A hardboiled detective story in a fantasy world. Plot
Garrett, a human PI in a world filled with elves, centaurs, gnomes and other assorted non-humans, is hired to find a beneficiary of his late buddy Denny. Denny left a fortune in silver to a woman no one in Denny’s family has ever seen. The search leads Garrett to confrontations with spies and vampires, as several conspiracies interlock and explode in his face. Corpses pile up, but of course, as the novel is the first in a successful series, Garrett comes out on top. He finds his damsel and triumphs over his enemies.
Characters
Garrett is a former soldier, tough, rough and utterly manly. No shred of culture or education, but he is street-smart, brave, and honest. To a degree. His helpers in this adventure are a keen fighter Morley, a vegetarian half-elf with an agenda of his own, and three grolls – some half-breed creatures, strong like behemoths and with about the same level of intelligence.
Most of the supporting extras are men (or rather males) of various species. None described as nice. Actually, no one nice seems to live in the dirty world of Cook’s invention. I wouldn’t want to ever visit there.
The only three women appearing in the cast are two shrews (one a bit better than another) and one victim (the one Garrett is searching for). None described in any way complimentary, except the surface prettiness. None can take care of herself. All of then need the macho guys to protect them.
Overall impression
The pacing is fast, the language clean and sparse, and the story reads easily, but I can’t say that I liked it much. Everything – the world and the characters – is primitive, one dimensional, with no hidden depth. If it was a comic, it would’ve been in B&W, with no colors needed. I read other novels of this subgenre, including [a:Frank Tuttle|787702|Frank Tuttle|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1315646767p2/787702.jpg] and [a:Alex Bledsoe|644349|Alex Bledsoe|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1312811497p2/644349.jpg], that I liked much better. On the other hand, they wrote their books several decades after this one was published. As one of the first in the subgenre, this novel wasn’t bad at all.
