Dodger by Terry Pratchett

“They couldn’t arrest you unless they put a hand on you, and nobody ever managed to touch Dodger.”

It took quite a while for this book to gel with me. Normally I’m a bit of a Pratchett fan; perhaps I was distracted by reading it in snippets here and there. In any case, it wasn’t till around 200 pages in that I really started to develop a fond attachment for Dodger and his shenanigans. Mind you, it is awfully difficult to dislike a novel that has a rather cheeky Charlie Dickens as a character.

The object of Dodger’s affections, Simplicity, is in my view a little too simple and uninspired. She just seems like a thinly veiled plot device without too much to recommend her – rather apt that she takes on the pseudonym ‘Serendipity’ at one stage.

Our hero has some intriguing adventures and almost always saves the day by accident rather than design. His run in with Sweeney Todd the demon barber was particularly amusing, as was his trip to the tailors – loved the matching outfit quandary he finds himself in.

So, somewhere lost in the pages, Terry Pratchett unveiled that token thread of words that binds me in fascination and I was won over by the story. Apparently this isn’t the last we’ve seen of our Dodger either -http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/terry-pratchett-jack-dodgers-guide-to-london-cover-art-and-synopsis-reveal .

4 out of 5 sewer rats are all tosh.