Cruel Zinc Melodies (Garrett, P.I.)

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
"Garrett's newest visitors are a pack of lovelies led by his main squeeze Tinnie Tate and her friend, Alyx Weider, the spoiled daughter of the largest brewer in town. Her father needs Garrett'shelp-his workers are being attacked by everything from giant insects to ghosts. Garrett takes the case. After all, working for the Weiders means free beer. But it also means serious danger."

Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Bloated, but ultimately a good read... June 4, 2008
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

I've been reading the Garrett novels since the early 90s. They started off being fantasy noir, owing a lot to Chandler. Back then, the novels were almost self contained. You had Garrett and maybe his two friends, Morley Dotes and Saucerhead Tharpe plus sometimes a couple other helpers just for that novel. Though not always those.

Now Garrett pretty much has a whole host of companions and it seems like Cook has to drag out every character Garrett has ever met for a cameo. And spend the first 100 pages bringing us up to speed on what has happened to them since the last novel. That's okay for hard core fans of the series, but if you haven't read all the past novels, you probably have no idea who is who. So it takes quite some time before we finally get to the actual mystery/plot of the novel, based around the haunting of a theater.

At times it seems like Cook was going for a "Chinatown" vibe, in describing some of the rich families of the city (who are indirectly connected to the troubles of the theater), but there isn't much characterization of them. So it's not that effective.

Ultimately it's worth it for Garrett fans, but I wish an editor had cut out some of the fat. And definitely not the way to get into the series.

5 out of 5 stars

excellent fantasy noir May 6, 2008
6 out of 9 found this review helpful

TunFaire is a magical city where humans and other species like dwarfs, and trolls live and prosper. Magic is taken for granted and while not everyone possesses the skill, those that do think of it as just another one of their senses. Private investigator Garrett wishes he could stay in his warm cozy home with his non-human bookkeeper/servant the ratgirl. Also part of his household is The Dead Man, a Loghyr that sticks around after he died while telepathically communicating with those in Garrett's house and the horde of hibernating pixies.

However, his client, wealthy brewmeister Max Weider needs his help concerning the World, a dinner theater he is trying to build. People are scared off by the gigantic bugs; ghosts that come and go and protection racketeers who are getting ready to name a price Max doesn't want to pay. Garrett takes care of the racketeers, hires the rat people to exterminate the bugs and locates the teenagers who created the insects. That leaves him with the ghosts while the Dead Man, who obtained information he culled from the minds of visitors, believes something nasty was awakened by the bug infiltration. Garrett hopes a lullaby will put this unknown malevolence back to sleep.

The latest Garrett PI thriller is an excellent fantasy noir. The hero is smart, clever, and especially devious, but each mystery he tries to solve seems multilayered with complications. There is plenty of action, sly humor, and of course magical intrigue that ricochets with the audience from laughter to fear and back as this is one author who knows how to cook a reader's gourmet repast. Glen Cook is a fantastic worldbuilder who makes his realm feel real to the readers.

Harriet Klausner

4 out of 5 stars

The return of an old friend June 12, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have read all of the Garrett books as well as the Black Company series. Glen Cook (who I am proud to say went to my Alma Mater) is a writer whose character Garrett pops off the page with snarky wit that has always had me laughing and enjoying his thoroughly fun detective tales in the fantastical environment of Tun Faire.
With this being number twelve in the series, reading this novel was like slipping on a comfortable old glove for me. I know the characters, remembering back to the good old days of when each of them were introduced, and enjoying them all.

I was in college in the late eighties when I read my first Garrett book. Now, as I am about to turn forty there is a certain appreciation for a maturing Garrett, alebeit a reluctance on my part to see him resist the urge to stray anymore, resist the urge to get himself into far deeper trouble with the likes of Deal Relway and Westman Block. All the lovely ladies that populated the pages of stories past were like Bond Girls, with their wicked or more tame temptations for the sarcastic ex-marine. Now he is trying to be a one woman man and seems to be a bit more even tempered overall. There is certainly still a zing to the stories but it is slightly tempered by a more thoughtful, less reactionary Garrett.

This specific book has Garrett working to help one of his longtime employers, Max Weider, with his newest venture, a theater being built to showcase the acting skills of his daughter along with Garrett's longtime sweetheart, Tinnie Tate, plus a bevy of other tantalizing young women, each that seem to tempt Garrett one more than the other.
The problem is that the theater appears to be haunted and have an massive infestation of giant bugs.

I will not go into further details because the plot gets pretty complicated from there, with several different smaller and larger mysteries adding up and being resolved throughout the book.

Most of the old characters from previous stories are pulled into this book and that will cause a lot of confusion for someone not familiar with this entire series. It is a story that has a very healthy dose of the Dead Man, which is always a big plus for me. Garrett's partner always adds a lot to each story he is in.

Overall, this story fits nicely into the saga which is the Garrett Files, but does not stand out as one of the more spectacular works but is quite satisfying for this long time fan of the series.

4 out of 5 stars

Not the best of the Garrett series June 8, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I'm a huge Cook fan, but I felt this installment could have been cut in half. Seemed like some events happened just to fill space or bring a familar character into the story. One of Cook's strengths is lean prose. He seems to have gotten away from that here. Garrett's maturation process is kind of drawn out. Not the hard edge to this story some of his others have.

5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding book in an excellent series May 15, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Garrett is a PI in a fantasy world where there are humans and all kinds of critters living together in the city/kingdom of TunFaire. This story starts when Garrett is asked by Beer Magnate Max Weider to troubleshoot problems with constructing his theater the World. It looks like some gang is getting ready to try a little protection racket, then there are the giant bugs and ghosts. Nicely convoluted plot with sub plots and excellent well drawn characters. There is some humor with the giant bugs and the bevy of gorgeous girls accompanying Aliex Weider (Max's daughter, he figures that she will have good luck getting Garrett out in the snow to work).

Nice not to have editorial bobbles in a book.

While this book with some patience can be read standalone I really recommend the series starting with Sweet Silver Blues (Garrett Files).

While this series has some things in common with Simon R Green's Nightside series and the Dresden Files series the worlds are way different as are the entire approaches.

BTW looks like a co author here. Word choices have changed "beast" is used way more frequently than Glen did and there are other flags, but so far so good.

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