Thud !

Ah, yet another wonderful adventure in the Discworld. I have been a huge fan of Terry Pratchett ever since I bought my first book back in Glasgow in the very early 1990s. If you haven't heard of this fantasy fiction world - Where have you been ? Living under a rock ?!

In this case it is the seventh escapade for the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and it's Commander, Sam Vimes. It is lovely and topical - there's more than a little of the Da Vinci code in this one - and as always Mr Pratchett manages a good old-fashioned side-swipe at the state that humanity gets itself into. Although in this case it is shown up in the behaviour of the dwarfs and the trolls. If you enjoy a good laugh and sly, subtle humour then this is a book to add to your library.

If you are new to the Discworld, then start at the beginning, you might even recognise where my alter-ego, Twoflour, comes from.
For that you want The Colour of Magic.
It really doesn't pay to jump into the middle of any of the mini-series - either the City Watch or the Witches, or Death for that matter. Each book can *stand alone*, but you won't have the background info on the characters and will miss a lot of jokes because of it.

I can't recommend this highly enough. And no, I'm not a convention-going, signature-hunting, costume-wearing, cult-following groupie. I'm just a very satisfied reader, who appreciates the breadth of knowledge and work that is put into each of these stories. If in any doubt about that - take a short stroll through the book Pyramids. It's such a nice, but fantastical view of ancient Egypt, or I should say Djelibeybi.
For an independent review of Pyramids, take a look here.

Okay, so that makes this book a 4* out of 5.



*it only gets a 4 because I could put it down and do other things.

"K is For Killer"

"K is for Killer" by Sue Grafton is the 11th book in the Alphabet series.
Kinsey Millhone is called upon to investigate the death of a young woman after her mother receives an unwelcome item in her post.

I continue to find reading Sue Grafton's work an easy pleasure. For me, it is like reading a modern version of Agatha Christie. The writing is crisp and, to be honest, a no-brainer. Of the books in the series that I have read to date, this was the least enjoyable. Not because of the writing, but because the plot didn't draw me in as much as the others. The end came quickly and the *baddie* was outed in a vaguely unsatisfying way. As it stands, just a little less than a week after finishing the book I can't tell you what the culprit's motive was.

On the whole, I'd give this a 2 out of 5.