Cruel Zinc Melodies

View our feature on Glen Cook's Cruel Zinc Melodies. Garrett uncovers the dark side of the fantasy city TunFaire, where no one is to be trusted especially beautiful women. When a pack of gorgeous women knock on his door, Garrett knows it’s too good to be true. The leader of the group is Alyx Weider, the daughter of the largest brewer in town. Her father and friends are opening a new theater in TunFaire and the lovely ladies are there to persuade Garrett to help get rid of the paranormal parasites living in the new construction. Garrett agrees because after all, it means free beer and the company of these beautiful girls. What else could a man want? But Garrett doesn’t realize the drama he’s stepping into.

When the father of his girlfriend's best friend needs his help in discovering who is trying to sabotage the building of TunFaire's biggest theater, P.I. Garrett takes the case and finds himself dealing with all sorts of creepy things.

For Garrett, P.I., loyalty and love come a close second to survival... Garrett's attempt at domestic bliss with the fiery Tinnie Tate is sidetracked when he waylays a pair of home intruders and learns they've been paid by an unknown source to kidnap Tinnie. But as Garrett rushes to find out who is trying to push his buttons, his best friend is attacked. Now, Garrett has to track down both malefactors. Unless they're really one and the same-in which case Garrett might be next...

A series far ahead of its time, now back in print Anyone else would have learned by now: when trouble comes knocking, don't open the door. But there's a reason why Garrett's still in the P.I. business after all these years-he's not one to learn his lessons. Maybe that's why he lets himself get roped into being a bodyguard for Kip Prose, an obnoxious kid being threatened by creatures that can't quite be described. But before Kip Prose has a chance to explain what he's done to get on the hit list of some nameless nasties, the precocious Prose is abducted, and the chase begins...

Garrett is a human detective in the fantastical city of TunFaire. And now he’s getting tangled up in the worst sort of laws... In-laws. Garrett is set to stow his wandering heart with his fiancée, Strafa Algarda. But for Garrett, even true love comes with its share of headaches—namely, the Algarda family. Strafa’s family needs Garrett’s unique skills in the worst way. Rumors are spreading that someone is organizing a Tournament of Swords—a brutal contest that magically compels the children of sorcerers to battle until only one is left alive. The winner will absorb the power from those he has killed and thus become a demigod. Strafa and her family want to protect her daughter, Kevans, from being forced to take part in the lethal contest...and they’ve asked Garrett to find out who is organizing the tournament and nip it in the bud. The only problem is that finding the culprit is most likely impossible. But the Algardas are used to getting what they want....

A damsel in a dress was Garrett’s weakness, especially when she had equipment in all the right places. Still, Garrett wasn’t sure it was worth his life to take on Maggie Jenn, the ex-king’s ex-mistress, as his client. Not in a kingdom where the biggest con artists weren’t human, magic could beat any weapon, and the local killers were built like tanks. It seemed like a simple missing person’s case: a vanished teenage daughter, a distraught mother trying to track her down. But when a guy as well-connected as the Rainmaker was gunning to see Garrett permanently removed from the case, he knew he’d have to call in some big favors just to keep his head on his shoulders, let alone to find a kid who probably didn’t want to be found.

Garrett’s having a pretty good morning until, five minutes in, he finds a strange child named Penny Dreadful poking around his apartment. Before he can figure out who the mysterious urchin really is, he’s hired to investigate how an old crime boss ended up in a coma—leaving his beautiful, criminally insane daughter to run the family business. The boss’s daughter has some lascivious designs on Garrett—and some deadly ones, too. But she’s not the only one dreaming up ways to finish off the endangered private eye—who now has to figure out why everyone is suddenly after him...

She was tall, blonde, and offering Garrett an irresistible fee to take a case that seemed open and shut. But in a town of elves and humans, thugs and swindlers—a place where magic and religion could prove an all-too potent mix—Garrett had learned to take a long, hard look before saying yes. Garrett’s doubts are confirmed when the Grand Inquisitor comes looking for his help in the lovely lady’s wake. But even a hard-boiled detective like Garrett, with a Dead Man for an ally and the toughest half-elf in town guarding his back, can find that it’s too late to say no. Turns out Garrett’s been fingered as the latest sacrifice to a long-dead god—and his only chance to save his neck is to solve the case.