Petty Pewter Gods is the eighth novel in Glen Cook

Glen Cook

Glen Cook is a contemporary American science fiction and fantasy author, best known for his fantasy series, The Black Company. Cook currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri.-Biography:...

's ongoing Garrett P.I.

Garrett P.I.

Garrett P.I. is a series of books by author Glen Cook about Garrett, a freelance private investigator. The novels are written in a film noir-esque style, containing elements of traditional mystery and detective fiction, as well as plenty of dialogue-based humor. The Garrett P.I...

 series. The series combines elements of mystery

Mystery fiction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

 and fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 as it follows the adventures of private investigator

Private investigator

A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...

 Garrett.

Plot introduction

Garrett is a hardboiled

Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...

 detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 living in the city of TunFaire, a melting pot of different races, cultures, religions, and species. When people have problems, they often come to Garrett for help, but trouble has a way of finding Garrett on its own, whether he likes it or not.

Plot summary

TunFaire is in a state of unrest; with the sudden end of the war in the Cantard, returning former soldiers are at odds with the half-breeds and immigrants who have taken their places in society. Garrett, however, has his own problems to worry about - he gets knocked out, brought before a group of small-time gods known as the Godoroth, and forced into working for them. The goal: find the "key" to the one remaining temple up for grabs in TunFaire, and do so before the Shayir, the Godoroth's rivals. The Shayir find out about the Godoroth's plans. The Shayir capture Garrett and give him their side of the story. Only with the help of a renegade Shayir called Cat does Garrett manage to escape.

As the civil unrest escalates into full-fledged street warfare, the Godoroth and Shayir elevate their search for Garrett, and Cat, who has her own agenda, is apparently the only one Garrett can trust. When the battle between the Godoroth and Shayir spills over into the world of the living, causing madness in the streets of TunFaire, the more powerful gods of the city decide it is time to intervene. After an epic battle between gods, Garrett hopes the trouble is over, but the Dead Man thinks there is still a missing piece or two to the puzzle. Eventually, the Dead Man deduces that there was yet another party behind the struggle between the Godoroth and Shayir. When everything settles down and is sorted out, the remaining gods go back to their own business, leaving Garrett to go back to his beer.

Characters in "Petty Pewter Gods"

• Garrett
• The Dead Man
• Dean
• The Goddamn Parrot (Mr. Big)
• Morley Dotes
• Saucerhead Tharpe
• Winger

Allusions to other works

One of the characters in Petty Pewter Gods, "Nog the Inescapable", appears to be a homage to "Chun the Unavoidable" from Jack Vance's

Jack Vance

John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...

 short story Liane the Wayfarer

Liane the Wayfarer

Liane the Wayfarer is the fourth short story from The Dying Earth, a 1950 collection of Fantasy short stories by author Jack Vance. It first appeared in the December 1950 issue of the magazine Worlds Beyond...

 in his Dying Earth series.

In both storylines, the protagonist (Liane, Garret) has a gadget (Liane's ring, Garret's rope) that creates a pocket in space that they can hide in. In both cases they encounter a small creature (a Twk-man, a pixie) who "saw what they did". At the end of "Liane" and at a critical juncture in Petty Pewter Gods when they finally use their gadget to hide from their nemesis (Chun, Nog) it proves useless.