Snuff

Eighth book of the original and best CITY WATCH series, now reinterpreted in BBC's The Watch'Snuff is entertaining, with all Pratchett's genius on display' Sunday ExpressThe Discworld is very much like our own - if our own were to consist of a flat planet balanced on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle, that is . . .

'The jurisdiction of a good man extends to the end of the world.' It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies - and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.

He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches; and out of his mind. But never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a punishment.

They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. Vimes is about to uncover the exception. _______________Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction