I’ve gone for Maskerade. Terry Pratchett’s treatment of The Phantom of The Opera. There is a murder mystery and lots of fun being poked at opera and musical theatre, Why else would it refer to Miserable Les, Seven Dwarfs for Seven other Dwarfs, The Enchanted Piccolo … I could go on but I wont. Like all of Terry’s books, it makes me laugh out loud, a lot. I read it and I listen to it. Tony Robinson does the abridged audio version and is terrific with the voices. (There is a lot to be said for a decent audio book) Anyway, back to Maskerade. Two of the three Witches feature (Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax, my favourites. There are also appearances by Death and the Librarian (an orangutan who works for peanuts). 
If you’re not sure if you’ll like this book because you’re not sure about opera. This is what Nanny has to say:
"Well, basically there are two sorts of opera,' said Nanny, who also had the true witch's ability to be confidently expert on the basis of no experience whatsoever. 'There's your heavy opera, where basically people sing foreign and it goes like "Oh oh oh, I am dyin', oh, I am dyin', oh, oh, oh, that's what I'm doin'", and there's your light opera, where they sing in foreign and it basically goes "Beer! Beer! Beer! Beer! I like to drink lots of beer!", although sometimes they drink champagne instead. That's basically all of opera, reely."
Carol Murray- Ayrshire College

Items