Feet of Clay

 

By Terry Pratchett

Things are rotten in the city state of Ankh-Morpork. Which is nothing new in a city where the river is so polluted it is almost firm enough to walk on. That's just the status quo. 

The sole source of governance in Ankh-Morpork is the Patrician, Lord Vetinari. He rules with a firm hand and naturally he is resented. He has suddenly become very unwell and it is clear that he is being slowly poisoned. How he is being poisoned not known or who among the criminally ambitious of the city is resposible.

Naturally, the head of the city guard, Commander  Sir Samuel Vimes is in charge of the investigation of the attack on Vetinari. And it is a puzzler. No matter what Vimes and his people do, they can't figure out how the poison got into the Patrician nor can they figure out how he is still being poisoned, which it seems he is as his condition continues to decline. 

Meanwhile, back at the city guard headquarters, Captain Carrot, the over six foot tall dwarf and Constable Angua, the werewolf woman, have to investigate the murders of two elderly and seemingly harmless men, one the keeper of a museum devoted to Dwarf Bread who was beaten to death with a loaf of his own bread and the other a priest who was found with his head smashed in and with a piece of paper stuffed in his mouth containing a message written in the priest's own blood in an ancient script.

The phrase "feet of clay" is from the Bible and refers to a prophecy to a king in which the kingdoms of the world are described in terms of a statue. The top part of the statue is gold kingdom, next is the silver kingdom and so on down, each kingdom declining in value, till it gets to the feet kingdom which are of the worst value, clay. It's also come to mean that even the seemingly best people can have hidden or not so hidden flaws: feet of clay. 

But also feet of clay refers to the golems of Ankh-Morpork, who are animated clay statues who actually do have feet of clay. A Golem is an inanimate dummy that is brought to life through magic, something like the puppet Pinocchio from the fairy tale.  

Probably the best thing about this story is Vimes effort to bring more diversity to the city guard. Such as Corporal Angua, the werewolf woman. And Sergeant Detritus, the troll. And new recruit Cheery Littlebottom, a dwarf who startles Vimes by showing up to work wearing lipstick. Eventually the guard even includes a golem, Dorfl, who was freed from slavery by Captain Carrot and hired by Vimes to be a member of the city guard soon afterward. 

The city guard stories are some of my favorites of the Discworld series and this one does not disappoint. It's fun and the mystery of golems and of the poisoning of the Patrician, while not particularly puzzling, are still really interesting. And the Corporal Nobbs subplot is really amusing when Nobbs suddenly finds himself elevated to be among the elites of the city. This one is a definite keeper!