Angry Lead Skies (Garrett, PI #10) ★★★☆½

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Title: Angry Lead Skies
Series: Garrett, PI #10
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 364
Words: 105K

From Wikipedia

Garrett is a detective living in the city of TunFaire. When people have problems, they come to Garrett for help, but trouble has a way of finding him.

Garrett is at home when Playmate visits, with a kid, Kip Prose. Kip has made friends with creatures that cannot quite be described, but because of his relationship with these creatures, other parties are trying to kidnap Kip. Despite his protests, Garrett gets drawn into the mess.

While searching Playmate’s stables for clues, Garrett and company are attacked by another group of indescribable assailants. Morley, Saucerhead, and Pular Singe wake Garrett and Playmate after the scuffle, but Kip Prose is gone.

Playmate and Garrett talk to Kip’s family, hoping to find clues to his whereabouts. Despite some leads, Playmate and Garrett are unable to locate Kip, although they do encounter an “elf” named Casey, who assures them Kip is in no immediate danger.

When Playmate goes missing, Garrett and Pular Singe track him down, with the Roze triplets tagging along. Pular tracks the scent to Casey’s apartment, where there are more mysterious elves. The trail eventually takes Garrett, Pular and the Rozes into the country outside TunFaire, where they find more of the elves, their spaceships, and an unconscious Playmate, Saucerhead Tharpe and Kip Prose. Garrett decides it is time to involve the Watch, who can hopefully clean up the mess.

Meanwhile, a ratman named John Stretch, Pular Singe’s brother, attempts to kidnap Pular for his own purposes. While Garrett and John Stretch come to an agreement, Colonel Block and Deal Relway try to manage the situation with the remaining elves. Garrett strikes a deal between Kip Prose, Max Weider, and Willard Tate, in which the involved parties agree to manufacture “Three Wheels”, a revolutionary new method of transportation for the citizens of TunFaire.

As a final twist, Casey escapes, thwarting the attempts of Garrett and the Watch to discover the true nature of the “silver elves”. Though Relway is angry and suspicious of Garrett, Garrett is on top of the world, with his new stake in the Three Wheel business booming and the Goddamn Parrot missing in action.

Much like the last book, I once again enjoyed a Garrett story. I’m thankful for that. That being said, Garrett is still a philandering jackass. There were some attempts in this book to steer Garrett towards maturity by making him a one woman man with Tinnie Tate, but honestly, if a man has been having sex with every woman he can at every chance he can for his entire life, the chances of him suddenly going into a monogamous relationship is almost zero. Or, really, staying in that relationship is almost at zero. Leopards and spots and all that.

The story itself was just so much fun, what with Cook bringing in aliens to a fantasy series. Once I realized what the “silver elves” were, I just laughed. The rest of the story with all the action and drinking and fighting and chases and palavers was good enough to keep me reading to the end of the book.

Not the greatest book I’ve ever read but nothing here made me want to quit the series, unlike Petty Pewter Gods.

★★★☆½

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