grenegome

I picked up one of Frank Tuttle’s Markhat stories via cyprinella  when it was going free on Amazon, and so far I’ve read The Mister Trophy, Dead Man’s Rain, The Cadaver Client and Hold the Dark. They’re a fun paranormal mystery read, with a protagonist who seems to be a kinder and more functional adult with a bit more emotional and social intelligence than I’m necessarily used to from my detective figures. (I need to stop benchmarking everything against the Dresden Files don’t I?).

The books are set in a city called Rannit, and I keep trying to draw (early, pre-Vetinari) Ankh Morpork comparisons to the set up. It’s a relatively low tech multi-species city with a civil peacekeeping force that isn’t terribly earnest about enforcing the law if it’s too much bother, and an obvious class divide. And a big mucky river, but you get those everywhere. It’s a lot less fleshed out than Ankh Morpork, though to be fair what I’ve read so far has been short stories and a novella so Tuttle hasn’t had that much space to flesh Rannit out even if he were so inclined. That hasn’t bothered me as I’ve found skimming along at the surface level of the world waiting for the what-happens-next and who’s-doing-it satisfying.

( More thoughts on Markhat, with spoilers for Hold the Dark and dead Man’s Rain and a vague spoiler for the Doctor Who finale which I imagine everyone has already seen if they want to )