Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl is best known for his cheerfully creepy children's classics, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches and Matilda. These are excellent stories about good characters trumping bad ones, usually in satisfyingly gruesome ways--Lemony Snicket would give his eyeteeth for one tenth of Dahl's imaginative powers. Less well known are Dahl's equally cheerful and creepy books for adults, which include a short story about a woman murdering her cheating husband with a frozen leg of lamb (and then serving the lamb to the police officers who come to search for the murder weapon) and his novel My Uncle Oswald, about one man's quest, aided by the vixenish Yasmin Howcomely, to scam samples of quick-frozen sperm from some of the greatest minds of his age and sell them on the black market.

Aftertaste:
None.

Availability:
Everywhere.

Other Recommendations:
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase series, by Joan Aiken

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll

Website:
http://www.roalddahl.com/ -