Genre: Urban
Fantasy/Detective/Mystery/Audio Book
Description:
“Welcome to Rannit, an ancient city awash in magic and mayhem. Wracked
by war, but embracing the dubious wonders of steam and iron, Rannit is on the
path to renewal – but old magics and older shadows won’t go easily into the
light.
Markhat earns his living as a finder. On behalf of his clients,
Markhat will find anyone, or anything, for a fee. In Three Mean Streets, his clients include a dead man’s ghost, a
mighty Troll warrior seeking his cousin’s mounted head, and the true identity
of the corpse allegedly stalking the grounds of a rich widow’s mansion.
Markhat doesn’t believe in ghosts and walking corpses, but for twenty
crowns a day, plus expenses, he’ll wade in swinging. With the aid of soothsayer
and card-reader Mama Hog, Markhat sets out on three perilous cases, and they
share only one thing in common – nothing in Rannit is quite what it seems, and
sometimes good and dead isn’t good enough.”
Author:
“Frank Tuttle lives and writes in the perpetually humid wilderness of
North Mississippi. Frank tried to be a proper Southern author and write about
pickups and hound dogs, but trolls and magic kept creeping into his stories, so
Frank is a fantasy author. Although hounds do make occasional appearances in
his fiction.”
To learn more about Frank Tuttle you can check out his website.
However, I suggest following his blog, it is always entertaining. Of course you may also stalk him on Facebook.
Appraisal:
I don’t generally listen to audio books, I am a visual person and
easily distracted. If I am reading a book my eyes are busy with letters strung
together into words, punctuation, and spaces. And my mind is immersed in the
story. I am not easily distracted when I am focused on a book. However, when
Mr. Tuttle offered me his new audio book, Three Mean Streets, with no mention of a review, I thought I would
give it a try and refresh my memory from the beginning of The Markhat Files at
the same time.
I read these three novellas, long ago before I became a Pal and
started reviewing for BigAl’s Books and Pals. I like that The Mister Trophy, Dead Man's Rain, and The Cadaver Client are all together in one volume now. They give
the reader or listener a nice introduction to the finder Markhat and his world.
He’s plain spoken, fair, easy going, and does all he can to get to the bottom
of each case.
I easily became captivated by the voice actor, Conner Goff. He submerged
himself into each character he is portraying. This made the stories enjoyable
and easy to fall into. Each of the three cases Markhat works to solve are
different, with an assortment of unique characters. Mama Hog, the elderly lady
who lives a couple of doors down, has the sight and keeps Markhat apprised of
things to look out for. She’s a fun character, but is usually all business.
Markhat also has a three-legged office cat. He stretched his imagination in
naming the cat Three-Legged cat. Markhat doesn’t joke around, the world he
lives in is unforgiving and they had better adhere to the curfew if they want
to live till the next day. The undead roam the streets at night looking for a
meal. Death wagons patrol, picking up the bodies of those who violated the
curfew.
I did enjoy the audio book experience, but I’m not ready to give up
reading on my Kindle Paperwhite just yet. If you enjoy noir detective stories
with a no frills type detective who is willing to eat his words if necessary,
you should give Markhat a try. I highly recommend the whole series.
FYI:
Three
Mean Streets is book 1 in Mr. Tuttle’s, The Markhat Files. My
review is for the audio book.
The three Markhat adventures in Three
Mean Streets were originally published under the title The Markhat Files.
The stories included are The Mister
Trophy, Dead Man's Rain, and The
Cadaver Client. If you have previously purchased The Markhat Files with the
titles stated, you already own these, so you don’t need to purchase them again.
Format/Typo
Issues:
I listened to the audio book and didn’t notice any issues.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Approximate
audio book length: 5 hours and 41 mins
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