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Bitter Gold Hearts | Rating | |
| B | |||
| Glen Cook | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| From the Files of Garrett, PI | Sweet Silver Blues, Bitter Gold Hearts, Cold Copper Tears, Old Tin Sorrows, Dread Brass Shadows, Red Iron Nights, Deadly Quicksilver Lies, Petty Pewter Gods, Faded Steel Heat, Angry Lead Skies, Whispering Nickel Idols | ||
Garrett is a "confidential agent" - what we would call a private investigator - in TunFaire, a city of humans, elves, dwarves, and every other breed of magical creature you can imagine (and perhaps a few you can't). He's a good one, too, and has made quite a name for himself. So it's only natural that, when a young man is kidnapped that the relatives go to Garrett to make sure he gets home safe. But there's the fact that the fellow is the son of one of TunFaire's leading wizards. Then there's the ransom: two hundred thousand marks in gold. And it just gets worse from there. This case is more twisted than a six-way highway interchange.
Despite the proximity of a mage to the case, magic is again largely lacking. I simply don't see much point in setting a story in a fantasy world if it's not going to make use of the fantasy elements. There's plenty of nonhumans running around, true, but while that adds some flavor to the setting it doesn't really impact the story much.
This is a far more complicated matter than the plot in Sweet Silver Blues. There's a lot of false leads amd tricky interplay between the characters. It makes this a much more intricate plot than the last one. It also means it's a little more confusing. It's not too hard to get a little lost in the twists and turns as Garrett several times thinks he understands what is going on, only to later be proven wrong.
Even so, this isn't really a bad mystery, or even a bad story. And Garrett's wry personality helped carry me past most of the problems. But there is very little remarkable about this story, for good or ill. Cook wrote a fine story, and those who read the first book in the series will find nothing much different here. Bitter Gold Hearts has all the same flaws to my eyes, but also all the same attractions as well.
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