First, Frank Tuttle is certifiable, but in a good way. I've found myself saying, "This isn't my favorite genre" a lot lately. I discovered Frank on the Kindle Discussion boards and his posts were so hilarious that I just had to try his books. If you haven't read his blog, be warned: Do not have a beverage near your computer when you read the entry about the lawnmower.That said, I read Dead Man's Rain first and had so many questions that I emailed Frank. What's a Jerk? Which war was this, where is this set, etc. Silly me, still forgetting that this is a fantasy. I missed out on a lot of the background by not reading The Mister Trophy first, so if you're reading this and haven't read any of the other Markhat series yet, definitely start with this one. He answered me right away. But you can save yourself the embarrassment of having to be told, in the nicest possible way, "It's all a fantasy, I made it up". I would have gotten that immediately if I had read the books in order.To paraphrase one of the best lines from the book, a troll should never smile at someone he likes. I almost dropped my Kindle.The Misters are trolls. These are not your cutesy little bridge trolls (or even the ones who hang out on discussion boards), that would be too easy. These are big, scary, long-fanged, gargly-voiced trolls with translation spells, definitely not adorable.Markhat is a 'finder', Tuttle-speak for Private Eye. He's also a smart aleck and as entertaining as protaganists get. The book is short, but that's okay, there are three more to read, soon to be four.The Markhat world also features vampires, aka the half-dead, ogres, Mamma Hog, a reader who mothers - and puts hexes on - the sometimes reckless Markhat.All of this sounded silly to me when I read the description, but Frank manages to take all this insanity and turn it into a wildly entertaining read.Start with this one and keep on going...they just keep getting better! The price is right and even if you've never liked fantasy novels before (I hadn't), you'll love these.
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