Snuff

By Terry Pratchett.

Commander Sam Vimes is being forced to go on holiday with his wife and 6-year-old poo-obsessed son, Young Sam. He's being forced by his wife and by *cough* his boss, Lord Vetinari, who suspects something is up in the countryside. The latter part is unknown to Sam though, so he's unhappy as he's forced to hobnob with the other nobs, deal with the feudal system, and take his son around to look for poo. And also hit the local pub, get into it with one of the locals, who seems to want to let him in on a crime, and then disappears. Then the lone local cop comes by to arrest him....Really, you've got to admire a guy who can suck up the nerve to arrest Vimes, and even clean up the jail spot for him and have his mum provide Chinese food.

Even though Sam shouldn't quite have any cop authority in the countryside, that doesn't exactly stop him from throwing his weight around. Once he's asked by a local goblin for "just ice" (justice), he and fellow copper Upshot go to the goblin caves, where they find a murdered goblin girl. Even though goblins are pretty much considered subhuman by most people, Vimes is an equal opportunity sort of fellow, who's not going to let a murder stand regardless of the victim. So (with the translation/visual help of the Summoning Dark, some kind of demon-ish dark sentience that took a shining to him back in Thud!) Vimes gets to know some goblins, his son's favorite "poo lady" author who's a friend to them, the local nobs and the local criminals. Whatever's going on in the area (drug smuggling) seems to have a lot of people involved...and has ties to the local goblins getting taken away 3 years ago.

Meanwhile, back in Ankh-Morpork, Captain Carrot, Sergeant Angua, Cheery Littlebottom and company at the City Watch find out that something strange is going on when Fred Colon goes to pick up his snuff and finds the soul of a dead baby goblin in it. Once again, we get to see lots of Discworld species in action as they all use their special skills to track things on their end. And back in the country, Vimes appoints some officers and takes off down the river after the goblin killer...

Especially good bits:
(a) Vimes and Sybil's relationship in this one is quite adorable. The quiet schmoopiness continues. Heck, even some affection is indicated. Especially in the bath. Hubba hubba!
(b) Ditto Young Sam and his poo obsession and overall friendliness.
(c) The surprises you find out about goblin society.
(d) How a piece of music literally changes the world.
(e) The pluckiness and good judgment of Feeney Upshot.
(f) "The poo lady" author and her expert knowledge of goblins.
(g) Vimes always getting the drop on the bad guy, who thinks he's so sneaky.
(h) The return of the Watch folks, who have been missed.
(i) Willikins, criminal turned valet turned "I'll do whatever's necessary here."

If there's any flaws to the book, I got a little confused as to the plot here and there, but that might just be me. It also starts to feel kind of anticlimactic/multiple endings-ish after the big giant climax of the novel about 3/4 in, since there's still stuff to do on the case and in the story. And I do admit that "_____'s are people too" is a plot that Pratchett has done before, with Vimes, a lot, but I still enjoyed it, so I'll let it slide.

But still, a darned good story. Four stars.