Line #157 Literature/GarrettPI


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3	''Garrett, P.I.'' is a long-running {{fantasy}} [[FilmNoir noir]] series by Creator/GlenCook. A LowFantasy story set in a HighFantasy world, more specifically a [[FantasyCounterpartCulture fantasy counterpart of St. Louis]] populated by pretty much every fantasy creature ever conceived, the series follows the eponymous [[HardboiledDetective private investigator]] through his [[Creator/RaymondChandler Chandleresque]] adventures.
4
5	It also has elements of Literature/NeroWolfe -- after providing all the leg work and investigating, Garrett will sometimes call upon his immobile, dead-yet-dreaming partner, a Loghyr. The telepathic Dead Man, as Garrett calls him, will often deduce a possible solution to the mystery.
6
7	The character is named after author Creator/RandallGarrett, whose ''Literature/LordDarcy'' series was one of the first to place a detective in a fantasy setting. The series has also been compared to (and may have partially inspired) Literature/TheDresdenFiles as its opposite. Instead of a wizard using magic to investigate and solve crimes in our own world, Garrett is instead a fairly "traditional" detective in a fantasy world who uses real-world (and fairly mundane) techniques to unravel his mysteries.
8
9	[[index]]
10	* ''Literature/SweetSilverBlues'' (1987).
11	* ''Literature/BitterGoldHearts'' (1988).
12	* ''Literature/ColdCopperTears'' (1988).
13	* ''Literature/OldTinSorrows'' (1989).
14	* ''Literature/DreadBrassShadows'' (1990).
15	* ''Literature/RedIronNights'' (1991).
16	* ''Literature/DeadlyQuicksilverLies'' (1994).
17	* ''Literature/PettyPewterGods'' (1995).
18	* ''Literature/FadedSteelHeat'' (1999).
19	* ''Angry Lead Skies'' (2002).
20	* ''Whispering Nickel Idols'' (2005).
21	* ''Cruel Zinc Melodies'' (2008).
22	* ''Gilded Latten Bones'' (2010).
23	* ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'' (2013).
24	[[/index]]
25
26	Garret has also appeared in "The Shadow Thieves", a short story published in 2011's urban fantasy collection ''Down These Strange Streets'', and "an investigator from [=TunFaire=]" was mentioned in [[Literature/InTheNetOfDreams The Dreamland Chronicles]] by Wm Mark Simmons.
27
28	!!''Garrett P.I.'' has examples of:
29
30	* AccidentalProposal: When Garrett and Tinnie encounter a powerful sorceress, he's worried the woman's flirty mannerisms will provoke Tinnie into a ''faux pas'' that will get them both blasted. He introduces Tinnie as his fiance purely to defuse the situation, only to have her hold him to it and demand a ring a few pages later.
31	* AccidentalTruth: Post-''Dread Brass Shadows'', Relway asks Garrett why Belinda has become the Contague mouthpiece instead of Chodo, and Garrett admits that Chodo had a stroke. He ''doesn't'' admit that Chodo is comatose, implying that Belinda's dad is still fully alert and becoming even meaner. ''Whispering Nickel Idols'' later reveals that Chodo '''is''' conscious, but has been drugged into immobility by his daughter, causing him to go insane with rage at his own helplessness.
32	* AerithAndBob: Names like Willard Tate, Max Weider, and Fred Blaine (the real name of a powerful sorcerer) side by side with [[spoiler:Strafa Algardo]] (the real name of a powerful sorceress), Chodo Contague, Bic Gonlit, and many others.
33	* AlienAbduction: [[spoiler: This is how the Goddamn Parrot was PutOnABus, to Garrett's immense relief. Much to Garrett's horror TheBusCameBack. But ''only'' for a cameo, thank Hano!]]
34	* AlienNoninterferenceClause: Casey comes searching for Kip's friends because they're violating this trope.
35	* AlliterativeFamily: Max Weider named his sons Tad, Tom, and Ty. Averted with his daughters, Alex and Kittyjo.
36	* AlliterativeName: Tinnie Tate, Zeck Zack, the Kronks (Kayean, Klaus, Kayeth), Bittegurn Brittigarn, Grubb Gruber. Lampshaded with Quincey Quentin Q. Quintillas's street-name of "Quince Quefour".
37	* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: The Faction think of their sorcerer parents this way, unlike the rest of the characters who are flat-out terrified of them.
38	* AndIMustScream: The living nightmare which the Dead Man finds in [[spoiler: stroke-impaired Chodo Contague's head]].
39	* {{Angrish}}: Bound to happen when someone gets frustrated and/or bopped on the head as often as Garrett.
40	* AnimalEyeSpy: Mr. Big is this for the Dead Man. John Stretch uses regular rats as Animal ''Nose'' Spies.
41	* AnimateInanimateObject: Eleanor's painting, though Garrett's the only one who can see it.
42	* AntiClimax: [[spoiler: What do Garrett and Co do when faced with an [[AxCrazy insane]], incredibly powerful Loghyr? Slowly introduce thousands of hungry rats and insects into its private island to gobble it up. What does Garrett do when he comes into possession of a key that can open the otherworldly gateway and let out a {{god of evil}}? Chop it up and sell it for scrap.]]
43	** Given that one of Garrett's main motivations is maintaining his own comfortable little status quo these incredibly lazy solutions are very much in-character.
44	** The resolution of the first dilemma listed is also Fridge Brilliance, as it's [[spoiler: the one means of eliminating a dead Loghyr which his enemies are unlikely to be able to direct against the Dead Man, who has Garrett on hand to protect him from bugs.]]
45	* ArrangedMarriage: Nicks and Ty Weider. Morley Dotes and Indalir. In both cases, the would-be couples have absolutely no interest in going through with weddings planned before they were out of diapers.
46	* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Garrett has real trouble focusing on the task at hand in ''Wicked Bronze Ambition''. Excusable because [[spoiler: his bride-to-be was just killed and he's biting back grief to try and solve her murder]].
47	* AuthorTract: Cook's views on organized religion are made very clear throughout the series, much as they are in ''Literature/TheBlackCompany.'' In most of the books, Garrett has a live-and-let-live attitude toward the various churches. He's not religious himself, but he respects the beliefs of people who are (his friend Playmate, for instance), and he doesn't consider them any more corrupt than the other powerful entities of Tun Faire. In ''Petty Pewter Gods'', however, the anvil comes out a bit. Garrett's ''real'' problem with religion is that all too often the people at the top are using it solely to exploit the people at the bottom. The exact same problem he has with the royalty and the Sorcerers on The Hill.
48	* AxCrazy: Quite a few {{Big Bad}}s fall into this once the jig is up.
49	* BarrierBustingBlow: How Garrett escapes from a locked stable that's on fire.
50	* BattleButler: Mashego, Shadowslinger's servant. [[spoiler: She doesn't survive, but she takes four enemies with her and wounds so many of the rest that they're in no shape to offer any resistance when Garrett and his allies track them down.]]
51	* BerserkButton: Slither's "powziffle pheez". An invoked example, as Garrett deduces that a sorcerer messed with Slither's head to make him that way during the war.
52	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Playmate.
53	* BewitchedAmphibians: Garrett mentions this possibility to discourage Morley from making a pass at Furious Tide of Light.
54	* BigBrotherInstinct: John Stretch has an unusually-high interest (for a ratman) in his younger half-sister Pular Singe's welfare. [[spoiler: Which is why he goes to great lengths to "rescue" her from Garrett in ''Angry Lead Skies'', assuming that she's being held against her will by a human.]]
55	* BigCreepyCrawlies: ''Cruel Zinc Melodies''. Garrett's less-than-fond memories of the islands often include references to these too, albeit probably exaggerated.
56	** Tara Chayne from ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'' conjures a pitch-black supernatural centipede to do her bidding, and it can grow big enough to grapple two opponents at once.
57	* TheBigGuy: Saucerhead, Playmate, and quite a few others.
58	* BittersweetEnding: A few, but ''Old Tin Sorrows'' and ''Cruel Zinc Melodies'' in particular stand out.
59	* BizarreAlienReproduction: Ratpeople retain their rat ancestors' reproductive physiology, producing large litters and mating indiscriminately when females come into season. Singe suppresses her mating urges by wearing a suppressor amulet and avoiding unrelated ratmen at that time.
60	* BizarreAlienSenses: The Visitors from ''Angry Lead Skies'' have senses very different from humans', or so the Dead Man claims after he links with their minds. Garrett has a hard time understanding memories the Loghyr passes on to him from ratpeople or John Stretch's rats, as his sense of smell is negligible compared to theirs. Throughout the series, much is made of the night vision of the ratpeople and elves.
61	* BlackMagic: There's not much that the Hill sorcerers won't tolerate where magic is concerned, but crafting thread men ''en masse'' or Uplifting animals is frowned upon these days. (Not because of ethics, mind you, but because they tend to rile up the masses and/or have GoneHorriblyWrong in the past.)
62	* TheBlacksmith: Trivias
63	* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Alyx Weider, Giorgi Nicholas and Tinnie Tate. Sometimes extended to ''four'' hair colors when blonde Alyx, brown-haired Nicks, and redhead Tinnie are joined by raven-haired Belinda Contague.
64	* BountyHunter: Bic Gonlit from ''Angry Lead Skies''. Winger in ''Dread Brass Shadows'' before expanding her portfolio. Standing bounties on unicorns in the Cantard and feral dogs in the countryside are mentioned.
65	* BrickJoke: In ''Angry Lead Skies'', musing about his own KnightInSourArmor track-record, Garrett observes that he's not the kind of guy who gets to rescue the PrincessClassic, or even meet one. At the novel's end, he notices two girls riding three-wheels in the park, and is informed that they're the King's daughters. [[SubvertedTrope They're both fairly ugly.]]
66	* BrilliantButLazy: Both Garrett and the Dead Man, [[HypocriticalHumor both nag each other about it]].
67	* BrownNote: One of the ways Garrett keeps the body-count down in fights is to activate minor one-shot magic items that cause disorientation, nausea, blindness or other temporary impairments.
68	** The wards placed on their clubhouse by the Faction include one that makes intruders feel a sudden and intense need for a loo.
69	* BullyingADragon: Any human bigot stupid enough to hurl insults or rocks at Doris or Marsha quickly learns why it's wiser not to harass someone ''eighteen feet tall''.
70	* CallBack: Morley ''would'' have been the one smuggled into the ceremony in a coffin in ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'', but he couldn't handle the confinement so soon after his brush with captivity and incapacity in ''Gilded Latten Bones'', so Garrett took his place.
71	* TheCatCameBack: The Goddamn Parrot, which refuses to escape, and which nobody wants to take off Garrett's hands. [[spoiler: Until the Visitors abduct the bird.]]
72	* CatchPhrase: ''Nog is inescapable''
73	* ChestBurster: In ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'', Moonblight insists that a slain demonic creature's carcass be boiled to prevent it from releasing larval spawn that would burrow into nearby victims and act out this trope.
74	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Maya after ''Old Tin Sorrows.'' We're told later that she got tired of waiting around for Garrett to man up and settle down so she married someone else. Garrett didn't take it well.
75	* ClarkesThirdLaw: In ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'', [[spoiler: the Operators don't realize that Kip and Kevans have no magical powers for their ritual to steal, assuming that anyone who can invent so many amazing things ''must'' be using magic, not engineering, to do it.]]
76	* ClingyJealousGirl: Tinnie. Notably ''she's'' the one who insisted on the noncommittal nature of her and Garrett's relationship. [[spoiler: By ''Gilded Latten Bones'' she's become ''so'' possessive, obsessively driving Garrett's friends and her own responsibilities out of their life, that it torpedoes their relationship and nearly ruins her career.]]
77	* ColdBloodedTorture: A number of times, Garrett finds what's left of people who've met with this trope, usually at the hands of the Outfit.
78	** It's implied that this is why [[spoiler: Uncle Willard]] brought tools along when [[spoiler: the Tates capture the Serpent]] in ''Dread Brass Shadows''.
79	** The Rainmaker has a particular reputation for this.
80	* ComeAlone: At one point Garrett Lampshades how he might be walking into a ComeAlone situation, and how there must have been a time when it actually ''succeeded'' in suckering someone into a trap for this trope to exist. [[HypocriticalHumor This doesn't stop him from walking right into the situation that inspired these musings, and doing it alone, however.]]
81	* CorruptChurch: How Morley and Garrett (and everyone else) sees the various sectors of the Church. (They're pretty much right.)
82	* {{Conscription}}: Mandatory for all pure human males and any half bloods that want to be treated as full humans under the law. [[spoiler: Brought to an end when Karenta wins the war.]]
83	* ContinuityNod: Usually at least one per book and usually to the previous book in the series.
84	** The vampire-nest from book one got a nod about half a dozen books later, as a hideout for Glory Mooncalled's guerrilla forces.
85	** Garrett finds a man murdered with a kef sidhe strangling cord in ''Old Tin Sorrows'', and Morley tells him something about this exotic weapon. Four books later, in ''Petty Pewter Gods'', Garrett compares Magodor's magical rope to a kef sidhe strangling cord.
86	* ConvenientComa: Chodo Contague.
87	* CoversAlwaysLie: The covers of the novels almost always show Garrett in a suit with a long coat and either a Fedora or Trilby hat. He never dresses like this in the story itself (in fact descriptions of fashions are very rare indeed), and in particular seldom remembers to wear a hat, much to his annoyance when it rains.
88	** Cook even wrote a possible TakeThat at the covers as Garrett's lack of a hat is a plot point when he dons one in order to go about in disguise.
89	*** Well... this is a little screwy, the level of technology as far as weaponry and transportation is at the MedievalStasis level, but in some of the (rare) descriptions we get of urban architecture, manufacturing, and some of the clothing comes right out of the Noir era. It's a unique series.
90	*** Depicting the Tates with pointy ears was also a mistake, as Garrett never suspected Denny Tate of having nonhuman blood until Willard told him about it, and Tinnie passed for human among die-hard racists in ''Faded Steel Heat''.
91	** The covers always get Garrett's hair color wrong, too.
92	** ''Dread Brass Shadows'''s cover depicts a dwarf reading a newspaper near a modern-looking drainage grating. While there is minor printing technology in Karenta (otherwise Garrett's book collection would be far more valuable than his entire business), there's nothing on that scale, and sanitation is still at the "gardee loo!" stage.
93	** Multiple covers depict Garret smoking. He doesn't.
94	* CreepyCrows: The Shayir owl-girls quickly learn that ''real'' owls go to ground in daylight, because crows that spot one flying around will caw up a bunch of buddies to mob and drive off the "predator".
95	* CrystalDragonJesus: Hano and Terrel = God and Jesus to the Church and the Orthodox. Plenty of other religions coexist with them, human and otherwise, but these are the dominant Karentine human faiths.
96	* {{Cult}}: Several of them throughout the series, ranging from apocalyptic lunatics and misogynistic fanatics to benign healers and missionary door-knockers.
97	* CuteKitten: ''Whispering Nickel Idols''.
98	* DamselInDistress: Often what gets the story rolling.
99	* DarkAgeOfSupernames: Sorcerers adopt aliases. These are obviously intended (by the sorcerers) to sound cool and menacing. Often, they just sound pretentious, and this may be {{Lampshaded}} mercilessly. Examples include Raver Styx, Fox Direheart ("just old Fred Blaine at home"), Invisible Black, Furious Tide of Light, and Dreamstalker Doomscrye (or possibly Doomstalker Dreamscrye).
100	** Lampshaded in ''Whispering Nickel Idols'', when Morley quips that the one thing he knows about the person Garrett just asked about (Penny Dreadful) is that they'd better find another name to avoid getting smacked around for having it.
101	* DarkIsNotEvil: The Cult of A-Laf, Queen of the Night, is a benign one victimized by A-Lat's fanatics.
102	* DayOldLegend: Garrett suspects this is true of Toetickler, a club he buys from a passing dwarf when he's chasing someone and needs a weapon. The dwarf claims it's a LegendaryWeapon to jack up the price.
103	* DeadlyGame: The Tournament of Swords from ''Wicked Bronze Ambition''. Deconstructed in that even Garrett immediately sees how ridiculous an idea it is, and every attempt has been scuttled because the contestants' families went after the Operators rather than risk their children's lives on a one-in-twelve chance.
104	* DeadpanSnarker: Just about everyone, Garrett included.
105	* DeathByChildbirth: Jennifer Stantnor's mother died after giving birth to her [[spoiler: because her husband tampered with the medicine her doctor gave her]].
106	* DeathByOriginStory: Garrett's pretty certain that this trope applies to Deal Relway, although he doesn't know any details. Given the intensity of Relway's crime-busting fanaticism, he's probably right.
107	* DemotedToExtra: Happens to Winger and Saucerhead in the later novels, as Garrett's interests gradually shift from street-level to the mercantile and upper-crust levels of society. The latter does get a parting moment of glory in ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'', battling Jiffy almost to a standstill, but the former winds up little more than comic relief.
108	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Gnorst Gnorst, son of Gnorst, the Gnorst of Gnorst. Garrett figures the guy's name makes perfect sense to his fellow dwarves.
109	* DidntSeeThatComing: Nobody (except the Dead Man) predicted that Glory Mooncalled would turn against Karenta, and even Old Bones missed that he'd declare the Cantard an independent republic. [[spoiler: And nobody ''at all'' predicted that the [=morCartha=] - barbaric little flying creatures previously considered pests - would swing the balance of the war so drastically that Karenta would wipe out both Venageta ''and'' Mooncalled's republic in a matter of months, ending generations of conflict altogether.]]
110	* DinosaursAreDragons: A villain from ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'' refers to the [[spoiler: sentient]] flying thunder lizards as "dragons".
111	* DraftDodging: '''Inverted''' by Deal Relway who did not have to serve time in the Cantard because he was not a pure human, but chose to do so as he personally felt it was his duty.
112	* TheDreaded: Orchidia Hedley-Farfoul, aka the Black Orchid. Even ''Shadowslinger'' gets scared when she realizes the former Nighthunter (= Special Forces HunterOfMonsters and assassin) has been roused out of retirement.
113	** The Dead Man himself can be this trope to those with secrets to hide.
114	* DumbIsGood: Singe comes to accept Furious Tide of Light when she concludes that the sorceress, who is book-smart but world-naive, is too ''simple'' to be evil.
115	* DungeonPunk: The novels are about a down-on-his-luck HardboiledDetective in a city full of sorcerers, dwarfs, elves, and so on. Mr. Cook himself has said that Tun Faire isn't based on any particular city, but is influenced by his hometown of St. Louis. The combination of PrivateEye FilmNoir fiction with HighFantasy yet not set in an UrbanFantasy world. The series stradles this and FantasticNoir. Tun Faire is a city full of corruption, crime syndicates, corrupt city watch, and noble families carrying dark secrets. Garrett has a distaste for all manner of authority and spends much of his time thumbing his nose at it, no matter whether its gods or kings.
116	* EldritchLocation: Bohdan Zhibak
117	* ElementalPowers: Most sorcerer's stock in trade. Casters associated with air (Stormwardens, Windwalkers) and fire (Firelords) are most common in [=TunFaire=]; water (Icemasters) and earth (Ferromancers) orientations have been mentioned, but aren't usually found in the city.
118	* EmbarrassingFirstName: Waldo Tharpe, aka Saucerhead.
119	* ETGaveUsWifi: [[spoiler:Kip Prose's inventions appear with increasing frequency once the "silver elves" enhance his brain and Amalgamated puts them into production.]]
120	* EvidenceScavengerHunt: Deconstructed, as Garrett regularly informs the reader that it's a one-in-ten shot he'll find anything informative at all. He still has to go through the motions though, even if it means poking around a mound of ogre corpses or taking a dip in a freezing well.
121	* EvilCripple: Chodo Contague.
122	* EvilDetectingDog: Brownie and her companions.
123	* EvilSorcerer: Fido Easterman desperately ''wants'' to be this trope, and his residence and behavior fulfill its motifs to the letter. Too bad for him that he was born with no magical gift whatsoever.
124	** Drachir and the Candides were historical examples, as was Nooney Krombach.
125	** Shadowslinger plays up this reputation, although Garrett himself is unsure how much of it's just an act.
126	* FairySexy: Melondie Kadare is this in youth.
127	* FalseRapeAccusation: PlayedForLaughs when the Goddamn Parrot's trouble-making tirades ''sound'' like a child being assaulted, making Garrett fear he'll get lynched by his neighbors before they realize it's a bird talking.
128	* FantasyKitchenSink: Blood thirsty, carnivorous unicorns? Check. Thunder lizards? Check. Ghosts, zombies, elves, gnomes, dwarves, vampires, trolls and about a zillion other random mythic creatures, plus a few new ones (mostly due to the others constantly screwing each other)? Double check.
129	** Fire-breathing dragons, gryphons, and [[EskimosArentReal ostriches]] are purely-allegorical, however.
130	* FantasticNoir: A detective story set in a HighFantasy setting with a private eye protagonist.
131	* FantasticRacism: All over the damn place, given that there are so many races mingling in Tun Faire to begin with. Both Garrett and Morley face anti-human and anti-mixed breed sentiment all the time. Morley himself seems to have a special hatred for tiny races (pixies, leprechauns), and a dislike for Ratpeople which Garrett shares until Singe comes into his life. Garrett does develop respect (if not actual fondness) for her brother, John Stretch, as well.
132	** Becomes a major political concern after the war's end, when human soldiers return home to find non-humans occupying all the civilian jobs.
133	** As hostile as some humans are to half-breeds, hybrids are apparently even ''more'' unpopular in many non-human communities. Hence, their gravitation to Karenta, where at least they're treated like (second-class) citizens rather than complete garbage.
134	** Centaurs aren't liked or trusted even before their Cantard tribes turned against Karenta to support Mooncalled's republic; after that, they're despised nearly as much as ratpeople.
135	** The Hanite religions practice this trope, preaching that only pure-blooded humans have souls and Other Races are just clever animals that learned to mimic humans' speech and culture.
136	** As an artificial race with no diplomatic history and no territory of their own, ratpeople technically have no more legal rights under the Karentine legal system than do regular rats. Ironically, human racists don't take full advantage of this, evidently assuming the rat-folk are too lowly and craven to ever pose a threat.
137	*** Even among ratpeople, the brown-furred strain to which Singe and Reliance belong is dominant over, and looks down upon, the two other strains. When some "grays" cause trouble in ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'', John Stretch's people teach them a harsh lesson about crossing the dominant strain.
138	* FatSlob: Puddle
139	* FictionalHoliday: Karenta celebrates its own version of a Day of the Dead, on the one hand, but also something called "White Day" which combines Valentine's Day with a broader celebration of friendship.
140	* FieryRedhead: Tinnie Tate.
141	* FlockOfWolves: Mind-probing the "silver elves" from ''Angry Lead Skies'', the Dead Man discovers that [[spoiler: a ''lot'' of them are engaged in political or commercial espionage against their own colleagues.]] Also, Garrett himself finds that [[spoiler: ''none'' of the females are as content with their species' allegedly having "outgrown" sexuality as their prudish facade suggests.]]
142	* FlyingFirepower: Furious Tide of Light played this trope straight during the Cantard War, and can still zap villains from on high if necessary.
143	* FlyingSaucer: One of the "silver elves"'s vehicles.
144	* FoulMouthedParrot: Mr. Big, aka The Goddamn Parrot. An invoked example, as Morley and his henchmen are implied to have spent ''months'' pre-loading the bird with filthy and fight-provoking phrases before gifting it to Garret as a prank.
145	* FriendOnTheForce: Westman Block, although not a ''good'' friend of Garrett's, isn't averse to trading information or even slipping leads to Garrett which, politically, he can't pursue himself. Scithe is more like ''Tinnie's'' Friend On The Force, as he's got a heavy crush on her and can't help but tell her things she can then pass on to Garrett.
146	* FromNobodyToNightmare: Chodo Contague reputedly started out as a street-gang kid, but was recruited into the Outfit and rose to dominate it. The fathers of Raver Styx and Amiranda Crest rose from humble beginnings to become pretty terrifying even by Hill standards.
147	* GadgeteerGenius: Kip Prose. Tell him you need a better means of lighting a theater than candles or oil lanterns in the morning, and he'll have invented Victorian-era gaslight by ''later that afternoon''.
148	* {{Gasshole}}: Mr. Mulclar, the door repairman, is an otherwise-nice man who's largely oblivious to his severe flatulence.
149	* GeniusBruiser: Playmate.
150	* GenreBusting: The whole series combines FilmNoir with fantasy, and ''Angry Lead Skies'' tosses [[spoiler: Grey-like aliens]] into the mix.
151	* GiantAnimalWorship: The snake-priest Garrett asks for information about the Shayir and Godoroth boasts of his own cult's possession of a genuine "god-snake" big enough to swallow horses. Garrett heartily approves of the "swallow horses" part.
152	* GiantEqualsInvincible: Averted with thunder-lizards, which are specifically stated to be ''very'' vulnerable to intelligent races' cunning, group tactics and sharp, poisoned steel.
153	* GoingNative: The Grinblatts, a family of dwarves from ''Cruel Zinc Melodies'', dress like humans, and their children act more human than their parents.
154	* GranolaGirl: Guy, actually. Morley strongly believes that greens are nature's cure alls, and that fresh air and exercise stave off all kinds of horrible diseases, and is very vocal about his opinions. Garrett points out that it kind of clashes with the fact he kills people for a living.
155	** It's also suggested that this kind of thinking is very much a Dark Elf thing.
156	* GreatOffscreenWar: The War in the Kantard occupies a huge chunk of the setting's backstory but is taking place far from Tun Faire. The only time we encounter any of its effects are through veterans like Garrett or briefly when Garrett visits the front lines in the first book.
157	* GroinAttack: Garrett tends to dish these out in close combat, and several plot-relevant characters have been on the receiving end over the series.
158	* HandsomeLech: Morley. Also Garrett, shading into ChivalrousPervert. A general who met him briefly during his wartime service recalled him as "the kid who could find a girl anywhere, even in the middle of an uninhabited swamp."
159	* HalfHumanHybrid: Loads.
160	* HardboiledDetective: Garrett, obviously. Pokey Pigota also.
161	* HauntedHouse: The Dead Man used to make people ''think'' this was true of the house on Macunado Street, until Garrett bought it and moved in, making the ruse unnecessary to keep intruders away.
162	* HeinzHybrid: Also loads, to the point where there's a slang term ("unique") for hybrids with complicated ancestry.
163	* TheHelpHelpingThemselves: In one novel, a side plot is that various minor knickknacks vanishing from the client's house. It eventually turns out that the butler was stealing and selling them because his employer hadn't revised the household budget to allow for inflation in years, and he needed the extra money to keep the estate going.
164	* HeroicBSOD: A whole lot of witnesses, heroic or just bystanders, experience a brief [=BSOD=] at the sight of [[spoiler: the Hill's most-dreaded elite sorcerers having had the living crap kicked out of them]] in ''Cruel Zinc Melodies''.
165	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: For someone so obsessed with law and order, a whole lot of people have managed to vanish under Deal Relway's watch. . .
166	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Garrett and Morley, bordering on HoYay sometimes.
167	* HiddenDepths: Sarge seems like a run-of-the-mill bruno early on, but it's later revealed that he's both a talented drill sergeant able to get even Kip Prose to shut up and pay attention, and a former ''field medic'' who could stay drunk for the rest of his life admitting as much to grateful fellow-veterans in pubs if he wanted.
168	* [[spoiler: HolographicDisguise]]: Most of the Visitors rely on these to pass for Karentines. Naturally, Garrett and his friends peg them as illusions generated via custom sorcery.
169	* HopelessSuitor: Dollar Dan Justice, to Pular Singe.
170	* HorsingAround: Garrett's running-gag feud with the equine species.
171	* HospitalHottie: Doc Chaz
172	* HotLibrarian: Linda Lee
173	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Played straight with Saucerhead's various petite girlfriends; inverted with Winger and the Remora. [[spoiler: Later averted by Saucerhead and Winger.]]
174	* HumansAreBastards: Garrett's opinion on the matter, though technically it's more like 'everyone is a bastard'.
175	* HypercompetentSidekick: Singe is ''much'' better at keeping Garrett's business organized and profitable than he ever was, so much so that her ever-growing talents actually scare him a little. He's long since decided to hand over his investigation service to her if/when he retires.
176	* IdenticalGrandson: Garrett and Barate speculate that the culprits in ''Gilden Latten Bones'' might be the throwback offspring of Shadowslinger's cousin Jane. [[spoiler: Subverted; they're actually Jane herself, and other relatives long thought dead, now rejuvenated by stolen life force.]]
177	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: All books in the series follow an Adjective-Metal-Noun format, which may soon prove a problem when Cook runs out of metals. A recent one being ''Gilded [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latten Latten]] Bones'', he's already dipping into the obscure...
178	* ImplausibleHairColor: The sexy, leather-clad female villains in ''Gilded Latten Bones'' have oddly-gray hair. [[spoiler: Not so odd, once you know they're old ladies who've used stolen life force to make themselves younger. As hair is made up of dead cells, it didn't get younger with the rest of them.]]
179	* IHaveManyNames: Jill Craight - birth name Hester Podegill - uses a different name with practically everybody she knows. Pokey Pigota reputedly used so many aliases in his work that he was once hired to investigate himself. Imar and Imara have a lot of titles, as is to be expected for deities.
180	* ImpossiblyTackyClothes: Winger's taste in dresses leaves people's eyes watering. Sextons from the Cult of A-Laf dress in green plaid pants so hideous, Garrett nicknames them the Ugly Pants Gang. The coat Garrett borrows for a while in ''Cruel Zinc Melodies'' was deliberately designed to be this trope by a prankster.
181	* InconsistentColoring: Furious Tide of Light has eyes that've changed color practically every time Garrett looks at her.
182	* IndianBurialGround: One possible cause for the World Theater haunting that's shot down right away: it's built on a block of former Tenderloin properties with no history of ghosts, which presumably would've shown up sooner if ''they'd'' been constructed on an old burial ground.
183	* InnocentAliens: ''Angry Lead Skies'' has several groups of "[[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens silver elves]]", most of which were innocently trying to spread knowledge and peace throughout the universe. Of course, [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters It doesn't really work out that way]].
184	* InsistentTerminology: Jackals, ''not'' dogs.
185	* InvisibilityCloak: Magodor's magical cord can generate an Invisibility ''Sack'', which is nearly as good for stationary concealment but a ''lot'' more awkward to move around in.
186	* KillItWithFire: How Garrett and Morley deal with vampires in the first book.
187	* KnightInSourArmor: Garrett, big time. [[spoiler: Glory Mooncalled is implied to have become this in the wake of his Cantard republic's fall.]]
188	* KnightTemplar: Deal Relway.
189	* LanguageEqualsThought: The dark elfin language uses the same word for "mercy" as for "madness". Creepily, it's a half-dark elf who matter-of-factly tells Garrett this.
190	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The Dead Man tampers with Kolda's mind so that the apothecary will never recall anything he learns while at Garrett's place.
191	* LastOfHisKind: Penny Dreadful is the last priestess of A-Laf.
192	* LatexPerfection: How Casey passes for human in ''Angry Lead Skies''.
193	* LongLostRelative: A few sorcerous villains in the later books turn out to be relatives of the Algardas or their neighbors, who'd been in hiding and/or had been thought deceased. Plausible, as the sorcerers of the Hill have evidently been intermarrying for centuries, so ''any'' Hill-caliber spellcaster is bound to be related to some degree.
194	* MadArtist: Bird from ''Gilden Latten Bones'' [[spoiler: subverts this, as he really ''does'' hear ghostly voices. And they keep talking through his mouth after he's dead.]]
195	* MadLibsCatchPhrase: Seems like every book has a new permutation of a snarky "flying pigs" reference.
196	* MadnessMantra: "How're you doing? I'm Ivy."
197	* MagicAisMagicA: Magic is practical and useful as a tool that leads to people being feared nobility.
198	* MagiciansAreWizards: More like Magicians Are ''Gods'', when it's played with in book 8. Magodor's demonstration of her enchanted cord's powers is ''exactly'' like the stage conjuring routines which Garrett has seen before, except in her case it's all for real.
199	* MamaBear: Raver Styx was scary enough ''before'' anyone threatened her kids. [[spoiler: It's fear of this that drives the villains to become even ''more'' murderous, to cover their butts against her anticipated wrath. Which is understandable, given [[ColdBloodedTorture what she does]] to the ones who killed her son.]]
200	** Shadowslinger is set up as the ultimate ''Grand''ma Bear in ''Wicked Bronze Ambition''. [[spoiler: '''Triple''' subverted, as she suffers a stroke that apparently takes her out of the action, unable to avenge Strafa and protect Kevans. Then reveals she's been faking her incapacity, suggesting a she-bear rampage is back on the menu. ''Then'' reveals it's not going to happen, because Shadowslinger's own botched spell killed Strafa and Garrett's other allies take down the Operators without her help.]]
201	* MeaningfulFuneral: In ''Wicked Bronze Ambition''.
202	* MeatVersusVeggies: A regular topic of casual back-and-forth carping between Garrett and Morley.
203	* MedievalStasis: Kiiiiiiind of. Although certain things have advanced, weapons are straight out of the dark ages and electricity is nowhere to be seen outside of a summer storm. Other things suggest a much more urban and modern setting though, for instance: indoor plumbing is available but not always common.
204	** Houses and buildings are usually multiple stories, yet Garrett's entire ground floor (in a ''four bedroom house,'' mind you) has only one window. Granted, that's because most people bricked up their ground-floor windows when the war's immigrants and refugees brought a crime wave with them.
205	** Subverted from ''Angry Lead Skies'' onward, as technology and manufacturing start advancing very quickly.
206	* MemeticBadass: Glory Mooncalled is an in-universe example.
207	* MiddleChildSyndrome: Rhafi is almost completely overshadowed by his siblings, and what-little personality he displays suggests he's a bit of a jerk. Even ''Cook'' seems to have forgotten him, mentioning Kip's mother and sister in later books, but not his brother.
208	* MissingMom: Inverted by Winger, who ''is'' somebody's mom who got fed up and left to start a new life.
209	* MissionControl: The Dead Man invokes this trope on a couple of cases, by way of his psychic influence over Mr. Big.
210	* MotorMouth: Dojango Roze couldn't shut up if you paid him. This makes him a marginally-less extreme example than the Goddamn Parrot, who couldn't shut up if you ''drowned'' him. [[spoiler: Unless the Dead Man is riding shotgun in his brain.]]
211	** Rocky from ''Cruel Zinc Melodies'' is a blazing fast talker... for a troll. Which means he can keep up with a human's conversation.
212	* MrImagination: Kip Prose is so much this trope that the Dead Man has difficulty sorting out what's a real memory in the boy's head from what's a wish-fulfillment fantasy.
213	* MysteriousWatcher: Lurking Felhske plays this role for various employers in different books.
214	* MythologyGag: The grandmother of Furious Tide of Light is herself a powerful sorceress, using the name Shadowslinger. The second book of Literature/TheBlackCompany series is titled ''Shadows Linger''.
215	* NakedPeopleTrappedOutside: When Rose Tate pays Saucerhead to beat Garrett up, Garrett hires Tharpe to deliver payback by giving Rose a spanking, stripping her naked, and letting her walk home without realizing Saucerhead is ensuring her safety.
216	** The threat of being left nude in a Full Harbor alley helps convince a mook to rat out his boss, as public nudity in the military-controlled town could get the culprit condemned to the silver mines.
217	** The first of the mystery redheads in ''Dread Brass Shadows'' stumbles into Garrett's house stark naked and immediately passes out.
218	* NarrativeProfanityFilter: A necessity with the Goddamn Parrot, as actually ''quoting'' the bird would probably mean relegating the novels in which Mr. Big appears to "adult" bookstores only.
219	* {{Nephewism}}: Morley spends a few books riding herd on his nephew Narcisio (aka "Spud"). Reportedly, his sister had the strange idea that spending time with a professional assassin would straighten the obnoxious youth out.
220	* NeverMessWithGranny: More like Never Mess With Her Grandkids, if it's Constance Algarda or Orchidia Hedley-Farfoul - aka the Shadowslinger and the Black Orchid - you're talking about. Moonblight is formidable also, and briefly steps away from the campaign against the Operators to attend the birth of a grandchild.
221	* TheNicknamer: Winger does this constantly, giving people embarrassing ones.
222	* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: Garrett's initial reaction to Winger.
223	* NoNameGiven: Garret's first name has never been revealed. The Dead Man's real name has never been stated either. Nor Playmate's.
224	** Winger doesn't use a first name, and even "Winger" itself may be an alias chosen so the family she deserted won't track her down.
225	* NoOneSeesTheBoss: Crime boss Chodo Contague has a stroke and his daughter Belinda takes over his organization, claiming to relay his orders. [[spoiler: Also how Tama Montezuma manipulated the Call and the Wolves, by "passing on" faked orders in Marengo North English's name.]]
226	* NobodyPoops: Averted. His pressing need to urinate upon waking averts one of the Windwalker's attempts to seduce Garrett in ''Gilded Latten Bones'', and a bedridden Morley needs to be "cleaned up" regularly by his ratwomen nurses in the same book.
227	* NonhumanHumanoidHybrid: Doris and Marsha the groll (giant/troll) brothers. Slim, the elf/troll who delivers Garrett's beer kegs.
228	* NonHumanSidekick: Pular Singe. The Dead Man is alternately called a "sidekick" and a partner by Garrett, although the Loghyr himself thinks it's the other way around.
229	* NonIdleRich: As much as Garrett disrespects Karenta's noble class, even he gives them credit for participating fully in the Cantard War, either as battlefield sorcerers or as officers who lead (albeit not so competently) from the front.
230	* NonIndicativeFirstEpisode: The first book in the series (''Sweet Silver Blues'') is less of a mystery and more of a fairly straightforward adventure story, albeit told in a noir style.
231	* NoodleIncident: The time Garrett returned a borrowed coach to Playmate without remembering to remove the corpse stashed inside it, first.
232	* NoOneSeesTheBoss: [[spoiler: How Tama Montezuma manipulated the Call and the Wolves, by "passing on" faked orders in Marengo North English's name.]]
233	* TheNoseKnows: Ratfolk have an exceptional sense of smell, which their trackers (Singe especially) employ to follow people's trails.
234	* NoSuchAgency: The ''Unpublished'' Committee for Royal Security, or whatever they're calling themselves this week.
235	* ObfuscatingDisability: Pular Singe initially concealed her intelligence from the ratman gang boss, Reliance, by pretending to be deaf. [[spoiler: Shadowslinger exaggerates the effects of her stroke to conceal her true condition from both enemies and family.]]
236	* OneManArmy: Saucerhead Tharpe is justifiably called this by Skredli, whose gang of ogres Tharpe waded through like they were sick kittens.
237	* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Morley's crew, which included one "Sarge" who died in ''Bitter Gold Hearts'' and another who first appeared in ''Red Iron Nights''. Easily justifiable, as the Cantard War produced a ''lot'' of sergeants.
238	* OneWingedAngel: The last unaccounted-for member of [[spoiler: the Black Dragon Valsung shapeshifters]] resorts to this at Max Weider's party in an attempt to rescue the others, only to get zapped repeatedly by Perilous Spite.
239	* OpenSaysMe: Saucerhead's favored means of entry into locked rooms. Averted by Morley, who's good at lockpicking and claims "I don't do Thon-Gore the Learning Disabled". Played with in Garrett's case, as it works fine for a dry-rotted egress at the Stantnor estate but fails when he tries it on a sturdier door. Slither kicks a door repeatedly to loosen it up ''before'' slamming through shoulder-first.
240	* OrderliesAreCreeps: Not only are the Bledsoe asylum's orderlies abusive to the patients, but the Rainmaker bribes them to toss personal enemies in with the crazies on the sly.
241	* OrphanedPunchline: "A troll, an ogre, and a barbarian walk into a bar. The elephant behind the bar says 'We don't serve'..." "Mice are never amusing." We don't know what linked this joke's opening and punch lines.
242	* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Demons are discussed in ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'', albeit only in regards to Dread Companions. Little is said about their nature or abilities, but the existence of a "demon realm" from which they can be summoned is mentioned, as is the fact that most demons are fed up with sorcerers and/or humans, so only the bottom-of-the-barrel riffraff actually heed such calls anymore.
243	* OurDragonsAreDifferent: ''Cruel Zinc Melodies''. [[spoiler: Very different, they're sentient fungus.]]
244	* OurGnomesAreWeirder: The Tates are a recurring family of them. It's stated that they have some elf or dwarf blood, but not so much that they can't pass for ordinary humans even among die-hard racists. Garrett does refer to Mr. Tate as "the gnome king" at one point, but that's just him being a DeadpanSnarker; ''real'' gnomes, when shown, could barely reach his kneecaps.
245	* OurLichesAreDifferent: The Dead Man is a non-evil psychic variant. Subverted with the witch Dire Cabochon, whom Garrett ''suspects'' might've enchanted her dying body to revive if disturbed, so he keeps his distance from her remains.
246	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampirism is treated strictly as TheVirus and can be cured somewhat easily if it's in the early stages.
247	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The draugs from ''Old Tin Sorrows''. The "thread men" (aka Artificial type) from ''Gilded Latten Bones''.
248	* OutOfCharacterIsSeriousBusiness: Garrett's friends know he's taking a case ''very'' seriously if he overcomes his usual distaste for horses so he can ride around the city faster.
249	* OutOfGenreExperience: ''Angry Lead Skies'', which adds [[spoiler: Grey-style aliens]] to the series' already-genre-blending mix.
250	* TheParalyzer: The "silver elves" from ''Angry Lead Skies'' carry non-lethal stunning weapons.
251	* ParentalIncest: Several of the named female characters have a backstory of being sexually molested by their stepfathers (war casualties resulted in a ''lot'' of widows who remarried). And then there's the powerful sorceress "Furious Tide of Light", who had her father's daughter -- for extra {{Squick}}, it's hinted that ''her mother was '''his''' mother, too'', although this was apparently later proven incorrect. Most bizarrely, Garrett notes in the latest book that these two are some of the nicest, most admirable people in the sorcerous power structure. Good Lord.
252	** [[spoiler: Amber dePena subverted this trope by threatening to tell her Stormwarden mother. Not so, her foster sister Amiranda, who wound up pregnant by Amber's dad.]]
253	* {{Pegasus}}: Used by Cat to rescue Garrett from the Shayir.
254	* PeopleJars: [[spoiler: Shapeshifter offspring develop in vats of yeasty-smelling liquid. The production of "thread men" requires them to be submerged in glass tanks.]]
255	* ThePhoenix: Brother Brittigarn tells Garrett about phoenixes in ''Whispering Nickel Idols''. [[spoiler: The Dead Man later reveals that most of what he'd said was untrue.]]
256	* PirateParrot: Several jokes about this trope crop up during Mr. Big's tenure in the series.
257	* PlayingWithFire: Fred Blaine, aka the firelord Fox Direheart, ''really'' cuts loose with this trope when Garrett finally leads him to Grange Cleaver's hiding place.
258	* PoisonAndCureGambit: Mid-tier gangster Teacher White tries to coerce Garrett into locating someone for him by dosing him with a poison that will make him stop breathing after a while, then promising the antidote if Garrett delivers. [[spoiler: This ploy fails because the Dead Man psychically maintains Garrett's breathing until the drug is washed out of his system.]]
259	* PokeInTheThirdEye: The A-Laf deacon has "mousetraps" implanted in his psyche, making it more of a challenge for the Dead Man to read his mind. Telepathically sensing the presence that attacks Garrett's house in ''Gilded Latten Bones'' briefly leaves the Loghyr overwhelmed by revulsion at what he detects.
260	* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Garrett himself starts out sharing the typical human disdain for ratpeople, but regrets it later once he gets to know Singe and John Stretch.
261	* PrecisionFStrike: Morley and Tinnie don't cuss often, but Morley does say "Shit!" when [[spoiler: a carnivorous thunder lizard sticks its head in the window of a coach he's riding in]], and Tinnie does the same when [[spoiler: several Hill sorcerers are attacked at the World's construction site]] in ''Cruel Zinc Melodies''.
262	* PsychicBlockDefense: Kip Prose's wire hairnets are designed to counter the Dead Man's mind-reading powers. In ''Gilded Latten Bones'', it's suggested that [[spoiler: he eventually finds a way past them, but lets visitors believe the devices are working]].
263	** Garrett's simple overexposure to The Dead Man and his psychic abilities have left his mind much harder to read for other psychics.
264	* PsychoSerum: Playmate, normally a sweet-tempered pacifist, goes berserk and busts up Morley's place after a cook puts angelweed in his salad as a prank. This sets the stage for Morley's refit of the Joy House as The Palms.
265	* PuppetKing: [[spoiler: Puppet ''kingpin'', rather, when Belinda takes over the Outfit by putting words in her stroke-impaired father's mouth. Sadler and Crask briefly did the same, until she supplanted them and chased them out of town.]]
266	* RagsToRiches: Pular Singe. Not yet all that rich by human standards, but already an unprecedented success among ratpeople, and she's still young.
267	* ReallyGetsAround: Kayne Prose has three children by three different fathers.
268	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Prince Rupert.
269	* RecycledINSPACE: The early novels were essentially Creator/RexStout's ''Literature/NeroWolfe'' in a fantasy setting.
270	* RefugeInAudacity: Nobody believes Garrett's story about a dragon under the World Theater, so he ensures everyone will think that Max Weider'd sent him to start a ''rumor'' about a dragon to drum up publicity for his new playhouse.
271	* ReligionOfEvil: The Sons of Hammon. The despair-fomenting followers of A-Laf.
272	* RestrainingBolt: In ''Gilded Latten Bones'', a minion of the villains is psychically pre-programmed to die of heart failure if the Dead Man tries to probe his mind. [[spoiler: This backfires when the Loghyr manages to quash the implanted command, then explains to the minion how his superiors has set him up to die.]]
273	* ReturningWarVet: ''Every adult human male'' in Karenta has been this trope, and [=TunFaire=] gets inundated with them after the Cantard War ends. The Call and lesser free-corps of ''Faded Steel Heat'' are made up of these guys. So is the entire staff (save Cook) of General Stantnor's estate.
274	* RodentsOfUnusualSize: Ratpeople can stand up to five feet tall if they straighten up from their usual slouch. John Stretch brings the biggest normal rats he can find to clear bugs out of the World Theater in ''Cruel Zinc Melodies'', including one Garrett describes as "the undisputed heavyweight champion barbarian hero of all ratdom".
275	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Crown Prince Rupert takes an active hand in getting the Civil Guard up and running, and tries to recruit Garrett as his personal agent/investigator. Averted by his brother the King, who reportedly spent all his time partying and sleeping late after the war ended.
276	** The Hill nobility, with rare exceptions, led from the front during the Cantard War. Even noble''women'' had to serve their five if they had a talent for sorcery.
277	* RuleNumberOne: Dotes' First Law: ''Never get involved with a woman crazier than you.''
278	* RunningGag: Nobody believes that Mr. Big (AKA 'The Goddamned Parrot') can really talk on his own.
279	** Garrett's door is routinely damaged, even after he replaces it with a ''stronger door.''
280	** Nearly every book sees Garrett's narration come up with a new permutation of a "[[CueTheFlyingPigs flying pigs]]" reference.
281	** Some examples are specific to individual novels, like everybody and their dog leaving stolen goat carts outside Garrett's place in ''Whispering Nickel Idols'', or everyone punching or poking Garrett in the same increasingly-sore arm in ''Wicked Bronze Ambition''.
282	** In and after ''Cruel Zinc Melodies'', any time somebody mentions that novel's giant bugs, somebody else is sure to voice their relief that the Faction never made any giant ''spiders''.
283	* RunningOnAllFours: Ratpeople sometimes do this when they need to move fast and have their hands free.
284	* ScaryLibrarian: Mistress Krine, who is equally fierce about keeping Garrett away from the Royal Library's books ''and'' her underling, Linda Lee.
285	* ScrewYouElves: Or, often, Screw You, Dead Loghyr!
286	* SdrawkcabName: Racialist extremist Davenport has identical-twin thugs at his beck and call, named Otto and Otah. Even being beaten to a pulp, Garrett snarks to himself about how stupid their names' mirror-image pronunciation is.
287	* SecretPolice: Deal Relway's Unpublished Committee for Royal Security, or whatever it's calling itself this week.
288	* SeeingThroughAnothersEyes: How the Dead Man makes use of the Goddamn Parrot. Garrett's sure the Loghyr had tried to do the same with ''him'' as well, but maintaining such a real-time link to a sentient creature's senses proved too difficult.
289	** In ''Gilded Latten Bones'', Garrett experiences a memory through Singe's eyes, ears and nose, as facilitated by the Dead Man.
290	* ShapeshifterDefaultForm: Shapeshifters fall under type B. It's mentioned that one of the unnamed shifters takes on the looks of a soldier he fought with during the war, several decades before the current story and a few months before the entire group of shapeshifters pull a FaceHeelTurn.
291	* SheIsTheKing: Having a SweetPollyOliver on the throne is a common theatrical plot-device during ''Gilded Latten Bones''.
292	* ShellShockedVeteran: Plenty, with their level of trauma varying from Tom Weider's hopeless insanity to Snake Bradon's paranoia and living alone in a stable. Garrett himself has some ''nasty'' memories of the Cantard islands, although he downplays how much they affect him many years later.
293	* ShockAndAwe: Lightning is a favored weapon of stormwardens, and Raver Styx uses a handful of conjured sparks as a wordless threat.
294	* ShoutOut:
295	* The scene where Garrett is hired in ''Old Tin Sorrows'' is lifted intact from ''Literature/TheBigSleep''.
296	** In ''Angry Lead Skies'', Garrett cites a NoodleIncident as proof of Winger's boneheadedness, in which she stole a singing sword that wouldn't shut up. His description of its song is a snarky summary of ''Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung''.
297	** Garrett's having only one name could be a reference to ''Literature/{{Spenser}}''.
298	*** Doubly appropriate since Morley could easily stand in for Hawk.
299	** Speaking of Morley: his name is one to the children's song "Mairzy Doats". Doubly funny since Morley himself is a vegetarian.
300	** Garrett's lasting feelings for Eleanor from ''Old Tin Sorrows'' and his attachment to her portrait may be an oblique nod to ''Literature/{{Laura}}'', [[spoiler: albeit with a ghost rather than a woman whose death was mis-reported]].
301	** Saucerhead [[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 slugs a camel]] in ''Angry Lead Skies''.
302	** When he originally took over the Outfit, Chodo got rid of some potentially-troublesome underbosses by [[Film/TheUntouchables bashing their heads in with a centaur tribal mace]].
303	** Garrett's pursuit by Nog the Inescapable in ''Petty Pewter Gods'' is an homage to "Liane the Wanderer", one of the ''Literature/DyingEarth'' short stories.
304	* ShovelStrike: How Slither deals with the "little booger".
305	* SignatureScent: Lurking Felhske has a health condition that gives him an unique body odor, which even humans can detect. This gives away his presence at times, especially when he also forgets to bathe.
306	* SilverHasMysticPowers: Silver is the "fuel" that powers sorcery, making it a resource so precious that Karenta and Venageta spend three generations battling over possession of the Cantard's silver mines. Precisely ''how'' sorcerers make use of silver is never shown, but their dependency on it is mentioned in nearly all the early books.
307	* SpeaksFluentAnimal: John Stretch (Singe's brother) can talk to rats.
308	* SpontaneousHumanCombustion: Reports of people bursting into flames circulate in a couple of the novels, as a rumor going around the city. Garrett finally looks into the matter in ''Whispering Nickel Idols'', and learns that [[spoiler: Chodo Contague triggered some of them with the help of some pyrogenic rocks planted by his lawyer]]. Saucerhead also tracks down some cases that turn out to be ordinary accidental fires, under circumstances very similar to the RealLife mishaps that inspired the SpontaneousHumanCombustion {{Urban Legend\|s}} in the first place.
309	* SpookyPainting: Eleanor's painting, which only Garrett can see move (he even talks to it and half-jokes that he's in love with her), although others are disturbed by it. It may or may not be possessed by her ghost.
310	* SquareCubeLaw: The giant bugs from ''Cruel Zinc Melodies'' aren't very agile, and some die when they attempt to fly and their wings aren't strong enough to hold up their proportionately-greater weight.
311	* StatusQuoIsGod: Used fairly straight for the first few books, then zigzagged in the wake of ''Dread Brass Shadows'', and finally thrown out completely with ''Faded Steel Heat''.
312	* StockGods: Several of the Godoroth and Shayir conform to standard FantasyPantheon archetypes (grumpy GrandpaGod, love goddess, messenger, huntress, top god's embittered wife), so much so that Garrett can guess their personalities on sight. Imar and Lang are such cliche examples of "boss" gods for their pantheons that a dwarf idol-maker produced pewter figurines for their respective temples ''from the same mold''.
313	* StoutStrength: Bishoff Hullar, owner of a taxi-dance bar. "Big Momma", manager of the Blue Bottle.
314	* StupidCrooks: [=TunFaire=] boasts a ''lot'' of these. "Bruno" is a local slang nickname for a dumb mook.
315	* SuperpowerfulGenetics: Magical talents are implied to be hereditary, and concentrated in Karenta's upperclass families. Magical abilities in commoners are suspected to derive from a (slumming) noble ancestor.
316	* SuperSoldier: Karenta is implied to have utilized magic-based variants of these, including programmed berserkers like Slither and spell-slinging "Nighthunters" who eliminated the Cantard's indigenous vampires and other predators.
317	* SuperSpeed: Jorken, the Godoroth messenger-god. Also the "little booger".
318	* SweetAndSourGrapes: All the time, in fact it's rare that a case ever ends the way Garret would like it to.
319	* SweetPollyOliver: Penny passes for a boy when she first arrives in [=TunFaire=]. Donni Pell is mentioned as doing this on occasion, although Garrett never witnesses her being "Donny".
320	* SympathyForTheDevil: "You could weep for the pain of the child while knowing you had to destroy the monster it had become."
321	* TheSyndicate: Chodo Contague is the evil crime lord with a hand in nearly every dirty deal going on in [=TunFaire=].
322	* TakesTenToHold: This is how Skredli's ogres took down Saucerhead during their attack on Amiranda, how the Joy House crew restrained Playmate when he was drugged with angelweed, and how a gang of ratmen ''tried'' to take down Garrett to reclaim Singe for their boss.
323	* TheTease: Giorgi "Nicks" Nicholas, Kayne Prose, and Carla Lindo Ramada are the strongest of many, ''many'' examples.
324	* ThemeNaming: Most ratpeople-names consist of ordinary non-name words, like Reliance, Humility or Shote. Grays, a minority strain of ratperson, use names like "Evil Lin" or "Wicked Pat".
325	** Amber [=DePena=] tells Garrett that the private-security mooks who patrol her neighborhood are brothers named Eenie, Meenie, Meinie, and Moe. It's unclear if these are actual names or just nicknames conferred on the four men by taunting rich kids.
326	* ThoseTwoGuys: Puddle and Sarge in the later books.
327	* TitleDrop: Starting with ''Cold Copper Tears''. Garret will sometimes provide an alternate TitleDrop for the current story. They're almost always ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
328	* ToAbsentFriends: Grubb Gruber's Leatherneck Heaven, where Garrett and other veteran Marines go to get drunk toasting the guys who didn't make it home.
329	* TongueTwister: Bittegurn Brittigarn has difficulty saying ''his own name'' when he's drunk. Moonslight taunts Garrett about his least favorite food with a "pick a peck of pickled peppers" reference.
330	* TooDumbToLive: Winger at times, although she's also proved Too Lucky To Die up to now.
331	* TouchedByVorlons: To a lesser extent. In their desperate attempt to get home, the formerly InnocentAliens fill Kip Prose's head up with all sorts of scientific know-how and ideas for amazing inventions that he probably never would have come up with on his own. The genius stays with him long after they're gone.
332	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Singe and steamed apples.
333	* TrashOfTheTitans: Barking Dog Amato's apartment is knee-deep in discarded paper and food wrappers, with rooms full of piled-up handbills.
334	* TrojanHorse: Garrett sneaks into the villains' ceremony in ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'' by hiding in a coffin. In ''Petty Pewter Gods'', he slips out of his house without being seen inside an old wine barrel.
335	* TrueCompanions: Garrett, Dean, Singe, and even the Dead Man eventually for a sort of family unit.
336	* TrueCraftsman: Max Weider and the brewmasters who work for him have this trope's attitude towards ''beer'', which accounts for much of Garrett's loyalty to the Weiders.
337	* TheUndead: Loads of them. The vampires, for one (although it's stated that Vampirism is actually [[TheVirus a disease]]) . The Dead Man is a Loghyr, which is a species that after death ''always'' become spirits haunting their corpses until the body is completely destroyed. In this case, a spirit that can do a little mind control, lift things up, and communicate with (read: insult) Garrett telepathically. Both zombies and draugs pop up in the books too.
338	* UnevenHybrid: The Tates have a bit of elf blood on both sides of the family, although it's not obvious from their looks. Dean and his nieces likewise have a little ''troll'' blood on both sides, which unfortunately isn't as concealed. Morley's ancestry is a bit more dark elf than human, although details aren't specified.
339	* UnusualEars: The "silver elves" completely ''lack'' external ears, a fact that convinces the Dead Man they're not just another HeinzHybrid combo of local humanoids.
340	* UnusualEuphemism: The "pirates" from ''Deadly Quicksilver Lies'', or the "silver elves" from ''Angry Lead Skies''.
341	* UpliftedAnimal: The ratpeople were created by past sorcerers' experimentation on ordinary rats. Some strains are more rat-like than others.
342	** In ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: at least some ''flying thunder lizards'']] were also Uplifted, and that it happened accidentally to [[spoiler: Hagekagome]].
343	* UpMarketing: Max Weider and the Tates promote several of Amalgamated's products via snob appeal, artificially elevating prices and bad-mouthing knockoffs of their wares.
344	** Morley's conversion of the Joy House into The Palms, at least until the novelty wore off and his customers thinned out.
345	* VerbalTic: Dojango Roze uses his favorite word a lot, actually.
346	* VillainousRescue: Happens a few times when Garrett is caught between rival factions.
347	* VocalDissonance: Constance Algarda the Shadowslinger, an otherwise-terrifying sorceress, has a voice like an eight-year-old girl. Her son usually speaks for her to preserve her scary image.
348	* VomitingCop: Afflicts a lot of red caps during the raid on a necromantic laboratory, General Block included.
349	* WalkingArsenal: Garrett borrows a sword, helmet, shield and ax from a little dwarf girl, who complains that he's leaving her with nothing. He points out that she's still got her other sword, her daggers, her truncheon, her boots, her teeth, and whatever she's got in her trousseau, which should suffice for the couple of blocks she's got to walk.
350	* WarIsHell: Part of the backstory for almost every male Karentine human over the age of twenty-three, for that matter.
351	* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened to the Mousers?]]: The Luck of A-Lat only appear in ''Whispering Nickel Idols'', and their whereabouts are unmentioned even after Penny, their caretaker, moves into the Macunado Street house.
352	** Nothing more is said of the "dragon" under the World Theater after ''Cruel Zinc Melodies'', [[spoiler: so we never learn if it managed to contact others of its kind.]]
353	* WickedWitch: Shadowslinger works hard to maintain this image. Garrett himself isn't sure how much of her act is a ruse. The Serpent, however, is the real thing.
354	* WouldntHitAGirl: Garret and Saucerhead are both suckers for anything needy and female, to the point where Garrett needlessly risks his neck when he doesn't have to, and Saucerhead took out several ''ogres'' for killing a girl he was supposed to protect.
355	* YoungerThanTheyLook: Melondie Kadare's tribe of pixies age much faster than humans, and live out their whole lifespans over the course of a few books.
356	** [[spoiler: Carter Stockwell]] still looks like a young man in his twenties, despite having served in the Cantard more than fifty years ago. [[spoiler: Which makes sense, as he's a shapeshifter who never bothered to age up his 'default' guise.]]
357	* YourMindMakesItReal: Exploited by Tara Chayne in ''Wicked Bronze Ambition'', when she convinces Garrett's busybody neighbor to lay off him by (falsely) convincing the woman that she's been cursed to suffer asthmatic attacks every time she speaks Garrett's name. Tara then explains to Garrett that such a precise curse would be impossible to cast without loads of preparatory work, but the woman's own anxieties will cause psychosomatic feelings of suffocation if she tries to get the neighborhood to gang up on Garrett again.

Context Literature / GarrettPI