical tough, world-weary private investigator with a heart of gold, dealing with complex cases with a lot more intelligence than he gives himself credit for. Except for the fact that Garrett doesn’t live on the earth you and I know. His mean streets are populated with half-dark elf “breeds”, vampires, wizards, and trolls. His sometimes partner is a physically dead but still mentally very much alive Loghyr. And the mob boss has Thunder Lizards (that sound a lot like Raptors) instead of guard dogs to help keep riff-raff out of his estate…which is handy because their eating habits leave no evidence behind.

The setting is appealing and intriguing, with a complex back story of a decades long war over the silver mines of the Cantard wastes. The city of TunFaire is suitably gritty and makes a good setting for a private investigator with intrigues and greed a-plenty. But the best part of the Garrett stories for me are the characters. Despite being built around seemingly two dimentional models, Garrett and his compatriots have some appealing depth. I like Dean, and the Dead Man, and of course Garrett himself.

Cook is a great story teller. I am happy as punch that I’ve ordered the rest of the Garrett books from SFBC so I’ll have them to read over as they arrive over the next few months.