Joined in 2023 
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I usually dislike 'urban fantasy' series that run too long, or that stray too close to the tropes of that sub-genre as they are almost universally terrible. I'll spare you a rant about Jim Butcher, here. But I still prefer her MatteTrances – they are bomb. One application over liner (either PMG or Charlotte Tilbury) can last me 8 hours and one lasted through a 1hr hot yoga class where we sweat like pigs. It’s no joke. The pigment is out of this world. But my presence might be a function of my perception that mattes stay on reliably longer than glitter/shimmer/satin formulas. On the plus side: this is a Garrett novel. It's funny, fast-paced, full of interesting characters and odd quirks and the vibrant, so-weird-I-want-to-go-there city of Tunfaire. I mean, if you liked the previous Garrett books, you're going to read this one and you're probably going to enjoy it.
Seriously, Garrett's fiancee/wife is murdered and the emotional fallout is less than when he broke up with Tinnie Tate. I kept waiting for some kind of emotional breakdown, but ol’ Garrett just plods on. He does have a single night’s drinking, but even that doesn’t hurt; magical hangover medicince mitigated the effects. This book, more than any other, felt like Garrett being led around by the nose by more talented people i'd rather be following, and being scolded for not being perceptive by everybody and their sister. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but Which, honestly, was a bit of a disappointment in itself. I mean, hung-over Garrett is a delightful common theme in these books. What is the world coming to when hangovers are just medicated away?) John Stretch’s ratmen do more investigating than Garrett does in this book. Not to be racist, (ratmen are people too!) but we expect more from you than that, Garrett. As a side note: this recent trend of closing a novel as soon as the action finishes is really tiresome. I get the idea behind it - close on an emotional high point where the story is finished - but in practice, well, I read these novels because I love the characters. I have loved them for over twenty years at this point and I've read each novel multiple times. Give me the dammed epilogue that fulfills the emotional connections beyond those served up in the narrative action. Editors at Tor and Roc, I'm looking at you.)
I mean, it was nice for Garrett, given his absent-mindedness in this book, to have a stray dog bodyguard squad. But do I really want get emotionally invested in Garrett’s dead brother’s dog-turned-loli? I think not. Couldn’t that space have been used more effectively to have Garrett actually investigating something?
EROGLINE “PRESTIGE 1100”
The language is interesting, even if it sometimes skews a little aggressively modern ('oh snap' does not feel natural here) and at times a touch experimental, but that's all part of the charm. The one thing I didn't like, in this book specifically, was the subplot with Hagekagome, which felt a bit superfluous, and at times a bit creepy. Which is a shame, since Cook doesn't generally seem afraid of writing strong, or interesting women – even if Garrett's attitude to them should be ignored at all times, of course. I think that this subplot actually detracted from the end of the book. I mean, having one girl die in Garrett’s arms would make a decent, emotional ending. Having two girls die in his arms, one after the other, seemed a little like overkill. Especially when the main emotional blow of Hagekagome’s death was something along the lines of: ‘What? His dead brother’s dog? Uh, that’s... sweet? I guess?’ Unrelated to the action of the story is the idea that this is a second re-positioning novel for Garrett. Cruel Zinc Melodies (#12) seemed like it was putting the final touches on the Garrett series. Its conclusion had Garrett and Tinnie Tate moving in together. At the same time, Garrett had recurring, steady work that didn't involve him getting beaten up and with enough money that he didn't have to hustle anymore. All in all, a nice capper to a long running series.
Enter Strafa, or enter again, really. These last three books really do feel like a sort of trilogy with her family at the center, or at least the outer core of it all. She's great, she's fine, she's smart and cute and everyone loves her, even Garrett. I was willing to get on board with her, really i was. I didn't like how Tinnie got thrown under the bus. I thought it was a bad narrative choice this far into the series, but I was like alright, i can get on team Strafa, she's nice, and makes things a whole hell of a lot easier for Garrett. He get a competent sorceress partner out of it all. A magical contest is threatening the young of the more wealthy families in Tunfaire. Garret's new family ties have dragged him into the conflict. Now , he and his friends and a few other assorted allies have to stop the madness before too many people are killed. Plots within plots within plots will have to be untamgled to get to the truth.P.S. You might think that, having now read the last four bloody sentences in the bloody book, I'd want to change my rating to a slightly less despicable one, but I won't. Because the actual ending is even worse than the truncated one reasons and stuff. So does Playmate sometimes, though he's been a bit laid up with the cancer. And what was the point of giving him cancer if it didn't mean anything? Before the cancer he ran his stable and wanted to put some brains into his brother in law. After the cancer, he runs his stable, and wants to put some brains into his brother in law. Nothing functionally changed in the man, he's still strong as an ox, he still holds firmly to his beliefs, as far as we can tell. Don't give the man cancer if you're not gonna do anything with it!!! For a novel that had very little real action, at least compared to the earliest novels in the series, this moved pretty fast for me. Lots of delving into characters not given much time in the past, as well as areas of TunFaire only hinted at previously. I enjoyed the by-play of some of the marginal characters who finally had a chance to take Center Stage. Let me preface by saying that I love the Garrett series. I liked him when he was a head-thumping alcoholic, and I still like him as he’s becoming less of a smartass and more of an adult. I liked his riotous, 12-book affair with Tinnie Tate, and I like that he’s moved on, left her behind and gotten engaged.
Not the best of the series, but not the worst by any means. Either way, this appears to be the *last* of the series :-( It's been six years since this was published. In the past, a new Garrett, P.I. novel showed up every 18 months or so. Sad, but every well runs dry, eventually. On the middle (?!) side: There are some, er, inventive language choices that I don't think worked all that well. (Mad skills? Really?) and there are some intriguing new mysteries and characters that are only teased at. But there is also quite a bit of character growth; Cook has obviously given some attention to each of the main supporting casts' roles and growth and it plays well.And I still adore Cook's (often daft) character names. 'Furious Tide of Light' is such a great name. First of all, ‘P.I.’ in this book didn’t stand for ‘Private Investigator.’ It stood, instead, for ‘Public Investigation.’ Historically, Garrett has relied on his friends for assistance in his investigations. In this book, Garrett starts the investigation, and then everyone else takes it from there. Another thing that made this book hard to follow at times is the sheer size of the cast. Over the series, a lot of characters have been introduced into Garrett's life. It seems every single one of those characters made at least an appearance in this story. Plus a whole bunch of new characters are introduced. It's uncharitable of me to complain about this. I just like being surprised, and this bit of plot was not surprising. I'm kind of happy about the whole deal, actually. It just means that the next book can expound on their relationship a little more. I mean, now that they're married, and everything. Finally, the mystery was very weak. The bad guys are inept at best. Their motivation was weak and felt contrived. Garrett seemed to have more problems solving this mystery because of distractions in his persona life and because the bad guys were doing things in a more random (idiotic) fashion than any logical person would do.
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