Paperback, 382 pages
English language
Published 2013 by Corgi.
‘I thought: opera, how hard can it be? Songs. Pretty girls dancing. Nice scenery. Lots of people handing over cash. Got to be better than the cut-throat world of yoghurt, I thought. Now ever where I go there’s…’ Death, to be precise. And plenty of it. In unpleasant variations. This isn’t real life – it’s worse. This is 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 mask and evening dress, with a penchant for lurking in shadows, occasional murder, and sending little notes full of maniacal laughter and exclamation marks. Opera can do that to a man. 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 the show MUST go on!
‘I thought: opera, how hard can it be? Songs. Pretty girls dancing. Nice scenery. Lots of people handing over cash. Got to be better than the cut-throat world of yoghurt, I thought. Now ever where I go there’s…’ Death, to be precise. And plenty of it. In unpleasant variations. This isn’t real life – it’s worse. This is 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 mask and evening dress, with a penchant for lurking in shadows, occasional murder, and sending little notes full of maniacal laughter and exclamation marks. Opera can do that to a man. 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 the show MUST go on!
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.
