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Cold Copper Tears | Rating | |
| A | |||
| 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 loves the pretty ladies. But he hates work. Which makes it something of a dilemma when a real looker hires him. She is sure someone has been getting into her place, and she wants protection. But this isn't just a case of a little breaking and entering. This is one of the big ones, involving childhood acquaintances, the TunFaire mafia, old gods and ugly cults. Solving this one won't just affect his client, it just might change the course of TunFaire's destiny.
This is easily the most comprehensible story in the series yet. So much so that it borders on predictable. I figured out the McGuffin early, within the first twenty pages, and a reader more familiar with mysteries might conceivably do so a full five pages earlier. In some ways this is a little aggravating — some associations that Garrett missed seemed fairly obvious — but mostly it is a welcome change from the twists filling the last two books that bordered on confusing.
While the core of the matter is easy to grasp, the peripheries are much more intricate. Again, this is a good thing, as they prevent the book from overcompensating and turning into a simple affair. There's plenty of complexity, more than enough to keep this interesting, yet there is nothing too difficult to grasp. it's the perfect mix in a mystery.
I also enjoyed how Cook finally filled out the setting's history a bit. Again, he strikes a good balance, telling more than merely what was necessary to understand what was happening but without devolving into lengthy, useless exposition. Just as importantly, magic finally plays a large and crucial role not just to the case but to the solving of it. No longer do I feel like this is just another case except for a lot of strange characters. Cold Copper Tears makes much better use of its fantasy setting than the last two books ever did.
On the downside, though, the solution is pretty much handed to Garrett. He doesn't figure out what is going on, where the villain is, and how to stoip him. He's simply told, "Oh, this is what you're up against. You need to do such-and-such if you're to deal with it, and that should do nicely." As a result the end of the book comes virtually out of nowhere and is a little less than satisfying.
Still, I enjoyed this a good deal more than I did the previous books. I never felt lost, and I never wondered why Cook bothered to create a whole imaginary world to place the case into. This one wouldn't work if it was moved to LA; it would take so much modification that it'd be an entirely different story. And this one was plenty good for me. TunFaire continues to evolve, becoming more alive with each novel. Here, for the first time, it really felt like a place instead of a setting.
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