Dickens à la Pratchett.

This is a stand-alone novel set in Victorian London..

Dodger is a tosher. He makes a living by picking up bits and pieces that fall into the sewer drains. He lives near Seven Dials with his old mentor, Solomon Cohen, and a very smelly dog, Onan.

Dodger becomes an unlikely hero by repeatedly finding himself in the right place at the right time: he rescues a young woman beaten by two men, prevents a robbery at the Morning Chronicle and inadvertently stops a certain barber named Todd from committing murder.

Unsurprisingly, he soon ends up in a political imbroglio that could trigger an international war and becomes the target of an assassin.

Even though it’s not part of the Discworld series, Dodger is a terrific adventure and detective novel, full of the usual Pratchettian humour and philosophy, and I greatly enjoyed it.

9/10