Maskerade : A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett Search Amazon for other books by or about Terry Pratchett. Rating: Reviewed by: Caroline Bott

Maskerade is basically the Phantom of the Opera, but with quite a few differences. It is one of the books centred on the witches from Lancre, in the remote Ramtop Mountains. The story starts with Agnes Nitt, who'd really like to be called Perdita X Dream. Agnes is a well built lass, but she'd far rather be pale and interesting. In the best tradition of misunderstood girls she runs away to the city (Ankh-Morpork), and because she has a truly remarkable voice, she joins the opera rather than the theatre.

Meanwhile, back in the Ramtops, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax are busily squabbling because with Magrat's retirement from active witching they now lack the third witch so necessary to act as a buffer between them. Deciding that they had better train up a suitable youngster, they run through their list of girls with the right talent and decide that Agnes is the best available. Only she is no longer available.

Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax find that they have business which takes them to Ankh-Morpork. They might just drop in on Agnes in passing and see how she is doing. They arrive just in time to join in with the search for the Phantom of the Opera, who is being blamed for a murder.

As ever, Terry Pratchett is a wicked observer with a cutting sense of humour. Maskerade takes a swing past opera, musicals, pretensions and all sorts of artistic people. It is a very amusing and well paced story. Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax are the usual unstoppable forces in elderly female forms, every family should have relatives like them. Preferably slightly distant relatives. For various reasons this fantasy gets ten, one reason being I've met so many of the people in it, and I have a horrible feeling at times that some things are just like me. But I'm definitely not telling you what!