Feet of Clay (Discworld, #19; City Watch, #3)

EDITORIAL REVIEW: It's murder in Discworld! -- which ordinarily is no big deal. But what bothers Watch Commander Sir Sam Vimes is that the unusual deaths of three elderly Ankh-Morporkians do not bear the clean, efficient marks of the Assassins' Guild. An apparent lack of any motive is also quite troubling. All Vimes has are some tracks of white clay and more of those bothersome ''clue'' things that only serve to muck up an investigation. The anger of a fearful populace is already being dangerously channeled toward the city's small community of golems -- the mindless, absurdly industrious creatures of baked clay who can occasionally be found toiling in the city's factories. And certain highly placed personages are using the unrest as an excuse to resurrect a monarchy -- which would be bad enough even if the ''king'' they were grooming wasn't as empty-headed as your typical animated pottery. For members of the City Watch, life consists of troubling times, linked together by periods of torpid inactivity. Now is one such troubling time. People are being murdered, but there's no trace of anything alive having been at the crime scene. Is there ever a circumstance in which you can blame the weapon not the murderer? Such philosophical questions are not the usual domain of the city's police, but they're going to have to start learning fast .. There's a werewolf with pre-lunar tension in Ankh-Morpork, and a dwarf with an attitude and a golem who's begun to think for itself. But for Commander Vimes, Head of Ankh-Morpork City Watch, that's only the start... There's treason in the air. A crime has happened. He's not only got to find out whodunit, but howdunit too. He's not even sure what they dun. But as soon as he knows what the questions are, he's going to want some answers. Nineteenth in the Discworld universe and third entry of the City Watch series, this novel follows Captain Carrot, Commander Vimes, and the rest of the Night Watch as they attempt to unravel the mystery of who poisoned Lord Vetinari the Patrician. Someone is murdering old men, the Patrician has been poisoned, the clay workers have started committing suicide, and there is a werewolf suffering from pre-lunar tension It was a warm spring night when a fist knocked at the door so hard that the hinges bent.