The Markhat Stories
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.
Where the general world building does trip me up a little is in the resolutions of the stories: They seems to involve a lot of borrowed power so far - the resolutions are facilitated because Mama gives Markhat something magic that will do the job. Or in Hold the Dark, he gets something magic and some misdirected manpain. Which I wouldn’t mind, but it doesn’t involve skill or ingenuity on Markhat’s part, and there don’t seem to be any in Universe rules or restrictions on what Mama supplies; it’s just whatever fits the plot. That doesn’t spoil the story for me however, and I kind of adore Mama and her plot facilitating ways, it’s just something I’m aware of as I read.
The same lack of Universe rules led me a bit astray in Dead Man’s Rain. I’m presented with a world where Markhat knows vampires exist. And trolls. And ogres. But he doesn’t believe in people climbing out of their graves and going for a toddle around. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to follow him down that train of thought. It would actually be quite fun, in a world where real hauntings are a possibility, to be wondering if the ambulatory corpse has been Scooby Doo’d up by the undeserving rich heirs, but at the back of my mind I was all well of course it’s the dead husband returned from the grave! That’s only in keeping with the genre I’m in! What genre do you think you’re in, Markhat?
(As an aside, I keep stumbling over his name. I get the feeling it’s supposed to be Mark-Hat, even stress on both syllables, but instead I’m defaulting to Mar-Khat, stress on the second syllable. Opinions?)
In Hold the Dark, the fake killing off of Darla threw me for a loop. I wasted time being angry at the author, and then confused, because I felt like her character had been given the wrong kind of buildup for someone that wasn’t going to amount to more than a reason for Markhat to get Righteously Angry, and then I remembered Markhat had only ID’d her from the tattoo and spent most of my reading time hoping she wasn’t really dead rather than concentrating on Markhat’s Archer style rampage. I mean, I’m usually quite good at abandoning my critical filters when reading, particularly in first person, but I think there’s been so much fannish discussion of fridging that I’ve just lost the ability to react to it emotionally with the main (male) character and instead default to “Fuck you, [Author Name]! I liked her!” It’s no longer a background narrative convention for me so much as a really bloody annoying poke in the eye. I had the same problem with the season finale of Doctor Who actually, where one character was ‘dead’ for a little bit and I was hurling abuse at the screen. Except then they weren’t dead, and I was scrambling to get back into the story feeling a little bit silly. But I’m looking forward to seeing how the romance plays out with Darla, because I like stories that actually progress strong romantic relationships where romance is only a part of a person's life, not their Happy Ever After, and that’s the vibe I’m getting here.
Eeeeee, I love finding a new series to enjoy and knowing there are more unread books waiting for me. No hanging around woefully staring at publication dates! They just zap straight onto my phone! On which note, I shall go do some more of that reading.
Fic you should write so I don’t have to
Any! Is there any?
Markhat’s true name. (I will laugh if it’s Mark)
Corpsemaster periodically turning up to give Markhat lifts around town when s/he’s bored. (I think he? But now I don’t know if anyone’s seen Corpsemaster themselves rather than the corpse they’re wearing. Erm. Don’t spoil me on that if it’s a plot point later)
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