Deadly Quicksilver Lies (Garrett, PI #7) ★★★☆½

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Title: Deadly Quicksilver Lies
Series: Garrett, PI #7
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 316
Words: 86K

Wikipedia and Me

With Dean out of town, the Dead Man asleep, and only the Goddamn Parrot for company, Garrett finds himself wishing for something new. When Winger drops by with a job investigating a woman known as Maggie Jenn, Garrett bites. Maggie, meanwhile, hires Garrett to find her missing daughter, Emerald.

Everything seems to be going just fine until Garrett is attacked in the street, knocked out, and thrown in the Bledsoe’s mental ward. When Garrett escapes, he discovers that the man who put him there goes by the name of Grange Cleaver, also known as The Rainmaker.

As Garrett tries to find out more, everyone urges Garrett to be careful, as The Rainmaker has quite a nasty reputation. As usual, Morley gets involved, but when he and Garrett try to capture The Rainmaker, he manages to get away. Meanwhile, Garrett continues his search for Maggie Jenn’s daughter, only to find that Maggie has disappeared. In fact, Morley and Garrett discover that she may not actually be a woman at all and could actually be The Rainmaker!

When the Outfit gets involved in The Rainmaker’s business, the city Watch has no choice to get involved as well. Garrett gets off free of charges, but The Rainmaker is still nowhere to be found. As word of a long buried treasure gets out, even more parties climb into the fray, leaving Garrett bruised and battered again.

In a typical novel-ending plot twist, Grange Cleaver dies only to be revealed as Maggie Jenn, things settle down, and Garrett is left to mull over the possibilities.

This had Cook pushing the cross-dressing envelope as far as possible. He kept whether Maggie was actually Maggie or Granger a mystery right up until she dies and is revealed to be a she. It made for an uncomfortable read in places I have to admit.

The mystery side of things felt more twisty than in previous books. I don’t know that it actually WAS more “mystery”, as I don’t read much in that genre. Thankfully the fantasy elements kept me fully grounded in a genre I like, undertand and can comprehend 😉

I enjoyed my time reading this, just like all the previous books. Same caveats as always.

I am finding Garrett’s unwillingness to change in any significant manner starting to grate. Even Cook realizes it is an issue and brings it up in a sidewise manner. One of Garrett’s former romantic interests makes it clear that she let Garrett go because he wasn’t as mature as she was, and she’s 18. I don’t know how many more adventures Garrett can go through without some sort of change.

Speaking of change, Dean, Garrett’s housekeeper is out of this story and 2 former military vets take his place. Of course, they conveniently die by the end of the book. That type of literary trick works once, maybe twice, but no more than that. Cook is going to have to up his game to keep this series interesting.

★★★☆½

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