Snuff

Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch has been sent to the countryside for a holiday, which for a copper of his temperament is a kind of sentence. He barely has time to unpack before he finds a body, and the quiet estates around him turn out to be hiding something far worse than one murder: an old wrong that the local gentry would very much prefer stayed buried. Vimes is out of his jurisdiction and out of his depth, but never out of ideas.

The eighth City Watch novel and the thirty-ninth Discworld book, it reads perfectly well on its own. Pratchett's jokes come thick and fast, yet underneath runs a fierce anger at cruelty and a firm belief that justice should reach everyone. A fine choice for anyone who likes their comedy with a conscience.