And while i'm on the subject of Garrett's inner thoughts, what was up with everyone breaking him out of his thoughts all the time? His thoughts never really took up real time before, and honestly they don't really have to, so why now? He was broken out of some genuinely insightful thoughts for no real reason. It wasn't humorous and i honestly didn't appreciate everyone stopping the investigator from y'know, investigating. And then people had the nerve to roll their eyes at him for being slow!? Let the man think, you dinguses! P.P.S. The more I think of this book, the more disappointed I am and the more I consider lowering my rating. The main plot is one big pointless mess, there are way too many pointless subplots and the (very extended) cast of characters has a combined I.Q. of 1.23659 (and the detecting skills of juvenile dinoflagellates on codeine). But don't tell Glen Cook anyone I said that. 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!!! 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.

On the down side: it's a little plodding. Most of the book seems to be different sets of characters walking around stumbling over clues while they try to meet up to exchange information. There are a few threads that are drawn throughout the story that are left unresolved when the novel closes. 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?) Perhaps the biggest lost opportunity, however, is that we are finally on the Hill and have a chance to get deep into the aristocracy that has been on the outskirts of so many of these novels and I just didn’t feel like Cook took advantage of that situation. 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.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. 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.

One interesting thing i did catch from the interview was that Cook's getting into anime. So, when i saw the plot for this book, i thought it felt familiar. I think he watched Fate Stay Night or something, cause it's basically his remix of it. Though, he bungles it by not letting us see anything that happens. I thought he was gonna kinda deconstruct the whole idea, maybe take some jabs at the premise, but outside a few off hand remarks about how stupid the whole thing is, it all just peters out after a while. No big climax, no aha moment, y'know? Garrett's fiancé, Strafa Algarda, was born on the Hill and his soon-to-be family-in-law is filthy rich. They are all sorcerers too, and that puts them in a tight spot, because someone has it out for them or rather, their children and grandchildren. only Garrett’s friends reacted to her death in any way; Garrett and Strafa's family sort of shrugged it off. answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but This would all be compelling enough to watch unfold in third person where we could follow some of these other characters, but instead we get Garrett in first person. Garrett does nothing, NOTHING!!!! Other people do his work for him. Important developments take place off camera. Climaxes come together with all these characters but with zero context, because Garrett's dull as all hell and doesn't have all the pieces cause he didn't do any of the work--we don't have any of the pieces cause we're watching through Garrett's eyes!!!! We're just as frustrated and confused as he is.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?’

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. For all that, the plot was not as well thought-out as most of the earlier novels, which is kind of weird, as this is the longest of the Garrett novels. The ending, while heartening, is not terribly satisfying: a very long build up to a rather anti-climactic climax. 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. 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?