Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Like in any particularly bad episode of mid-sommer murders, Commander Vimes finds that the countryside is chock full of crime and self-satisfied traditionalists. It's an entertaining, if strange, book which contains the best and worst of Pratchett's style. By the best I mean his jovial and deftly indulgent (without being fattening) ability to take familiar tropes, icons and ideas and play with them lovingly and without poisoning them with cynicism. By worst I mean trying out genre's and styles which don't work for his style of writing.

I've always found Pratchett weakest when trying to directly thrill. His chases and plots are most gripping when they come naturally to him and when they aren't aping those who have gone before. Here it sometimes feels a bit like CSI meets Countryside Alliance and both concepts on their own are awkward.

Nevertheless Snuff is good fun, light hearted and full of his trade mark social commentary. I know others have said it elsewhere but Pratchett writes like a modern Dickens - finding a medium in which contemporary issues can have their skirts lifted in a way that's palatable to his readers. I think Pratchett's characters are always immensely humane and the evil they find themselves pitched against always attempts to reduce them to objects. Having said that I can't help but wonder if his characters aren't just a little bit lonely at times - bereft as they are of communal belief systems of any sort. I'm straying into deconstructing the author's own philosophy here which can be terribly boring.

Snuff is a good romp with a bit of seaside thrown in. If you like Pratchett there's a lot here to commend.