Feels like this is a book that will likely improve upon a reread as it's something of a departure from the other books in the series, both the wider Discworld and the Death focused entries. The focus is mostly on a few new characters, although Lu Tze has played a minor part in other stories before, as it follows the story of Jeremy, Lobsang, and the history monks which somewhat wrong footed me in terms of what I'd expected going in. The Death books tend to vary in just how much they actually feature Death themself but this one seems particularly light on the character and even Susan is sidelined for the cast majority until the plot requires her to take charge later on, something that is pretty jarring.

It's still very funny in parts as the Horsemen are great, Lu-Tze's constant dispersing of Mrs Cosmopolite's wisdom is wonderful, and the Auditor traps have become pretty iconic but overall the pacing seems uneven. I can't tell if there needed to be less book or more but the rather front loaded adventure of Lobsang and Lu-Tze plus Jeremy and Igor (who are both more or less ditched afterwards) doesn't seem to quite fit together with Susan coming to the fore later on, perhaps would have been better had there been more of Susan in the earlier parts investigating the clues Death had laid down for them.