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Whispering Nickel Idols: A Garrett, P.I., Novel Kindle Edition

by Glen Cook (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 261 ratings
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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...
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  1. Book 11 of 14
    Garrett, P.I.
  2. Print length
    372 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Ace
  6. Publication date
    May 3, 2005
  7. Reading age
    18 years and up
  8. File size
    968 KB
  9. Page Flip
    Enabled
  10. Word Wise
    Enabled
  11. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  12. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Cook turns fantasy inside out. -- Locus

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002HFJ6WY
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ace; Reissue edition (May 3, 2005)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 3, 2005
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 968 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 372 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 261 ratings

About the author

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Glen Cook

Glen Cook

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Glen Charles Cook (born July 9, 1944) is a contemporary American science fiction and fantasy writer, best known for The Black Company fantasy series.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Harmonia Amanda (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
261 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Mystery loves history
5.0 out of 5 stars A lot of subplots finished off
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2018
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This one always feels like it’s wrapping up loose ends instead of an original story. It is an original story—but the plot is odd. We spend a lot of time with Garrett down sick 😷 (he gets poisoned early in the book), Tinnie playing ministering angel, Morley, Saucerhead and Dean, drifting around the edges of the action, mysterious cats and and an equally mysterious girl who turns out to be Chodo’s other daughter, and a bunch of really stupid thugs who don’t seem to have any real purpose except to cause Garrett trouble. At the end, I wasn’t sure if the story had actually ended. Garrett did end up solvent, Belinda and family ended up sane (I think).
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Sneaky Burrito
4.0 out of 5 stars improvement over the previous volume
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2015
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Eek, somehow I read this whole book and wrote a long draft review and then didn't post it! I did read this one in sequence with the others, even though the posting date is later.

I hadn't been thrilled with the previous volume in this series (Angry Lead Skies), but this book was back to what I expected (and what I enjoy) from Glen Cook. There were fewer continuity problems (the only big one I noticed was that a comment was made about the character Winger not being able to read, when in fact she was learning to read in previous books), for one thing.

We revisit some locations from past books, including the Bledsoe (charity hospital) and the lower end of the Dream Quarter (street where all the churches, temples, etc., are located in the city of TunFaire). Many familiar characters also make appearances (Morley Dotes, Puddle and Sarge, Chodo and Belinda Contague, Colonel Block, Dean, Tinnie Tate, Pular Singe, Saucerhead Tharpe, Playmate, etc.). Even though the major plot point sees resolution by the end of the book, you would not want to start the series with this book because you just wouldn't have had the proper introduction to all of these people, their backstories, their personalities, etc.

I thought the humor was stepped up in this book. There weren't as many vegetarian jokes as usual (those were getting a little old), and to be fair, some of the humor was pretty lowbrow (bodily functions). Glen Cook is one of the only authors who can pull that sort of stuff off successfully, though. There were also some funny moments with a group of kittens, and references to how often people try to break Garrett's door down (usually when Garrett's partner, the Dead Man, is asleep, so to speak), and to stolen carts being abandoned in front of Garrett's house.

As we learned in a previous book in the series, crime kingpin Chodo Contague suffered a stroke (or something similar) and became incapacitated. He was stuck in a wheelchair and his daughter Belinda was running his enterprises. In this book, Chodo disappears and Garrett (as well as several other parties) is trying to find him. (There is a long history between Chodo and Garrett involving obligations on both sides.) Garrett has to be careful in many cases; he's constantly tailed by members of the secret police -- not because he's in trouble, himself, but because it seems like whenever anything interesting goes down in TunFaire, he's somehow in the middle. He has to balance his desire to do the right thing and his association with the City Watch with his obligations to Chodo and Belinda and company. I really like the way he's positioned himself at this juncture and I think his changing status parallels that of his friend Morley Dotes, as well. We hear more about Morley trying to go "legit" and turning his restaurant upscale and less about the seedier aspects of Morley's way of life. Perhaps this comes with getting older?

One carry over from the last book was the joint business enterprise of making three-wheelers (something like tricycles for adults). So Garrett has a steady source of income and can afford to work on things out of interest/personal obligation instead of just to pay the bills. (There was less carping about having to do actual work in this book, as well.)

Garrett is hindered by an unnaturally harsh (and early) winter. The streets are icy and it seems to constantly be snowing. Added to that, Garrett is basically poisoned at one point and spends a lot of time in bed, sick. Others are left to take up the slack. Some little folk who are living in his home do investigating for him, though they're unreliable and prone to drinking too much. John Stretch (Pular Singe's brother, who has psychic ability to control and/or get information out of rats) does some spying for him as well. There is perhaps too much reliance on the Dead Man once again, however. The Dead Man has most of the pieces of the puzzle in his head and just wants lots of different people brought to him so he can interrogate them (i.e., poke through their minds). So a lot of the book is the Dead Man sending out Saucerhead Tharpe and others to round up people he wants to interrogate, then relaying the information to Garrett.

There's not much in the way of character-building here. In part, that's the nature of first-person POV books. We do learn a little more about Chodo's background, but we pretty much know everyone by now. Elements of the world have been pretty well built up by now, and the writing style is also similar to past books. But that's going to happen with any long-running series. (One new thing is that previously, Garrett would encounter a human male and think back to how this person survived mandatory military service in a long foreign war -- something demanded of every human male in Karenta, Garrett's country. But now, Garrett is running into people who were too young to serve in the war. So the war is over, but its effects on society live on and probably will for awhile.) If you're new to the series, start out with the first book (Sweet Silver Blues). If you've been enjoying the series but were disappointed with Angry Lead Skies, I think you'll find this to be an improvement. I'm sad I only have a few of these left to read.
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Neely L. Stewart
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Series!
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2017
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I love this series and this author. His characters, are realistic despite being fantasy charcters (elves, Loghyr, dwarves, etc.) And he writes realistic behavior and interactions. The main character Garrett, is a wonderful character in they style of Boggart in the Big Chill (my favorite Boggie movie, and the books are very much like that movie and the film noire of the day). I re-read these over and over again and they never get old. I'll always treasure these.
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ogre
5.0 out of 5 stars More Garrett? Yes please.
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2016
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This story gets back to more of the classic Garrett stories. It is a fairly quick read like the rest of them. It is not a Sherlock Holmes mystery novel but is a fun adventure with the characters you have grown to love from the previous stories. This book seems to be better written than the previous entry. There aren't the grammatical issues and other errors and it is a more complete story.
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skytwo
4.0 out of 5 stars Garrett, like the rest of us, is getting older.
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2005
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There seemed to be a lot of disappointment over the last entry in Cook's series. It certainly wasn't one of the better titles, but it wasn't the worst, either (that'd be 'pewter,' in my opinion). What it was was different. Less serious in tone. And I enjoyed it for that reason. It just needs to be accepted on its own terms.

I was thrilled to see that a new title was out. After reading the series for about a decade, each new title is like checking in with an old friend. And one of the greatest things about the series is how much effort Cook has put into creating a rich, evolving world complete with political struggles, racial tensions, and a complex underworld.

Another great thing about the series is that Cook is paying just as much attention to Garrett. In this book we're starting to see a Garrett who's beginning to understand how aging is going to affect his occupation and his personal life. As he feels the first creaks in his joints, he sees how easily he could lose everything-- his own life, those of friends and lovers. Slow down a little bit in his line of work, and the wolves catch up quick.

I for one am pleased to see that Cook is bringing a touch of his trademark gritty realism to the Garrett Files. Cookie-cutter fantasy novels are easy to find, but this series is a unique jewel. If I wanted a godlike protagonist, I'd read Superman comics. But I like my hard-boiled gumshoes to be as genuine as any of us. Even if they share a house with pixies.

Oh, yeah, and the plot of this one is pleasantly complex, bringing together the mob, a mysterious cult, spontaneous combustion, and those most notorious and evil creatures-- lawyers and priests. There isn't any of the light-hearted tone of 'lead.' This is pretty serious stuff, and almost the entire coterie of Garrett puts in an appearance. If the book has a problem, it's that the mystery is too ambitious-- after all, sometimes a case is just a case, and not a race to save the entire city.
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Arkewal
5.0 out of 5 stars Garrett does it again
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2019
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Another fun entry in the Garrett canon. Snark, sass, and surprises -- what else ya need? If you're a Garrett fan, you won't be disappointed.
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Top reviews from other countries

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LK
5.0 out of 5 stars Another good read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 12, 2019
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Glen Cook has done it again. Another Garrett P.I. novel, another great read.
Lots of good oneliners, heaps of unadulterated fun, a storyline with enough twists and turns to keep you interested, and a well-disguised ending. And to top it all: underneath all the fun is a bitter-sweet layer. It's been there in all the Garrett novels. I think it's great.
Glen Cook. I'd love to see him do more Garrett novels. But the man is over 70 years old. Time catches up with everybody. It's a shame.
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Simon E.
4.0 out of 5 stars Frauen, Feuer und ein Korb voller Katzen
Reviewed in Germany on October 12, 2014
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Nach dem der Vorgänger l(Angry Lead Skies) eider etwas aus der Rolle gefallen war, findet Cook hier wieder zu alter Stärke zurück. Witz, skurrile Charaktere, geheimnissvolle Mordfälle und Prügeleien.
Logikfehler wie bei "Angry Lead Skies" sind ebenfalls nicht mehr vorhanden.
Ein typischer "Garrett", bei dem fast alle bekannten Charaktere ihre Aufwartung machen. Das Einzige, was evtl etwas seltsam anmutet ist ein Korb voller Katzen - auf dem Titelbild unten rechts ;) Und das, obwohl Garrett lt. eigener Aussage Katzen nur am Grunde eines Sees mag. In einem Sack. Mit vielen Steinen dazu.
Wer die Serie kennt oder einfach mal "fantasy-noire" lesen möchte: Zugreifen!
(Wobei ich schon empfehlen würde, die Serie von Anfang an zu lesen, die ersten Bände sind neu aufgelegt worden in Sammelbänden)
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PRW
4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining romp
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 8, 2017
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More from the fantasy meets detective fiction, and it's entertaining and fast-moving as ever, with breathless plots and action, entertaining comedy and sarcastic asides. Nice development of existing and ongoing situations too. It's not the place to start, of course - that would be Sweet Silver Blues, but if you like the series, this is a good entry.
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