The problems of Angry Lead Skies are absent from this new novel. Instead of endless loose threads left over from previous books, Cruel Zinc Melodies stands alone quite well. That's not to say that it doesn't continue the old story lines, but instead it treats them as if they are new to the reader. Virtually every old character comes with a "who this person is and what he means to me" intro by Garrett. When old plot lines pop up again, they are given enough text that a new reader (or those of us who have forgotten some of the plots from the slower books) knows what's happening. Even Denny (whose death kick started Sweet Silver Blues) gets a few lines explaining who he was (and how a certain Redhead used to be off limits because she was Denny's little cousin). In fact I'd say maybe a quarter of the text in the book is used to bring us up to speed on who's who and what happened when. Not to say that the book is clunky (all the little blurbs are tight and fit the flow of the story) or full of wasted text - Cook makes it all work. This is the best Garrett book in years. If you've never read the series (or stopped reading it a few books ago) then this is the perfect place to leap in. You'll miss some of the great things that went before, but you won't be lost like you would be if the first book you read was Angry Lead Skies. Oh, the plot? It's winter. Garrett has to shift his lazy butt to take a job from the guy who owns the brewery (and a big chunk of the manufactory that Garrett has a little chunk in). Something about the old guy building a theatre where his daughter (a knockout of course) and her friends (all of them knockouts) can put on plays, and the old guy can sell beer to the audience at a good price (like how they sell beer at a sports stadium). It looks like a great investment, but there have been construction delays. Seems that there have been a series of accidents, people keep complaining about seeing ghosts, and oh yeah, something about big bugs? Well, that's the problem, and Garrett thinks it will be an open and shut case, maybe a day or two working on it, but somehow things keep coming up. Again, one of the better books in this series. Something that turns it around from the rut it was it was in and breathes new life in it. Richard