I love the Garrett Series and this 2nd volume much more then the first, because almost all of the action takes place in TunFaire Garrett's hometown. Lots of the interesting characters from book 1 are back and a few new ones added. My favorite character has to be The Dead Man, while being the smartest guy in the room, it's a room he can not leave. :)

Dead Man in this book uses live insects to wargame the on going war that TunFaire has long been involved in. Cook uses this to make some pointed comments about war and the military.

If you like mysteries or fantasies this is the series for you especially if you're a Nero Wolfe fan, and may point at the reason that Cook made the Dead Man misogynist ( )

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Title: Bitter Gold Hearts
Series: Garrett, P.I. #2
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 288
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Garrett is paid to consult on a kidnapping case for one of the rich and powerful folks of town.Everything seems to be just fine until someone murders the girl who was the go between, who happens to be related to the kidnap victim. Then the heir, who was returned, supposedly kills himself. A wagonload of gold has also disappeared. Garrett is then hired by the remaining daughter to ostensibly find the gold but to also find out what is going on.

Garrett figures everything out but has to reveal it all to the Head of the Family who has just returned from the war. She's a Storm Lord of no small power and she ends up killing almost everyone involved to cover it all up so her “honor” won't be besmirched. Garrett realizes what is happening in the nick of time and wraps things up neatly and presents the “evidence” to the other Storm Lords. They strip her of her power and the daughter inherits.

And that wagonload of gold? It disappeared, just like the Steward, who hired Garrett to consult in the first place.

My Thoughts:

Garrett sleeps with a lot of women. First, there's the woman from the previous book, who is away for this one. Then there's the cousin who ends up murdered and is the cause of Garrett really staying involved in the whole thing. Then there's the daughter of the Storm Lord. Between all that wenching and the gallons of beer he consumes, I'm surprised Garrett hasn't died from either syphilis or his liver giving out.

Other than bit of moralizing, I had a blast reading this. Garrett and some shady characters invade a criminal troll stronghold and end up burning the place down. It was violence and action and comedy and humor all in one situation and I loved it. Garrett does a lot of skulking around and I could have done with a little less of that, but eh, he's a P.I., skulking is part of the job.

I really liked the ending, with the Storm Lord going full on murder spree and Garrett stopping her before she murders him and his friends too. I didn't see it coming, so when Cook sprang it on me, I was quite surprised, as it meant the book didn't end with a little “oh, I've solved things, lets go home now” from Garrett
I don't think that I could tell you that the guy who wrote this series is the same guy who wrote the Black Company books. It's not just the change in sub-genre (comedic detective fantasy versus dark fantasy) but so far, I've seen nothing related to or from the Black Company or the Dread Empire. Not a phrase, not a character type, not a situation. That is really good. After 10 books of the Black Company and almost as many with the Dread Empire, I like this change. I hope this tempo can be sustained for another 12 books.

I just realized that maybe I should be adding the mystery tag, as Garrett is private detective after all. But while I will be, these don't strike me as mysteries. I don't know if it is because I've been steeped in the Agatha Christie, Ellis Peters type of mystery for so long or what.

★★★☆½ ( )

Not as bad as [b:Sweet Silver Blues|400878|Sweet Silver Blues (Garrett P.I., #1)|Glen Cook|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1297624038s/400878.jpg|1394270] but still with many sigh-worthy moments. I think the titles are the best thing about this series. ( )

Garett PI series, great humour. Very funny read. ( )

After his last disastrous adventure (Sweet Silver Blues), Garrett, a human detective in a creative and chaotic city chock-full of sorcerers, elves, centaurs, ratmen, and more, is back to just back to trying to make a living in the big city. However, when a beautiful and mysterious half-fey girl turns up in his office, he has a premonition things are about to get complicated. The girl offers him an enormous amount of money to consult on the kidnapping of the son of one of the most powerful sorceresses in the city. But as he plunges more and more deeply into the corrupt politics of the upper-class, Garrett begins to realize that everything is not as it seems.

I was excited to read the series because I had read several reviews which compared Garrett to Raymond Chandler's tenderhearted tarnished knight, Philip Marlowe. But this second story has my mind pretty well made up: Garrett is no Marlowe. Granted, people in Garrett's world call him smart-mouthed and tender-hearted, but I just didn't see it. He's taciturn and doesn't really participate in the snarky badinage common to reincarnations of Marlowe. Also, while Marlowe appears to have a fixation with the female body and spends a lot of time flirting, he's less of a womanizer. Although always disappointed by reality, Marlowe tends to see women as something to be protected and kept safe and pure. Garrett, on the other hand, gets into bed with a girl right after meeting her, and into bed with a different girl the next night.

This book really reminded me of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Not only was the plot scarily similar, but Garrett himself is basically Sam Spade reincarnated, with an added weird necro-chivalric edge. Like Spade, Garrett has a dry, unemotional tone and usually gives little to no indication of his actual reaction and feelings about the events he describes. It is effective in giving him a phlegmatic, reserved voice, but makes it difficult to understand or relate to the character. Like Spade, Garrett plays along with the conspirators he interacts with, pretending to be a criminal, and it is difficult for the reader to determine exactly how mercenary he is actually being. However, like Spade, Garrett has his own peculiar code of honor. He may use and throw away women like crumpled tissues, but he apparently will do anything to avenge those he knew who died--all while sleeping with their rivals.

One of the aspects of the series I really don't like is the repeated use of Deus ex machina-delivering-characters. In fact, in each book I've read has two designated characters who hand out unlikely resolutions: one for knowledge, and one for uber-special spells to get Garrett out of any insurmountable battle. The Dead Man, a Loghyr lodging in Garrett's house, is a literal genius who can always supply any missing plot points or inference. Garrett also always manages to find a witch or sorceress who supplies him with pocket-sized spells that he uses whenever he faces overwhelming odds. It takes the uncertainty, and therefore the excitement, out of the story.

Again, the best part of the book for me was experiencing Garrett's well-crafted and creative world. It seamlessly combines the "realistic" seedy underbelly of the city found in detective noir with outlandish fantasy and magic. Yet again, the failing of the story for me was the characters. I didn't particularly like any of them, including the narrator. It's a creative world, but if I can't warm up to the characters, my enjoyment of the story is greatly decreased. Readers of UF and noir who like their protagonists rough and hard, more like Sam Spade than Philip Marlowe, will enjoy this book. ( )