Great book for Kids and Adults, 22 Feb 2004

Maurice the cat and 'The Clan' of talking rats travel from town to town with a stupid looking kid called Keith. Following Maurice's ingenious plan, as soon as the motley crew arrive in each town The Clan set about fooling the populace into believing they have a plague of rats. When the town mayor sends for the rat piper, up pops Keith, who pretends to charm the rats into following him out of the town and collects a big reward.

All goes well until the group stumble into the town of Bad Blintz and discover sinister goings on involving some decidedly shady rat catchers, an unfortunate dog called Jacko, the mayor’s fairy tale obsessed daughter and an unspeakable evil lurking in the cellars beneath the city.

Told with Pratchett’s trademark humorous flare, this a thoroughly enjoyable book which moves along at a good pace and gets quite dark and sinister in places. Thankfully the writing has not been dumbed down for the kids but instead has been written with all the intelligence and flair of his past work.

This is a great introduction to Terry Pratchett for new and younger readers, and an interesting side bar to the discworld for dedicated fans.

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