(1996) Terry Pratchett, Gollancz, £15.99, hrdbk, 288pp. ISBN 0 575 05900 1
An ingenious plot of mysterious goings-on in murky Ankh-Morpork, Feet of Clay is not so much a 'whodunit' as a 'whodunwot' told with the relentless, hysterical wordplay which makes Pratchett stand out so far from others in his genre. Sir Samuel Vines, a cool mixture of Marlowe and Bond, sets about solving sundry murders and the slow poisoning of the city Patrician, while Captain Carrot investigates the sudden unaccountable suicides of the golem factory workers.
Instantaneous in his appeal, I showed one paragraph of Pratchett's new book to a colleague who claimed to be uninterested in 'that kind of book'; he promptly went out and bought a copy and, from latest reports, it will not be the last.
Julie Harper
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