Cold Copper Tears, by Glen Cook

Cold Copper Tears
Glen Cook
1988


The third entry in Glen Cook’s Garrett, P.I. series once again keeps Garrett close to home, though unlike the first two books Garrett’s investigations in Cold Copper Tears only tangentially relate to the two cases Garrett is contacted about. I say tangentially because there is a relation, but what Garrett investigates is a result of being contacted for those cases and not in the pursuit of those cases. If that makes sense. If it doesn’t, let’s just say that Cold Copper Tears follows Garrett on a series of investigations for which he is not being paid or contracted for.

After being attacked by members of the Vampires street gang, Garrett contacts Maya, the young leader of the all female gang the Doom (The Sisters of Doom), for assistance. It turns out that the Jill Craight, the woman who hired Garrett to investigate a break in at her apartment, was once a member of the Doom and now has gone missing. She is connected to Magister Peridont, the man who failed to hire Garrett for the other case.

Connections are everything and even though Garrett is no longer directly investigating the case he was hired for, Cold Copper Tears is a fairly straightforward story. The readers knows as much as Garrett (not much), but throughout the novel Garrett is pushing forward to a) find out who tried to kill him and why, and b) where Jill Craight went. Accompanying Garrett as something of an apprentice is Maya. The expectation with the introduction of Maya's character is that she would be a plucky (if profane) sidekick for Garrett and not much more, but within a couple of chapters Maya turned out to be one of the best characters in the first three books and one who showed a fair amount of development even in this one volume.

As readers should come to expect with the Garrett P.I. novels, Cold Coppers Tears is smoothly written and filled with snarky smart characters (and dumb ones, too). They feature crimes and mysteries that need to be solved and as I'm not one who figures out the whodunnit before the end, trying to figure out what is going on in the story is half the fun. The other half of the fun is visiting and revisiting favorite characters such as Dean, Morley Dotes, and The Dead Man. While sleeping for much of the novel, The Dead Man gets a fair amount of development in terms of what exactly a loghyr (even a dead one) can do and what the potential of that race is. Fascinating stuff.

Once again Glen Cook has delivered an outstanding fantasy / detective novel and once again he leaves the readers both satisfied and wanting more.


Previous Reviews
Sweet Silver Blues
Bitter Gold Hearts

Bitter Gold Hearts, by Glen Cook

Bitter Gold Hearts
Glen Cook
1988



Glen Cook returns to TunFaire with Bitter Gold Hearts, the second (of twelve, so far) novels following the exploits of a private investigator named Garrett. Though he walks through a low-tech fantasy-land populated with dwarves, ogres, trolls, were-creatures, vampires, and magic-users, Garrett himself is reminiscent of the pulp detective heroes of the past. He may be the protagonist with a soft spot for the dames, but he can also be a hard and sarcastic man who does what he needs to in order to get the job done. In short, he may rub most of the other characters the wrong way, he’s a blast to read about!

During Sweet Silver Blues, Garrett spent much of the novel away from TunFaire and in a very dangerous region called The Cantard. Bitter Gold Hearts keeps Garrett much closer to home, with only the occasional foray to the outskirts of TunFaire. While the Cantard may have a reputation for nastiness, TunFaire may not be much safer for Garrett as his new case takes him away (for a time) from the slums and into the much richer neighborhood of The Hills (I swear, this was written YEARS before the tv series). Garrett is approached by Amiranda Crest, a beautiful young woman in the employ of the Stormwarden Raver Styx (great name, by the way). Karl Jr, the son of Raver Styx has been kidnapped while the Stormwarden is away and Amirdanda and Domina Willa Dount (sort of like a major-domo) would like to pay the ransom and get Karl Jr back before the Stormwarden returns. Garrett plays his initial role, but is hired to do other stuff surrounding this case and it is not long before things go badly and Garrett is thrust (or, thrusts himself) into the middle of this case / situation.

Though there is a less of a straightforward narrative to Bitter Gold Hearts than in Sweet Silver Blues, Bitter Gold Hearts is a notable improvement over the first volume. It is difficult to say exactly what is better or why Bitter Gold Hearts is stronger, but it is. The interactions between Garrett the Loghyr are excellent, but I don’t think that is exactly the reason. There is plenty of sarcastic, joking dialogue, strong action sequences, dames, a little bit of magic, a strong character in Raver Styx, and overall just excellent writing from Glen Cook. Top to bottom, Bitter Gold Hearts is stacked. Despite dripping with the trappings of high fantasy, Bitter Gold Hearts is a detective novel through and through. The writing of the characters and the investigation are key here and Glen Cook does it well.

Bring on Cold Copper Tears!

Sweet Silver Blues, by Glen Cook

Finally, I have conclusive proof that I might actually be a fan of Glen Cook and not just of his Black Company novels. I’ve tried a standalone novel (Sung in Blood), I’ve read the first Dread Empire Omnibus (A Cruel Wind) neither were at all impressive. A Cruel Wind at least had glimpses of the goodness to be later found in The Black Company, but Sung in Blood was rough.

A couple of months ago my wife had an eye exam and I had some time to kill at Barnes and Nobles. I grabbed a copy of Sweet Silver Blues and before I knew it was 40 or so pages in and was completely caught up in the story.

Sweet Silver Blues is the first of twelve Garret P.I. books. Garret is a grizzled former soldier turned investigator, world-weary but intent on doing his job for pay, almost no matter what the job. Here he is contracted to track down the woman his former friend left a fortune to. A fortune that until the will was read, nobody in the family knew existed and nobody in the family was bequeathed. They contracted Garret to journey to the Cantard, a dangerous almost lawless region on the border of military conflict.

The novel is laced with bleak detective humor, violence, action, some fantasy elements (elves, dwarves, trolls, witches, magic, evil unicorns, vampires, etc), but mostly with a solid story to tell with well drawn characters.

I don’t know much about the tradition of detective novels set in a high-fantasy world, but The Garret P.I. novels fit the bill, give the fantasy reader a bit of a different flavor to chew on, and Glen Cook is near the top of his game here. Cook spun a great tale and Sweet Silver Blues stands up next to the Black Company and holds its own. That’s impressive. The novel may be 20 + years old, but it stands the test of time.