Reading order

Garrett P.I. reading order

Glen Cook

Sweet Silver Blues1987
Bitter Gold Hearts1988
Cold Copper Tears1988
Old Tin Sorrows1989
Dread Brass Shadows1990
Red Iron Nights1991
Deadly Quicksilver Lies1994
Petty Pewter Gods1995
Faded Steel Heat1999
Angry Lead Skies2002
Whispering Nickel Idols2005
Cruel Zinc Melodies2008
Every volume in order (13) ↓

7.87.8 / 10
61 ratings
Score: 13 volumes
Volumes: 1987–2010
Published: about 75 h
Reading time: Completed
Status: Fantasy
Genre

Quick answer

Start withSweet Silver Blues1987 · Volume 1 of 13

Open the volume →Buy the first volume Listen to the audiobook

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Publication order

13 volumes1987–2010Completed

Glen Cook’s fantasy private-eye novels, a loving pastiche of Raymond Chandler and Rex Stout set in TunFaire, a crowded city of humans, elves, trolls and worse: Garrett, a lazy, wisecracking ex-Marine, takes cases he would rather avoid, helped by the Dead Man, a centuries-dead telepath who never leaves his chair.
Every title pairs a colour, a metal and a noun.
Funny, cynical and easy to binge.
Only Sweet Silver Blues, the first, has enough ratings.
Read in order.

A plan for the whole series

13 volumes, 4,071 pages, about 75 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 3 months.

Per day: 45 min

Stages

5 stages, with 4 short books from outside the series between them. You finish around February 27, 2027, about 3 weeks later than in one go.

1
Stage 119 habout 4 weeksby November 24, 2026
BreakMaus · Art Spiegelman · 295 pp. · score 9.05 h, by December 3, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
2
Stage 215 h20 daysby December 23, 2026
Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.82 h, by December 27, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
3
Stage 319 habout 4 weeksby January 21, 2027
Short breakOn Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century · Timothy Snyder · 128 pp. · score 8.42 h, by January 25, 2027. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
4
Stage 415 h20 daysby February 14, 2027
- 11. Whispering Nickel Idols2005 · 372 pages · 7 h
- 12. Cruel Zinc Melodies2008 · 439 pages · 8 h
Short breakAnimal Farm · George Orwell · 128 pp. · score 8.32 h, by February 18, 2027. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
5
Stage 57 h9 daysby February 27, 2027
- 13. Gilded Latten Bones2010 · 362 pages · 7 h
The end of the series
February 27, 2027

In one goFebruary 6, 2027about 3 months

In stages, with breaksFebruary 27, 2027about 4 months · +12 h of other books

We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.

How this plan is calculated

The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →