Paperback, 380 pages
Published Jan. 1, 1997 by Corgi Adult.
THE BLURB:
The show must go on, as murder, music and mayhem run riot in the night...
The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork...a huge rambling building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely-familiar evil mastermind in a hideously-deformed evening dress...
At least, he hopes so. But Granny Weatherwax, Discworld's most famous witch, is in the audience. And she doesn't hold with that sort of thing.
So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening's entertainment with murders you can really hum...)
"Pratchett is as funny as Wodehouse and as witty as Waugh" Independent
THE BLURB:
The show must go on, as murder, music and mayhem run riot in the night...
The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork...a huge rambling building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely-familiar evil mastermind in a hideously-deformed evening dress...
At least, he hopes so. But Granny Weatherwax, Discworld's most famous witch, is in the audience. And she doesn't hold with that sort of thing.
So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening's entertainment with murders you can really hum...)
"Pratchett is as funny as Wodehouse and as witty as Waugh" Independent
It has been a while since I read a Pratchett novel (I read these in ebooks, and I have been 4 years without one) and this one has been a great reintroduction to Discworld. It is witty, it is funny and it reads very, very nicely. Too nicely, as I was reading until well past midnight to finish the book.
Content warning plot/characer spoilers maybe?
I wanted to like this more than I did: witches, a Phantom-esque plotline, theater puns... but the anti-fatness really rubbed me the wrong way. I understand this is a huge factor in the motivation of Agnes/Perdita as a character. It just took the wind out of the story-sails and made the whole thing less enjoyable :(
It’s almost impossible not to spoil this one by reviewing, but I’ll say that when I was watching the Phantom of the Opera, I was hoping for non-mystical resolution.
This book is an exemplar detective story, Mrs. Plinge could have just as well be written by Dame Christie and screenplayed by Mr. Horowitz.
Maximum points for detective story and half-a-point extra for, again, keen philosophy and cinematic writing.
Enjoyed the interweaving of character personalities and roles in this one. Ahead of his time politically as usual without being a political book. A who-dunnit that keeps you guessing.
