311 pages
English language
Published May 1, 1990 by Roc.
A fun very 80s style fantasy story wrapped around a fun detective story. Definitely enjoyed it.
This was so much fun. So, I know (and love) Glen Cook from the Black Company. This is the first time I've ventured out of his dark and gritty stuff and it is so much better. This was such an amazing mix of noir detective story and fantasy tropes that I think I smiled through the entire thing and read it in 2 sittings.
The main character is a PI who takes a simple (at first) job from a bunch of gnomes to go and track down a guy's old flame and get her to appear before the family to either accept the bloke's inheritance or sign off on giving it away.
This turns into a traipse across a warzone, jolly troll hirelings, a vegetarian half-elf killer for hire, a long dead and rotting corpse wiseman, two gnomish femme-fetales, suger high garden fae, centaurs, vampires, city clerks (the most difficult …
This was so much fun. So, I know (and love) Glen Cook from the Black Company. This is the first time I've ventured out of his dark and gritty stuff and it is so much better. This was such an amazing mix of noir detective story and fantasy tropes that I think I smiled through the entire thing and read it in 2 sittings.
The main character is a PI who takes a simple (at first) job from a bunch of gnomes to go and track down a guy's old flame and get her to appear before the family to either accept the bloke's inheritance or sign off on giving it away.
This turns into a traipse across a warzone, jolly troll hirelings, a vegetarian half-elf killer for hire, a long dead and rotting corpse wiseman, two gnomish femme-fetales, suger high garden fae, centaurs, vampires, city clerks (the most difficult and frustrating of the list) and a ton of other problems. Oh, and the main character used to be the lover of the mark he's been hired to find.
Man... this is what Dresdin tried so hard to be (and succeeded for a time). If you do like Butcher's Harry Dresdin or Harrison's Rachel Morgan then you owe yourself this book. I can't be convinced that Garrett wasn't the inspiration for at least one of them.
