Customer Reviews

The Better Mousetrap

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This is the second book by Tom Holt that I have read. The first was "Falling Sideways" and I'm grateful that the plot of this one was easier to keep track of.

Frank Carpenter owns a portable door and goes about his life zipping through time and space at will, occasionally making millions of dollars working for an insurance company.

Frank is sent to prevent the death of (and therefore payout of life insurance for) a pest control worker (dragonslayer) named Emily Spitzer (I'm not sure why the Product Description says her name is Jane) who doesn't seem to have much luck staying alive, no matter how many times he goes back to save her.

From there the story becomes interesting, with lots of laugh-out-loud punchlines involving big business, Americans, and true love.

The ending seems a bit rushed and thrown together, but that's fine since the story as a whole is paced well and keeps you guessing.

I keep mentally comparing Tom Holt to Douglas Adams, and I think fans of DNA will appreciate this author. Thumbs up!

Tom Holt returns to the universe of the shady magical firm J.W. Wells & Co. (now out of business) and acquaints us with Paul Carpenter's son, Frank. Paul Carpenter, if you recall, was the central character in The Portable Door, In Your Dreams, and Earth, Air, Fire and Custard, and Paul cameos in this one, as well. But this is about his kid. Frank Carpenter's childhood was less than ideal, hard for it to be ideal when your parents, while loving, were distant as stars. When Frank's parents finally abandoned him (for their very own pocket universe), well, at least, they left him the Acme Portable Door, one of reality's most powerful enchanted objects. Frank Carpenter would go on to earn millions doing freelance work for an insurance company. Frank applies the Portable Door - which can bend time and teleport its operator anywhere - to reverse deaths and injuries incurred by the insurance company's clientele (those insurance policies can be bloody costly). So, yes, bad parenting will suck out a child's soul, make the little blighter take up with insurance. So don't be a bad parent.

I've got this irreversible bias. I don't believe Tom Holt will produce anything to match the awesomeness that is Expecting Someone Taller (I also absolutely relished Flying Dutch). However, THE BETTER MOUSETRAP rates a terrific read. Tom Holt is a terribly funny British novelist, maybe not quite as popular as Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams (or as resonant), but he's got his moments, when his wildly imaginative plot twists leave you reeling but big grinning.

In a world in which magic is an everyday fixture, the other protagonist is the very capable and always slightly vexed Emily Spitzer who operates in the pest control business, except that "pest control" is a muggle's job description for "monster slaying." When Emily persists in repeatedly dying, her insurance company deploys Frank Carpenter. But as Frank goes about the business of saving Emily - by distorting the time/space continuum so wantonly that even Doctor Who's jaw drops - it dawns on Frank and on Emily that someone has it out for her. Someone has constructed the perfect mousetrap, the better mousetrap. It's quite tricky getting out of those.

There's a prophecy involved, and double dealings and family dysfunctions, goblins and dragons and ambitious corporate wizards dabbling in office politics, and, as already mentioned, tons of teleporting and time traveling. There's even romance, uncertain and awkward and very British, with lots of uncomfortable pauses and shuffling of feet. And, all along, the writer maintains a thread of cohesive internal logic that may make you scratch your head but, in the final tally, will make you go, "All right, guv, I guess it all fits together." Count THE BETTER MOUSETRAP as another fine and funny and clever fantasy send-up from Tom Holt, a gent who can skewer with the best of them, even as he keeps several preposterous sub-plots percolating.

This book was an absolutely refreshing interlude. With elegant, tongue in cheek asides of a satirical nature, this book made me smile more than once. I plan to buy another book of his immediately!