Book:Snuff

Snuff
Cover art by Paul Kiby
Co-author(s)	no
Illustrator(s)	Paul Kidby
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	October 2011
ISBN	9780385619264
Pages	378
RRP	£18.99
Main characters	Sam Vimes, Feeney Upshot, Willikins
Series	Watch Series
Annotations	View
Notes
All data relates to the first UK edition.

On sale as of Thursday 13th October 2011, Snuff is the thirty-ninth book in the Discworld series, after I Shall Wear Midnight. It primarily features Sam Vimes his family, and their domestic servants, and expands on the continuing story of the Watch as well. A sub-plot involves Mightily Oats and the goblins, and new Watch characters are referenced, including Captain Emile of the Quirm City Watch.

Terry's hint as to plot and content is that we should be aware that there are at least two meanings to the word "snuff".

Rob Wilkins (Terry's stenographer) read an extract from the current text at the 2010 Discworld Convention: the story features Goblins and commences with Sam Vimes going away on a two-week holiday with his wife to their country house, Crundells (which was mentioned in passing in the earlier half of the events in Thud!).

Blurb

According to the writer of the best selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.

And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe, but many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.

He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, occasionally snookered and occasionally out of his mind, but not out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment.

They say that in the end all sins are forgiven.

But not quite all...

Characters

Main Characters

• Sam Vimes
• Sybil Ramkin
• Stinky
• Feeney Upshot
• Havelock Vetinari
• Willikins
• Young Sam Vimes

Secondary Characters

• The Shires
  • Colonel Charles Makepeace
  • Letitia Makepeace - Chair of the local Magistrates
  • Mrs Pickings - Local Magistrate
  • Very Reverend Mouser - Local Magistrate
  • Edgehill - Local Magistrate
  • Honourable Ambrose - Local Magistrate
  • Miss Felicity Beedle
  • Lord Rust
  • Praise and Salvation False
  • Ted Flutter
  • Ariadne Gordon
  • Bewilderforce Gumption
  • Jethro Jefferson
  • Jiminy
  • Captain Murderer
  • Gastric Sillitoe
  • Mrs Sillitoe
  • The Silvers
  • Stratford
  • Ten Gallons
  • Mrs Upshot
  • Stump
  • Summoning Dark
• Goblins
  • Billy Slick (Of the Wind Regretfully Blown)
  • Granny Slick (Regret of the Falling Leaf)
  • The Cold Bone Wakes (Chieftain)
  • Sound of the Rain on Hard Ground
  • Shine of the Rainbow
  • Tears of the Mushroom
  • The Pleasant Contrast of the Orange and Yellow Petals in the Flower of the Gorse
  • The Breaking Wind
• Ankh-Morpork
  • Fred Colon
  • Rufus Drumknott
  • Carrot Ironfoundersson
  • Harry King
  • Cheery Littlebottom
  • Nobby Nobbs
  • Mightily Oats
  • A.E. Pessimal
• Quirm
  • Captain Emile
  • Acting-Captain Haddock
  • Lieutenant Perdix

Mentioned

• Mr Slant
• Ly Tin Wheedle
• Gravid Rust
• Regina Rust
• Mistress Slightly

Locations

• Ankh-Morpork
• Quirm
• The Shires
  • Crundells
  • The Goblin's Head
• The river Quire
• Howondaland
• Chalk Hill Clan (Mentioned)

Things and Concepts

• Burleigh & Stronginthearm Piecemaker Mark IX
• Glorious Peggy
• Goblins
• Queen of Quirm
• Roberta E. Biscuit
• Unggue
• Wonderful Fanny
• World of Poo

Extra Content

In some editions, most notably the Waterstone's Gold imprint, the short story A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices is included as a supplementary bonus story at the end of the main tale.

This short story describes the reaction of the wizards of Unseen University to a proposal from the Patrician to introduce regulation of university education. It references the government inspector A.E. Pessimal, who first appeared to mainstream readers in the full-length novel Thud! when he was assigned to inspect the City Watch.

Thud! was published in autumn 2005. However, the story A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices was first published a little earlier, in the May 13th, 2005 issue of The Times Higher Education Supplement. This novel, Snuff, includes its first print in the less ephemeral world of hardback books, making Pratchett's original introduction of A.E. Pessimal more readily available to mainstream readers.

Also, the new paperback edition of Snuff contains the first chapter of Dodger and chapters one and two of The Long Earth.

Gallery

First Edition Cover by Paul Kidby

Book Sampler

WHSmith 'Gold' Edition

Collectors Edition Slipcase

Paperback

Audio CD

Paperback by Paul Kidby

Collectors Library Cover

Paperback 2023

External Links

• Snuff on Terry Pratchett.co.uk. An extract from the opening chapter may be read here, and free extracts can be picked up from Waterstone's.
• Snuff on Wikipedia
• Draft sketch of Snuff's cover on Terry Pratchett's Facebook page, showing Sam Vimes at the wheel of the Wonderful Fanny, vexed by a flock of startled chickens, with Old Treachery coming up behind him.

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