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Pratchett to that list, even though Vimes has never shown his feminine side.
    You: I see. I would’ve preferred a chart, though. Visual aids rule, you know.
    Us: Moving on to the thriller, the focus is on fast-paced action where chase scenes and technology abound. The villains may be megalomaniacs bent on taking over the world or simply average joes gone postal. With thrillers, the main element is time. The clock is ticking to catch that kidnapper before the victim is killed or the bomb explodes. Writers like Tom Clancy, Ken Follett, and Elmore Leonard are well known in this subgenre.
    Act I, Scene III: The Plot Thickens
    Whodunits
    Us: The Pratchett novels Men at Arms and Feet of Clay can be described as “who-or-what-dunits,” thanks to the fact that you never know what species (dragon, dwarf, werewolf, vampire, golem, troll, etc.) might have done the crime. Even so, both novels have the same “whodunit” elements as do classic works by Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allan Poe. See for yourself as we compare Feet of Clay to Collins and Dickens’s novels.
    You ( happily ) : A chart! ( See charts on pages 36 and 37. )
    Us: The Fifth Elephant also has a locked-room mystery element as Vimes investigates the theft of the famed Scone of Stone from a locked museum and a mysterious death that took place in a locked area.
    Act II, Scene I: Enter … the Detective
    Vimes versus Holmes: The Smackdown
    Us: Sherlock Holmes is unquestionably the most famous detective in fiction.
    You: No question about that.
    Us: But Holmes is the kind of clue-analyzing detective who rubs a clue-hating cop like Vimes the wrong way. A discussion of methods might result in a Smackdown battle of Vimes and Holmes. We can’t help but wonder who would win in a battle of the minds. Maybe it would go like this.
    You: Will Holmes and Vimes enter from stage left or stage right? Us ( brightly, because we always agree with you ) : Uh, thanks for sharing that. Take it away, Holmes and Vimes.
    Holmes: “How often have I said … that when you have eliminated
    the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable , must be the truth?” 35

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    36

    Vimes: “The real world was far too real to leave neat little hints. It was full of too many things. It wasn’t by eliminating the impossible that you got at the truth, however improbable; it was by the much harder process of eliminating the possibilities.” 37
    Holmes: “I have a lot of special knowledge which I apply to the problem, and which facilitates matters wonderfully. Those rules of deduction … are invaluable to me in practical work. Observation with me is second nature.” 38
    Vimes: “Every real copper knew you didn’t go around looking for Clues so that you could find out Who Done It. No, you started out with a pretty good idea of Who Done It. That way, you knew what Clues to look for.” 39
    Holmes: “There is no branch of detective science which is so important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps.” 40 Vimes: “I never believed in that stuff—footprints in the flower bed, tell tale buttons, stuff like that. People think that stuff’s policing. It’s not. Policing’s luck and slog, most of the time.” 41
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    Pratchett and the Private Eye
    Us: Although Vimes isn’t a private investigator, he’s asked to turn in his badge a number of times during the course of the series, which forces him to act like one. (See Jingo and Guards! Guards! ) So, how does he fit in the hard-edged world populated by the likes of Kinsey Millhone, Philip Marlowe, and Sam Spade?

    42

    You: Uh, you’ll use another chart, perhaps?
    Us: Good idea! (See chart here .)
    Us: Vimes may be hard-boiled like this lot, but he’s also slightly cracked, thanks to living in Pratchett’s world. Like Marlowe, he can be insubordinate, even though he can never one-up Vetinari,