Book Log 40/2011 - Terry Pratchett: Snuff – Discworld #40

[jacey]

Terry Pratchett: Snuff – Discworld #40
A Discworld Novel

I've been looking forward to another Sam Vimes book for the longest time and so as soon as I got my Kindle, this was my first purchase. I try not to buy hardbacks, so it was good that I could get this in e-format before the paperback release. It's a minor irritation, but Kindle doesn't handle Pratchett's footnotes very well. They are all lumped together at the end of the book, not at all easy to refer to as you go along. But that aside, this did not disappoint.

Sam Vimes is dragged off to the countryside by his wife Sybil for (she thinks) a much needed holiday, but Sam should have had his suspicions when Vetinari sanctioned the trip. To start off with Sam's not very happy. He doesn't do bucolic. He can't tell a bullfinch from a bull and doesn't particularly want to, but for young Sam's sake he'll grit his teeth, try country walks and a spot of fishing even if it kills him.

But Sam's policeman's nose isn't on holiday and he thinks he can smell a rat. It seems to be a truism that wherever there's a policeman there's a crime. The local law is a shambles with self-elected magistrates expecting the one and only constable to live quietly in their pocket. But Constable Feeny has the makings of a pretty good copper once Sam has licked him into shape and together they try and solve a murder which, in turn exposes a dark crime and a terrible injustice.

I've never read a Vimes book I didn't like but this one is particularly lovely for showing both Sam the family man and the darker Sam that understands the criminal mind because he has one himself.

There's a brief appearance by Vetinari and various members of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, but it's Willikins, Vimes' gentleman's gentleman who takes a turn as chief supporting character in this book, to great effect.

Highly recommended.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Re the footnotes, when I read Kindle books on my iPod Touch, the numbers in the text are links so by touching them I can read the footnote and then there's a link back to where I was. Does it not work like that on a real Kindle?

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

There's no cursor on a Kindle screen and it's not touch sensitive. Though there is a search feature, I think, but I don't know how it could be used for easy access to the footnotes.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Oh, that seems like a bit of a design flaw. :( I've read several books with footnotes in the iPod Touch (John Barrowman's autobiography, Snuff and Jasper Fforde's children's Dragonslayer books) and though it's a bit fiddly to touch exactly on the link because it's so tiny, it does work well and takes you straight to the right note.