History Creator / TomHolt

** Kurt Lundquist has no problem with tracking down Lucky George and dragging him back to Hell in ''Faust Among Equals'', but when he's approached to assassinate Osiris in ''Odds & Gods'', he not only turns the job down but offers his services to the Gods' side instead. In later books he is more or less a good guy, although rather more on the antihero side of things.
-->'''Chardonay:''' George, when you die, be sure to go to Heaven. We can do without your sort [[{{Hell}} where I come from]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: While the demons in ''Paint Your Dragon'' aren't particularly evil, they do work in Hell and torture sinners for a living, and yet associating with George is too much for them. Given that George views collateral damage as "potential customers" for both afterlives, it's hard not to see where they're coming from.

Holt's male protagonists are nearly all nerds with little social sense, and his female characters tend to be rock-hard, super-competent steamrollers (though they do tend be less competent if they are the actual protagonist rather than the love interest or other supporting character.) Holt's works often deal with the theme of love, though he's very cynical about it and often protrays it as an annoyance or even a disease (either because the subject knows he'll never get anywhere with his crushes, or because she's so desirable she's no longer interested).

His writing style is fast and entertaining, and is peppered with plays on cliches and idioms, often taking an idea in a common set of words and turning them up to eleven. His plots are heavily powered by the RuleOfFunny and sometimes end in a jumble full of {{Plot Hole}}s - but ''funny'' {{Plot Hole}}s.

* AgentMulder: Danny Bennett, from his early works, a BBC journalist with a wide range of conspiracy theories, all tying to the ultimate power behind world history: The [[MilkmanConspiracy British Milk Marketing Board]]. Although he is slightly vindicated when he gets caught up with Montalban and the Lombard Bank in ''Flying Dutch''

* BlackAndGrayMorality: ''Paint Your Dragon'' does this to the story of [[Myth/SaintGeorge Saint George and the Dragon]]. Both are absolute assholes, but the dragon seems a little more sympathetic...although considering he at one point annihilates an entire (occupied) theatre in an attempt to deal with George, this is more a statement on how unlikeable St. George is than anything else. [[spoiler:The dragon's status as the "Least Evil" character is cemented at the end, when the two end up switching forms and George's first action as a dragon is to kill the entire audience for their deathmatch in order to ensure that nobody with a rocket launcher is lurking in the stands).]]
* BroadStrokes: Several characters, including Danny Bennett, Kurt Lundqvist, and Lin Kortright, make multiple appearances in novels that are not only unrelated but mutually incompatible -- for instance, Lundqvist appears in ''Paint Your Dragon'', with the premise that there are only two dragons left in the whole world, both European type, and ''Odds and Gods'', in which the Dragon Kings of Myth/ChineseMythology are a real and powerful presence. Precise character details are also subject to change; Lundqvist is a bad guy in one novel, but a good guy in others, and a financially-struggling lone wolf in one novel but a prosperous mercenary with his own satellite base and annoying teen sidekick in another. Some characters have even achieved the feat of dying in one novel and still making living appearances in subsequent ones.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Phaedra in ''The Walled Garden'' is a bit of a deconstruction of the usual Holt heroine (see description in the main paragraph) as her temper and shrewishness is portrayed as about as bearable as you might expect in real life - though she does get better. Holt also allows her to be flat out wrong on some subjects (she's a FlatEarthAtheist for instance.)

** There have also been human/elf, human/god and weirder.

* LiteralGenie: In ''Wish You Were Here'', jumping in Lake Okeewana is ''supposed'' to grant your heart's desire--but the spirit of the lake is good at creative interpretations.

His writing style is fast and entertaining, and is peppered with plays on cliches and idioms, often taking an idea in a common set of words and turning them UpToEleven. His plots are heavily powered by the RuleOfFunny and sometimes end in a jumble full of {{Plot Hole}}s - but ''funny'' {{Plot Hole}}s.

Holt has also written several historical novels (as Thomas Holt), and two sequels to E. F. Benson's ''Mapp and Lucia'' series. In 2015, it was revealed that he also writes fantasy novels in a ''very different'' writing style under the name of Creator/KJParker.

* MostWritersAreWriters: ''My Hero!'' features two writers; the protagonist is a writer of ThudAndBlunder adventure stories, and the second is a mysteriously-vanished western writer who has gotten TrappedInTVLand, and needs the help of the first to escape from the story.

* ''Literature/BlondeBombshell'' (2010)

* ''Blonde Bombshell'' (2010)

* ShoutOut: ''Only Human'' features something of a Creator/TerryPratchett ShoutOut, in which a man sentenced to IronicHell for complaining to authors that their new stuff wasn't as good as their old stuff...was forced to read the same book over and over again for the rest of eternity. His final line was that he'd just gotten up to the part where "[[Discworld/TheColourOfMagic the tourist has just met the wizard]]".

* ShaggySearchTechnique: Happens to Hamlet in ''My Hero'', during a sequence that's ''supposed'' to be demonstrating that the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality no longer applies but keeps getting undermined by the fact that (this being a Tom Holt novel) the RuleOfFunny is still in full effect.

Tom Holt is a British author whose works can be described as comic urban fantasy mixed with {{Fractured Fairy Tale}}s. Most of his books are standalone, but he has a short series centering around ''Literature/JWWellsAndCo'' (named after the sorcerer in the Creator/GilbertAndSullivan musical ''Theatre/TheSorcerer'').

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: ''Nothing But Blue Skies'' is an AffectionateParody of Eastern dragons and the associated mythology, with an emphasis on a) their powers of weather control and b) their ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting take human (and other) forms]]. The reason the British summer is usually canceled due to rain is that the main character is a dragon in human form, and doesn't have full control in that form. So it rains whenever she's annoyed. Which happens a lot. The plot concerns another dragon [[ShapeshifterModeLock trapped in the form of a goldfish]]; [[CoversAlwaysLie the cover, naturally]], shows a Western dragon crammed into a fishbowl.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: spoofed in ''Open Sesame''; a fairy provides medical care by shouting "[[FaeriesDontBelieveInHumansEither I do believe in humans]]!" And again in ''Paint Your Dragon'':
-->There's an urban folk-myth that every time a human says he doesn't believe in dragons, a dragon dies. This is unlikely, because if it were true, we'd spend half our lives shovelling thirty-foot corpses out of the highways with dumper trucks and the smell would be intolerable.
-->There's an old saying among dragons that every time a human says he doesn't believe in dragons, a human dies, and serve the cheeky bugger right.

* FantasyKitchenSink: The same character, Lin Kortright, appears in both a book devoted to a DarkerAndEdgier Valhalla and one dedicated to a [[BlackAndGrayMorality revisionist]] St. George and the Dragon.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: You'll never think about {{Aristophanes}} the same way again...

Holt has also written several historical novels (as Thomas Holt), and two sequels to E. F. Benson's ''Mapp and Lucia'' series. It was recently revealed that he also writes fantasy novels in a ''very different'' writing style under the name of Creator/KJParker.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: ''Paint Your Dragon'' does this to the story of Saint George and the Dragon. Both are absolute assholes, but the dragon seems a little more sympathetic...although considering he at one point annihilates an entire (occupied) theatre in an attempt to deal with George, this is more a statement on how unlikeable St. George is than anything else. [[spoiler:The dragon's status as the "Least Evil" character is cemented at the end, when the two end up switching forms and George's first action as a dragon is to kill the entire audience for their deathmatch in order to ensure that nobody with a rocket launcher is lurking in the stands).]]

* ExternalRetcon: In ''Paint Your Dragon'', it is revealed that St. George was actually a cheating, murderous bastard, and the dragon was, well, not exactly the good guy, but certainly a much more sympathetic and stand-up fellow than George.

* PerspectiveFlip: ''Paint Your Dragon'' takes the general idea of 'St George vs the Dragon', and makes the point that (despite being part of the official 'Good' side) George is pretty much an evil, despicable man who likes to kill things.

Holt has also written several historical novels (as Thomas Holt), and two sequels to E. F. Benson's ''Mapp and Lucia'' series.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: ''Paint Your Dragon'' does this to the story of Saint George and the Dragon. Both are absolute assholes, but the dragon seems a little more sympathetic...although considering he at one point annihilates an entire (occupied) theatre in an attempt to deal with George, this is more a statement on how unlikeable St. George is than anything else. [[spoiler:The dragon's status as the Least Evilâ„¢ character is cemented at the end, when the two end up switching forms and George's first action as a dragon is to kill the entire audience for their deathmatch in order to ensure that nobody with a rocket launcher is lurking in the stands).]]

* ConvenienceStoreGiftShopping: ''Grailblazers'' reveals that SantaClaus is really one of the Wise Men who gave gifts to the infant Jesus, doing community service as punishment for the fact that (unlike his colleagues, who planned ahead and brought gold, frankincense and myrrh) he left it until the last minute and couldn't come up with anything better than a pair of socks.
* CrapsackWorld: In ''Ye Gods!'', Prometheus gives Jason Derry a view of a world without him in order to show why it's so important he sides with him against the JerkassGods. In this world there's no such thing as a joke, everyone lives in fear of the gods all the time, and [[DeadlyGame game shows are deadly]]. Jason's reaction is "''I'' wouldn't want to live there, but I wouldn't want to live in Florida and plenty of people do."

* FearlessFool: Jason in ''Literature/YeGods!''

** ''Djinn Rummy'' feature a genie who ''very reluctantly'' finds himself falling for a human.

* JerkassGenie: Some of the genies in ''Djinn Rummy'' positively delight in deliberately misinterpreting mortals' wishes.

* LiteralGenie:
** In ''Djinn Rummy'': when the genies get together of an evening at their local pub, they like to reminisce about the mortals they've tricked this way (or, at least, some of them do).
** In ''Wish You Were Here'', jumping in Lake Okeewana is ''supposed'' to grant your heart's desire--but the spirit of the lake is good at creative interpretations.

* OurGeniesAreDifferent: In ''Djinn Rummy'', the genies are transdimensional beings (which is how they can fit into those bottles), and like to hang out together in their spare time and get drunk. On milk.

* PantheonSitcom:
** ''Odds and Gods'' has gods from multiple pantheons, mostly all living in a retirement home, and still all squabbling.
** ''Ye Gods!'' is even more blatant; the millenia of being stuck together has given the Greek gods a big honking case of cabin fever and pretty much all they do is argue all day.

* PublicDomainArtifact: Spoofed in ''Grailblazers'', where the Grail is a bowl that was used at the Last Supper, which was miraculously transformed into Tupperware.

* TheThreeWiseMen: ''Grailblazers'' reveals that Santa Claus was one of the Wise Men, doing community service to expiate the sin of ConvenienceStoreGiftShopping for the Messiah; unlike his colleagues who planned ahead, he left things until the last minute and couldn't come up with anything better than a pair of socks.

* {{Unicorn}}: In ''Grailblazers'', the heroes at one point have to find a unicorn in order to use it as bait to capture a virgin. It turns out that modern unicorns are scruffy and unpleasant feral critters.

* WarGod: Mars appears in ''Ye Gods!'' Notable in that, since he is still expected to ride in the front of battle in bronze armour, regardless of technological advances, and since "the best definition of an immortal is someone who hasn't died ''yet''", the device on his shield is now a CND logo.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: In ''Ye Gods!'', when Jason meets the old woman, she insists on their going through the whole spiel. When he says no one would know if they didn't, she says, "I will."

* FearlessFool: Jason in Creator/TomHolt's ''Ye Gods!''