Gilded Latten Bones
Garrett P.I. #13
Author Glen Cook
The first part of this book is a glimpse into the dark future if Garrett & Tinnie had remained a couple, and in an effort to remake her world to suit her family, Tinnie had remained in control of their mutual destiny because Garrett was too lazy to fight about it. Fortunately, when Belinda Contague tells Garrett Morley has been hurt and needs his old pal to help keep him alive, Garrett agrees, leaving Tinnie pitching a royal fit. This in turn forces Garrett to examine what has been happening in his life, and he chooses self respect over pleasing Tinnie and the life she had chosen for them both.
This isn’t a conventional Garrett paranormal mystery. It’s low on Garrett action for one thing, since he only hears about it secondhand as he is stuck looking after Morley for the first half of the story.
Of interest also is the return of the Windwalker, Furious Tide Of Light from a previous book, who is not only still interested in making Garrett her main man but is so much pleasanter than Tinnie that most of Garrett’s friends and family vote in her favor. Not that she doesn’t come with drawbacks—she does: a teenage daughter too smart for her own good, some murderous in laws who are apparently cutting up corpses to stay young, a father with incestuous designs on her daughter, etc. When Tinnie gets a chance to star in theatre drama, Garrett suddenly realizes how little the two of them really know about each other, and they come to a mutual parting of the ways, semi-approved by the Tate clan.
On top of everything else, Prince Rupert, that bastion of law and order, suddenly doesn’t want anyone including Garrett and the new home guard investigating who tried to kill Morley and keep Garrett from ferreting out the culprit.
I liked this tale, even though I figured out who the bad guys were early on, the character development kept me interested in the story. And I do admit it was nice to read about Garrett finally having the kind of woman in his life, who instead of throwing a jealous fit in the middle of a case, would Call down the lightning’s to defend him.
