Review: Sturdy and enjoyable
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 1, 2010
I bought and read this on release at the end of last year, but have only just realised I never reviewed it. Not sure why, because it's a cracking short novella, tightly paced and plotted, with the genuine creepiness and suspense that all good detective stories should have. Nothing can be taken on face value, especially when your new client - or rather client's spokesperson - Granny Knot is consciously deceiving the general public with a show of craziness, hiding a sharp brain. That she claims to be acting on behalf of a dead man, is something Markhat has to prove for himself  - along with every other story told to him in this yarn.Tuttle uses Mama Hog again to good effect, and Granny Knot is a great new character. Once again, the many minor characters are vivid, even if their roles are somewhat fleeting. The cast is rather less confusing than say, in the latest Markhat book,The Banshee's Walk: A Markhat Novel, and the editing is much better than in the later book. I had no complaints at all about the writing, which is uniformly excellent.I guess my lack of enthusiasm came entirely from the total omission of Darla, who was central toHold The Dark: A Markhat story, and when we left Markhat at the end of that book, it was very clear that Darla was to take a prominent part in his life from that point onwards. It was thus a shock to read this book and find she's not even mentioned, let alone a participant in the story. It's as if Darla never existed at all, and I'm not at all fond of stories which erase important female characters, especially ones I'm damn fond of.I don't know know whether Tuttle planned and wrote this story before Hold the Dark, but some brief explanation, some nod to Markhat's girlfriend's existence, was all that was needed for the reader to be comfortable here, and not to feel that our emotional investment in Darla - which the author had been at pains to create - was being discarded so Markhat could live as a curmudgeonly old bachelor once more.This is the only flaw in an otherwise very enjoyable story, and the only thing that stops me giving it top marks. As Darla reappears in the follow up book, on re-reading "The Cadaver Client", I was inclined to feel more kindly towards it. But on first reading, I felt horribly cheated, and it's that initial reaction which makes this one drop a few points for me. If you love the Markhat stories, you'll enjoy this one, but if you don't read it, you won't lose any continuity with the latest novel. The Cadaver Client sits in its own leg of the Trousers of Time (as Terry Pratchett would call it) and while not essential to the Markhat canon, is well worth the effort. An amuse bouche, perhaps, rather than a proper main course.