Позолоченные латунные кости

Garrett Files #13

by Glen Cook, Глен Кук, Анна Овчинникова (Translator)

Для частного детектива Гаррета верность и любовь отходят на второй план, уступая место стремлению выжить.
Семейное счастье с рыжеволосой Тинни Тейт оказалось недолгим. В их дом ворвались бандиты, попытавшиеся похитить Тинни. Гаррету удалось выяснить, что им заплатил некто, оставшийся неизвестным. Беда не приходит одна. Не успел частный детектив разобраться, кто именно стоит за попыткой похищения, как нападению подвергся его лучший друг. И теперь Гаррет должен раскрыть оба преступления.
Кто знает, может быть, они являются частями одного плана... В таком случае следующей жертвой может стать сам Гаррет...

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Detective, Humor, Science Fiction

480 pages, Hardcover

First published October 25, 2010

About the author

Glen Cook was born in New York City, lived in southern Indiana as a small child, then grew up in Northern California. After high school he served in the U.S. Navy and attended the University of Missouri. He worked for General Motors for 33 years, retiring some years ago. He started writing short stories in 7th grade, had several published in a high school literary magazine. He began writing with malicious intent to publish in 1968, eventually producing 51 books and a number of short fiction pieces.
He met his wife of 43 years while attending the Clarion Writer's Workshop in 1970. He has three sons (army officer, architect, orchestral musician) and numerous grandchildren, all of whom but one are female. He is best known for his Black Company series, which has appeared in 20+ languages worldwide. His other series include Dread Empire and and the Garrett, P.I. series. His latest work is Working God’s Mischief, fourth in the Instrumentalities of the Night series.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/glencook

Reviews

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 4 out of 5]

· Book 1: Sweet Silver Blues ★★★★
· Book 2: Bitter Gold Hearts ★★★★
· Book 3: Cold Copper Tears ★★★★
· Book 4: Old Tin Sorrows ★★★★★
· Book 5: Dread Brass Shadows ★★★★
· Book 6: Red Iron Nights ★★★★★
· Book 7: Deadly Quicksilver Lies ★★★★★
· Book 8: Petty Pewter Gods ★★★
· Book 9: Faded Steel Heat ★★★
· Book 10: Angry Lead Skies ★★★★
· Book 11: Whispering Nickel Idols ★★★★
· Book 12: Cruel Zinc Melodies ★★★★
· Book 14: Wicked Bronze Ambition ★★★

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantasy-Mystery-Thriller

Garrett, our favorite TunFaire P.I., has risen in the world and that comes with a full load of problems. Of course there are the benefits of free beer for shacking up with beautiful Tinnie Tate, but being a kept-man and not being able to associate with his former friends has Garrett on edge.

He is beginning to doubt himself and his role in life. “Which might suggest that I was past the point where I should stop doing what Tinnie wanted me to stop doing. If I couldn’t handle the ugliness anymore I should get busy being the neutered door guard I’d seen myself as before this came rumbling down.”

The “this” is an attack and he learns that his BFF, Morley Dotes, has been put near to death by several would-be assassins…and we are off on the adventure. Here are a few choice lines to give you the flavor of a Glen Cook novel.

“The one witness to the attack on Morley told me that a well-assembled girl in skintight black leather directed the creatures who stabbed him. She had a cubic-yard of bushy blond curls. The girl Two Step met was a short-haired brunette with intense brown eyes…”
“Creatures?”
“Men in tight wool costumes with big gray eggs for heads.”
…”I guess all we can do is be patient and hope he gives us something when he wakes up.”
“You’re a screaming genius, Garrett. I’m so glad Morley and I have you for a friend.”
…Belinda squeezed my left elbow. She had some grip for a girl. “Garrett your job is to keep your mouth shut, look pretty, and break the legs of anybody who tries to hurt Morely.”
I could do two out of the three blindfolded but the mouth thing has been a lifelong challenge.”

Before this story has reached its complicated conclusion, Garrett is prodded into some self-evaluation.
Garrett: “I don’t follow.”
Morley: “In the beginning there was you, me, sometimes, and a sleek new girl every couple of months. And Tinnie in and out of your life. Then you started getting entangled. There was the brewery connection. Then the Contagues…You got entangled with Block and Relway and Singe. And Kip and the whole inventory of Tates…All those entangling people will go right on doing what they do.”

Can Garrett save TunFaire from a mage’s machinations? Can he “untangle” himself. Read the book!


BTW Glen Cook is still alive in 2024 but is unlikely to add to his “Garrett” series. The latest book is Wicked Bronze Ambition and I hope to have my library acquire it in 2024.

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is thirteenth in a fantasy mystery series that you can technically read out of order. But not this one. Read at least a few others first so you get the full Tinnie effect.

This is a bit of a mess of a mystery, really. Garrett mostly lets things come to him and has minions running all the errands. So he's a little like the Dead Man that way. It almost feels like this story was built around getting Garrett out from under Tinnie.

I mean, we start with Garrett living a nightmare. He's shacked up with Tinnie, separated from his friends, his house, the Dead Man, and his normal work. He has, in fact, become the watchman for the couple of corporate concerns he has a hand in. And only that. I can't help but wonder how long he'd tolerate this if Morley hadn't gotten himself nearly killed so Garrett finally had the moral gumption to climb out of Tinnie's event horizon.

And being isolated for a bit gives Garrett the time to ruminate and come to some realizations about his "relationship" with the deadly redhead. He comes to some conclusions on his own and I wish that had been enough. But no, it takes the Dead Man, Singe and Dean to drive that point home, each in their own way. Worse, though, is the hint that it was only the intrusion of Strafa Algarde (aka Furious Tide of Light from the last book) with a serious case of one true love syndrome that made it stick.

Don't get me wrong. I really like Strafa, for all her quirks. She is a way better match for Garrett than any of his other women have ever been. And she is able to be what he needs without letting him or his circumstances overwhelm her, either. It's a good match. And they have good chemistry. And this plot gives lots of time for that to stew a bit in all the right ways.

Anyway, the relationship is the big development. The kingdom crisis Garrett struggles against is interesting in its own way, and with some wrinkles that were engaging. I do wish that Singe hadn't had to be such a hardcase to keep Garrett from doing things he knew better to do. I like her. I like her better when she can be herself. But circumstances in this book made it so she really had to be on top of things all the time and you could see the stress it was causing her. Garrett does appreciate it, but it's a good thing that partnership has a rock solid foundation because she had to step on him a couple of times to prevent bad things happening. I really felt for her, though.

Anyway, there's enough friction that I'm keeping this at four stars. I'm a little sad the next is the last, but I admit I'm looking forward to more of the Strafa and Garrett show.

A note about Steamy: There's enough on-page this time that I'm calling in the Steamy tag. It's the absolute lightest possible setting for that tag, however, as there are only a couple racy bits and the curtain closes pretty fast.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I love Glen Cook like a child loves his grandfather. The best of his work is easily the same caliber as Howard, Tolkien, and Leiber. So my feelings were deeply hurt when grandfather Cook pulled down my pants to molest me.

I am a huge fan of the Garret series, so I am sorry, but, this book is plain bad. For the vast majority of the book the characters sit around at Garret's house not doing much. They are passive and out-of-character. It's sometimes difficult to tell who is talking. Garret is obsessed with telling you he used the chamber pot in the middle of the night. A Morley and Garret revenge tale builds up only to fall flat on its face. The plot is revealed in the last few pages in a "ah-ha!" moment that is a non sequitor. By the time you get there, you've stopped caring long ago.

I know every work a writer crafts can't be his best. But Mr. Cook's editors and publishers have done his legacy a serious disservice by letting this pass. They knew his name would sell so instead of pushing him to perform (or at least be lean and mean in plot and prose) they just said fuck it and published it. I'll forgive you Grandpa Cook, but don't touch me there again.

[Frank Tuttle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a Garrett fan since before dirt. I love the character, the settings, the POV, the film noir references, all of it. I've been eating these books up for years.

That said, I found this one hard to read. Not because the book is badly written, heck no, but because Cook has chosen to do something I don't think I'd do -- he's let the characters age. Get old. Die.

People do that, you know. I don't like it, and if I were running the universe I'd make some changes in that department, but that's the way things are.

I just don't want characters I love to suffer the same fate as me.

I'm also a dedicated fan of Rex Stout's brilliant Nero Wolfe series (and the Garret books are based on these). I've read all the Wolfe books, except for the last one, A Family Affair. And I'm saving it for my death-bed because it's the book that ends the series, and dammit I want no part of that.

My advice to you?

If you've never read another Garret book, go get Sweet Silver Blues and get started. If like me you've read all the rest, well -- save this one for later, say during the zombie apocalypse.

I just can't say goodbye to anyone else right now.

[Gabe S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Screw it, I liked it!! ****** Spoiler Alert ******

I'll admit some of the later novels in this series were feeling a little tired but I'll give this a full 5 stars purely for the fact that Garrett finally got rid of terrible Tinnie Tate - the 13th and final entry in the series so good riddance and good on slightly fat Garrett!! :-) love this series - sad to see it go but Garret finally had a good thing going there at the end.

UPDATE - my bad, just found out there's a book 14. Book 13 is not quite the end. YAY, YIPPY & HURRAY!

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gilded Latten Bones is the thirteenth and penultimate book in the Garrett P.I. series written by Glen Cook and centered on the adventures of former private investigator Garrett.

Garrett, formerly a private investigator, decided to live in domestic bliss with his girlfriend Tinnie Tate with whom he’d had an on-again-off-again relationship in the past. She is excessively controlling in their lives as she has completely succeeded putting up a wall between him and his old friends and acquaintances, without him noticing.

Not until somebody breaks into their house and tries to kidnap Tinnie. Not until Belinda Contague shows up on his doorstep the very same night to tell him that his best friend Morley, professional playboy and restaurateur has been the victim of a vicious stabbing and on his deathbed.

Garrett escape the safety of domestic bliss and plunges into this new adventure to save his friend and to get back at whoever tried to kill him, always wondering whether or not the two incidents could be related.

Gilded Latten Bones is written rather well. It was slightly disconcerting, at first, when it was revealed that Garrett has giving up the life of a private investigator for domestic bliss, but Cook proves that Garrett could get in just as much trouble even giving up the detective hat.

While written well, the narration is much to be desired. The on and off relationship between Garrett and Tinnie Tate had soured and I disliked how both protagonists had changed in this installment with Tinnie Tate being excessively controlling and Garrett wanting to rewrite her personality, by taking this trait away from her without permission.

All in all, Gilded Latten Bones is written rather well and is a somewhat good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series, which I plan to continue in the very near future.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best novel in the Garrett Files series since the opening trilogy. It caught my attention from moment one and kept me flipping pages right through to the end. Part of what makes it so interesting is that it opens unlike any of the other books. Garrett has given up the PI business in an effort to make his relationship with Tinnie Tate work. She’s been an on-again off-again love interest since book one and they’ve decided to get married even if they never quite get around to setting a date. Perhaps the reason they haven’t set the date is that they are making each other miserable, but that’s an issue for later in the novel. What happens right from the beginning is that Garrett and Tinnie are attacked in their home and immediately thereafter they learn that Garrett’s best friend, Morley Dotes, has been stabbed and is dying and needs Garrett’s help. If there weren’t already signs that Garrett’s relationship with Tinnie was in trouble, the proof comes right then. Tinnie doesn’t want Garrett to help Morley and Garrett understands that that is because Tinnie wants everything in Garrett’s life to revolve solely around her. It’s sad and it’s clear that if the series is going to continue, Garrett and Tinnie’s relationship can’t survive the book.

But that’s still a problem for later in the novel. First Garrett has to keep Morley alive and that involves protecting him from the people who tried to kill him. Unfortunately, Morley’s been out of the PI business for a couple of years. His city has changed. There are new players and he is out of practice and making dumb mistakes. It takes time for him to start get his groove back and he’s hampered by the need to never leave Morley’s side, but slowly, a huge problem in the city begins to get uncovered. Someone is creating zombie monsters by stitching pieces of people and things together like Dr. Frankenstein. It’s creepy. It’s dangerous. And it’s still not the whole picture because someone on the Hill is trying to cover the whole thing up and the effort to do so involves not just the king but law-and-order’s former champion, Prince Rupert. The Prince is so determined to cover up the mess that he is willing to dismantle the City Guard that he has spent a great many books constructing to accomplish his end.

Somewhere near the heart of the problem, but not actually directly involved, is Garrett’s new potential love interest, a very powerful sorceress called Furious Tide of Light. Her family keeps showing up in connection to the zombies and she is both determined to find out why and terrified of the answers. She’s also decided that Garrett is going to be her man and despite feeling guilty about Tinnie, Garrett is interested.

This one has all the things that makes the Garrett Files great. It’s a fantastic mystery. There is very serious threat to Garrett and friends. And there are a couple of emotionally powerful subplots. My only complaint, is that Garrett moves on too quickly from Tinnie, but frankly, this is in keeping with his character even if it was a little disappointing.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Rebecca Stevenson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gilded Latten Bones is the... I don't know, feels like the 50th book in the Garrett, PI series, but Wikipedia tells me there's only 13. From the feel of the ending, I suspect this is intended to be the last one.

The story starts out in traditional noir mystery fashion, and seems fairly promising. There is a bizarre attack on the place he's now sharing with Tinnie, and it looks like an older, wiser Garrett will be hauled back to his old haunts when someone comes close to killing his old friend Morley.

It does not deliver. Much as I appreciate learning a new vocabulary word, the series has lost its luster for me. While Cook has done a great job evolving his setting over the course of the series, he hasn't done so much for his protagonist, and his attempts to do so in the course of this story strike me as clumsy. Garrett is still Garrett. The "settled down now" veneer is translucently thin, the problems his now-permanent relationship with Tinnie create seem as tired as Garrett himself, their resolution verges on unnatural (for one thing, it requires the Dead Man to like a woman).

The story is encumbered by the weight of all of the characters it has created over the years, all of which now seem like they have to show up in every book, along with a few new ones. The choppy style seems less like an effect and more like laziness. Two-page chapters? Am I reading a Dan Brown novel?

The worst thing? This should have been a great Garrett story. The final adventure, dark deeds at the highest levels of the realm, hideous sorceries lurking in Tun Faire's shadows, a man caught between two women, the case that will require everything he's learned from all of his previous adventures... and instead it falls flat. The pieces never gel, there is never any serious sense of threat. Garrett spends as much time mooning (awkwardly) over his relationships and sorting out minor problems among his friends as he does anything else, gets beat up, sleeps a lot, gets a cold (!), with the result that the actual plot feels like an afterthought. Surrounded by an army of secondary characters, slowed by pointless subplots, the top-heavy story creaks along to a finale in which Garrett has no part to play.

I really, really want to know what his editor thought about this one.

[Danny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am amazed people have given this book good reviews. It wasn't very good at all.
The theme of the book is "Everyone is getting old". Which really wasn't very compelling.

The 'case' could have been pretty interesting, but never goes anywhere. The entire solution boils down to "Someone not a main character tracked the bad guy to this place that smelled of death, then someone else found someplace that seemed to be similar. Then like 3 days after they found out about it, the main characters decided maybe they should actually check the place out and caught the bad guys."

However the point of the book is clearly not the detecting. It is meant too show the 'maturation' of Garrett. Why is the word in quotes, you ask? (Or you would if this was a conversation and not just a review.)(Except then you wouldn't know because you couldn't see the quotes since I'm not the kind of moron who sketches them in the air, but my heavily sarcastic voice would let you know my feelings about the word anyway.)
Because, the way he shows his maturity is by dumping his decade long girlfriend and current fiancee (without telling her) to hook up with another woman. Because he can tell that she is better for him then his fiancee even though the two of them had never exchanged more then 100 words total, and the deepest conversation they had involved kissing. His decision happens right after he notices she doesn't wear underwear.
The stated reason for his deciding to dump his fiancee is because she is not mature enough.

The author is also clearly running out of ideas for problems the Dead Man can't solve instantly. Having him sleep through every book is getting extremely stupid.

The characters are still interesting, but not nearly enough to save a plot this weak.

[Pye Josephus Joestar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I personally liked this book because I took a very very long break after reading the last book in the series and came back to start this one before the years end. Because I took so long to start this one, it ended up being perfect in the sense that this story takes place a lot further in the future. Everybody is getting older there's a lot of changes with character's lives that's realistic as they aren't in their late 20's-early 30's anymore. The case itself was pretty interesting and I enjoyed the frankenstein/zombie type narrative of it. Garrett's struggle with his relationships are actually interesting and I enjoyed seeing him actually deal with them. There's a part in the book where he has a talk with Tinnie that felt very relatable to me and was weirdly enough my favourite part of the book. I was worried for Morely as Glenn seems to like killing off some his best characters abruptly. The only reason I didn't give this one a 5 star rating was because of the ending. Again, the ending really just kind of....well ended. There wasn't much explanation I felt as to why these things were happening and who was doing them, but maybe I just easily confused, I don't know. None the less I'm enjoying the series and I'm excited to be finally wrapping it up with the final book in the series soon.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was a stand out. Excitement, an almost singular story line driving to a really good twist ending. The undead are stirring, someone is creating a zombie like army for unknown mayhem. Garrett's best friend Morley the half dark-elf lies near death and someone or something is trying to finish the job. This is one of the best of the Garrett P.I. series. Highly entertaining!

[Melissa McShane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update 7/2/13: I re-read this before getting into the next book, newly released. Still like it very much, still the same reactions as my previous review, with the addition that I don't know how I didn't realize he hadn't officially given Horrible Spoiled Tinnie Tate the heave-ho in this book. Now I am even more eager to read the next.

11/13/10: Not *that* much more spoilery than any of my other ones about the Garrett series, but enough.
I liked this book better this time around. It still feels a little abrupt to have Garrett switch his affections from Tinnie Tate to Strafa Algarda so very quickly--more strange that everyone he knows likes Strafa a million times more than they do Tinnie. For the last two books, Tinnie seemed to be trying hard to be a decent, sensible girlfriend, and I have to give her credit for that even though I have never liked her. The romantic crisis in this book would have made a lot more sense coming at the end of Faded Steel Heat, or even Angry Lead Skies. And since Strafa only showed up in the last book, and wasn't overtly interested in Garrett--I mean, it was there, but her weird family thing sort of overwhelmed it--it was hard to believe she was serious at first. Still, I like her. And hey! No more Tinnie!

This feels like the end of the series. I'd like to see more of Garrett's new grown-up life and relationship, but...I don't know. It feels like it's over.

[Liutauras Elkimavičius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elvis? Nuo jo vis dar cypia bendraamžės poniutės. Jis vis dar superhyrousas kai kuriems mažiems berniukams. Jis vis dar talentingas, įspūdingas ir netgis įdomus. Bet jis vis labiau panašus į randuotą veteraną bare, už bokaliuką pasakojantį savo senas istorijas visiems norintiems išgirsti. Istorijos geros, bet tai buvo taip seniai. Paseno Elvis... tphu - #GarrettPI . Užaugo gelbėjimo ratas; alaus pomėgis, vis ilgesni rytai lovoje ir no stress daro savo. Neprimato akys atpratusios nuo taikiklio. Išbliuško įtampoje žydėjusios smegenys. Tinguva. Draugų gausa džiugina, bus kas padės problemoms pasibeldus į ąžuolines duris, bet... po velnių. Garrett. Kelkis. Nusiprausk lediniu vandeniu apsunkusius vokus. Prabėk rytais kokį krosiuką, kad nebepūškuotum vydamasis laiptais kokį blogietį. Prisitraukimai padės laikytis palangės užkluptam melužės lovoje. Atsispaudimai - padės rast naujų meilužių. Ir nebesiramstyk į draugus. Anksti tau dar į pensiją. Laikyk sysių ir marš į mūšį prieš visaapimantį blogį.
Mažiukas #Recom, bet jei taip toliau, #LEBooks ieškos mažiau pavargusių herojų. #GlenCook #GildedLattenBones

[Terri Weitze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glen Cook's Garrett P.I. series is so much fun. A PI in a world of magic; dealing with all manner of interesting folks in a large city set in an indeterminate era (but still using chamber pots and carriages to get around). Characters from past books come and go; but the books are fine as stand alones - you can jump in anywhere and you won't have any problem understanding who is who and enjoying the bizarre goings on. This book concerns Garrett's best friend turning up near death and unable to remember what happened much less why. But whatever it was, every group and class of the city wants in on the mystery. The Civil Guard wants to solve it, the royals want to cover it up, and Garrett wants to get his friend healed and wreak some revenge.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one of those books I found on the bookshelf without any idea of how it got there. If I'm reading a series I usually start with the first one, not the most recent. Guess I'll have to go back for the earlier books. Entertaining mash-up with the hard-boiled detective hero in a world full of sorcerers and sorceresses, rat people, kings and generals, and someone is piecing together zombies from the corpses of the recently dead. Also, salt is a good defense against giant, killer slugs.

[S. D. Howarth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Garrett and the light take on fantasy. This one felt a book too far in an Eddings-like manner.
A lazy plot, and while a nice idea of having people come to Garrett it didn’t hold up for the duration. It lacked the dynamic with Morley, Singe seemed overdone and it seemed to be looking for an excuse to dump Tinnie.

[Gail Daley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

Not sure where this one falls in the series. It was a wild ride though. A new girlfriend for Garrett, got to see almost all of the characters from the other books, plus a cracking good mystery.

[Kelly Stark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garrett, Twisted

A few new twists that will either intrigue or enrage. This is a largely housebound adventure; with Garrett returning after an absence of unspecified length.

I think the quality is on a par with most of the series.

[Brandon Mehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garrett is fully slipping into rarified aurs, and I'm enjoying it. The natural growth of a character, combined with the surprise separation from Tinnie and the Windwalker moving in threw me for a loop. The information being spoon-fed through others and given that way was a welcome change.

[Anna Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of the series from the start as I am new to Cook and his writing. So it’s a lot of fun to dive into the fantasy and mystery. I am a Cook fan and read most of his writing with pleasure.

[Nathan Woll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly the same as all other Garrett, P.I. books. But it's getting old.

[NePo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the world, I love the characters, but if it was the first book in the series, I would never read another book.

[Nighteye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very unexpected turning in this book and don't know how I should feel, however a very good one plotwise and full of fun satire remarks.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great entry!

[Kelvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW what an ending

[Kirby Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Been a while done I’ve read a Garrett PI book, but this was easy to slip into. Not the best of the series, but it was a quick read.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy on dialogue and relationships, light on plot. OK.

[Catching Shadows · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garrett is attempting to settle down with his fiancé Tinnie Tate, but there is a problem. Tinnie, in the pursuit of an “ordinary life” had forbidden Garrett to visit his friends, especially friends of the female persuasion. Garrett is doing his best to placate Tinnie, but his attempts do not ease the strain or Tinnie’s insecurity. In addition, most of what Garret is doing by way of business is security work for Max Weider, and does not provide much of a challenge.

When someone attempts to kidnap Tinnie, Garrett finds himself back in business. The trail leads him to the discovery that his friend Morely Dotes had been stabbed.He decides to ignore Tinnie’s anger, and investigate both the stabbing and the attempted kidnapping of his fiancé.

Belinda Contague and the Windwalker Furious Tide of Light both turn up, at least partially involved in the case. Belinda is first, wanting Morely to be protected while she tries to find out whom she needs to kill. (I would say “knock heads” or something, but Belinda is the kind of person who cuts out the discussion, and gets right to the point where the nearest river becomes a waste disposal facility when she’s angry.) Garret immediately gets the feeling that Morely has forgotten his advice about dating. After some further assassination attempts on Morely, involving tentacles and poisoning, he’s taken to Garret’s previous residence for safe keeping. The Windwalker’s presence is personal…on at least two parts. The first is that something mysterious, extremely illegal and possibly involving her daughter is happening on the hill, and the second is that she has kind of taken a shine to Garrett.

Gilded Latten Bones has a different layout than previous novels. Garret is in the background more or less receiving information instead of going out and mostly knocking heads together until something falls out. (Or the Dead Man patiently pulls out and organizes the information that Garret has managed to gather.) Most of Garret’s involvement from the middle-out,instead of from out-in. (In other words, he’s more or less in the position the Dead Man was in in previous story lines, though the Dead Man also makes his usual information collating contributions. Pular Singe is much more in charge in this book (since the house and agency mostly belongs to her now, since Garrett is supposed to be getting married.) Garret backs down a lot for Singe, does not try to take over the house/business, and enforces “Singe is her own person,you want to her to work, ask her, not me.” (In the previous novel, Cruel Zinc Melodies, he somewhat acted as a manager or mentor concerning tracking missions.)

In the course of the adventure there are continuing arguments with the police, and also Prince Rupert. (Though Garret gets yelled at a lot for smarting off too much–by his friends.)

I am not sure if I like the “Tinnie Tate is insane, so Garrett gets a new girlfriend who can play detective with him,” B story here. I liked how the courtship played out, and that he didn’t go into his usual flail about sorcerers (as much.) On the other hand, Garret has a clear admission that Tinnie’s relationship issues are somewhat his fault (the reasoning of “how” is a little flawed–of course, Garrett is a pretty flawed individual.) It’s interesting this time around that his friends are more or less approving of his new relationship over his original one with Tinnie Tate. (Mostly I think because Tinnie is being unreasonable and outright nasty about Garret’s friends.)

[astaliegurec · Rating 3 out of 5]

It looks like the horrible implosion that was Glen Cook's "Angry Lead Skies" pretty much signaled the end of the Garrett series. The two books that followed it ("Whispering Nickel Idols" and "Cruel Zinc Melodies") recovered a lot from that disaster. But, each of them had successively more niggling issues. This book, "Gilded Latten Bones," has enough issues to drop it down to merely an OK 3 stars out of 5 rating. On one side, the actual story is interesting. But, that story is so covered with barnacles that it just starts dragging. Like the previous book, Garrett no longer goes out and knocks heads himself. But, this book takes it to the next level. He's essentially housebound and sits around waiting for people to tell him things. In fact, most of the text in the book involves him sitting, sleeping, having "intimate" relations, using the chamber pot (and we now know he missed once -- oh boy!), talking, and drinking beer. Everyone is drinking beer. All the time. Just about every time he wakes up, he's got a hangover. I'd guess this book is also supposed to continue the "Garrett grows up" line that the previous book started. But, part of that growing up ought to be that he (and every one of his friends) should realize that being drunk 99% of his waking life does not lead to positive results. Also, there's an issue with how he figures out what's happening. In a nutshell, nobody has a clue, then he physically sees the bad guys and the answer pops into his head. There's nothing that I can figure out which would clue him into the truth. Just, suddenly, Garrett has the answer. And, for jelly on the jelly roll, Singe is now a mobile Dead Man sans mind-reading. Her vocabulary, speech, and personality are now indistinguishable from his. So, Garrett's jumped the shark, the shark has died, fallen to the bottom of the ocean, and rotted. I'm not going to bother with the series any more. It's a shame. It was one of my favorites.

The books in Cook's "Garrett" series are:

1. Sweet Silver Blues (Garrett, P.I.)
2. Bitter Gold Hearts (Garrett, P.I.)
3. Cold Copper Tears (Garrett, P.I.)
4. Old Tin Sorrows (Garrett Files, Bk. 4) (no Kindle version available)
5. Dread Brass Shadows: A Garrett, P.I. Novel
6. Red Iron Nights: A Garrett. P.I., Novel (no Kindle version available)
7. Deadly Quicksilver Lies (Garrett Files) (no Kindle version available)
8. Petty Pewter Gods: A Garrett, P.I. Novel
9. Faded Steel Heat: A Garrett, P.I., Novel
10. Angry Lead Skies: A Garrett, P.I., Novel
11. Whispering Nickel Idols: A Garrett, P.I., Novel (I've run out of links, sorry)
12. Cruel Zinc Melodies (Garrett, P.I.)
13. Gilded Latten Bones: A Garrett, P.I., Novel
14. Wicked Bronze Ambition: A Garrett, P.I., Novel