The Murdstone Trilogy by Mal Peet

Title: The Murdstone Trilogy

Author: Mal Peet (1947-2015)

Publisher: David Fickling Books

AISN: B00LB698B4

Genre: Fantasy

Print Length: 320 pages

Plot synopsis: Philip Murdstone has won all the prizes possible as a novelist writing about troubled children, but his sales are now shrinking and he loathes his agent’s idea that he try to break into the more lucrative fantasy genre. Does he suffer a nervous breakdown or does he get drunk at his local Devon pub, fall asleep in a stone circle and accidentally summon a fantasy scribe who dictates a world bestselling fantasy novel to him – well what do you think?

BEWARE this novel contains strong language.

Cover: The cover is great, as an author it attracted me to the book in the first place.

Tom Sharpe meets Terry Pratchett!

The Murdstone Trilogy is an amusing and very entertaining read indeed. The narrative and plot are beguiling and intriguing making you want to read on and on to the end. The novel is structured into three parts each representing the challenges Murdstone faces in writing each book. Each section starts with a classic structure of set the challenge, rise to the challenge, meet the challenge, but Peet then throws away the rule book and tosses in a number of unexpected twists – especially at the end. The characterisation is great, if sometimes a little over exaggerated, in particular for the weird sisters, but someone might actually know a pair of sisters just like that (that would be rather worrying). The dialogue is both playful and face-slapping. Some may find the regular use of the F-word too much, but the dialogue of the fantasy character is very entertaining and really helps develop his personality. The settings and landscape are painted with great skill. The only complaint I have is about the trip that Murdstone makes to Tibet. I can see the reason for it, but it has a sense of being forced into the story in order to make a particular point and (for me) it creates a disjunction in the story line that might have been dealt with in a different way. However, having said that, this is a novel that I would thoroughly recommend.

What do others think?

At the time of writing there were 29 reviews on Amazon.co.uk. Of these, 25 gave a rating of 3* or above. There were 42 reviews on Amazon.com. Of these, 93% gave ratings of 3* or above. The remaining 7% were 2* ratings. There were 590 ratings (and 176 reviews) on Goodreads.com, with 476 giving ratings of 3* or above. Although, there are a minority who really found it disappointing, or did not like it or the ending, the overall reaction to the novel is a healthy endorsement.

Other books by the author (click the image to go to the Amazon book store for more details).