History Literature / MurderousMaths

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[[caption-width-right:350:All the series' recurring characters]]

* NintendoHard: ''Professor Fiendish's Book of Diabolical Brain-Benders'' is this for puzzle books. Taken UpToEleven by the final puzzle, The Devil's Dice, which involves two dice with numbers such as 18 and 91 on them, so you can't tell whether it should be 18 or 81, 91 or 16, and so on; the challenge is to work out what the two numbers on the bottom of the dice add up to on the third throw, having been shown the results of two previous throws, and unlike every other puzzle in the book, ''no answer is provided''. (It was accidentally made UnwinnableByMistake in early printings, which transposed the illustrations of the second and third throws.)

* AnAxeToGrind: Urgum the Axeman.

--> '''Weapons Department Clerk:''' ([[SerialEscalation brandishing a huge gun]]) Okay... they asked for it.

* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: In the gangsters' story in ''Desperate Measures'', Weasel (not entirely voluntary) is lowered out of a window on a rope as part of a heist, and plans to swing himself out and crash through the window of the room where a priceless painting is being held. For once in his otherwise miserable life he manages to win the respect of the other gangsters, and Blade is moved to tears by his bravery... except he ends up crashing through the wrong window, because the gangsters made the rope from their belts and braces and Weasel's weight stretched it out.

* OhCrap: The gangsters' reaction in ''Vicious Circles'', at the prospect of having to eat some of Dolly's cooking.

* DeathFromAbove: The Evil Gollarks randomly show up in ''Do You Feel Lucky?'' dropping extremely heavy objects out of their spaceship on people. [[TooDumbToLive This comes to an end when they throw the spaceship's control panel on someone.]]

* ''Savage Shapes'' (polygons and formulas for various parts of shapes)
* ''The Key to the Universe'' (number property equations, Fibbonachi etc. right up to irrational transcendental numbers and imaginary numbers)

* ''The 5ecret L1fe of [=Code5=]'' (patterns and logic)

''Murderous Maths'' is a series of books written by Kjartan Poskitt to make kids learn maths, and it might just have succeeded. The characters it uses include Riverboat Lil, the Evil Gollarks, [[MadScientist Professor Fiendish]], the gang of crinimals led by Blade Bocelli... the list goes on, in the name of demonstrating various principles and equations. The books are filled with plenty of gags, as it is with many of Poskitt's books. Despite this, some fairly high-level maths (for kids' standards, anyway) is covered in a fairly lighthearted style.

There are also several spin-off books, including a book of Su Doku and a follow-up book of Kakuro and other number puzzles, plus a puzzle book, ''Professor Fiendish's Book of Diabolical Brain-Benders''.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first two books, having originally been part of another series, feature far fewer of any of the recurring characters. Philip Reeve also didn't become the series' regular illustrator until ''Desperate Measures''.

The books in the series are:

** Pongo [=McWhiffy=] is the prime example of the series. He tends to cook generally unappetising burgers where one line was so disgusting that an entire chapter in ''The Phantom X'' was dedicated to calculating trajectory based on how far and high his taste-testers threw them in disgust. Blue ketchup anyone?

* ArchEnemy: Professor Fiendish.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:The titular machine in ''The Fiendish Angletron'' plots an unrestricted tan wave at 30 degrees to escape from its creator's money-making scheme.]]

* BackFromTheDead: Pythagoras.
* BigEater: Porky
* BloodlessCarnage: The gangsters have attached each other ''many'' times, yet somehow the only casualties come from among the ranks of Luigi's furniture.

* DisproportionateRetribution: At one point, the two barbarians, Urgum the Axeman and Grizelda the Grizley, nearly end up killing each other over Grizelda's cat visiting Urgum's window box.

* HarmlessVillain: Both villains.
* HellHolePrison: One is mentioned in ''More Murderous Maths''
* LethalChef: Dolly Snowlips, as it turns out, cannot cook. Pongo [=McWhiffy=], too.

* ThePigPen: Pongo [=McWhiffy=], whose defining trait is being perpetually surrounded by files and, well, fitted with a first name ''and'' a surname concerning bad smells.
* {{Too Dumb to Live}}: Possibly the Evil Gollarks. Definitely Binky.

* ''The 5ecret L1fe of Code5'' (patterns and logic)

''Murderous Maths'' is a series of books written by Kjartan Poskitt to make kids learn maths, and it might just have succeeded. The characters it uses include Riverboat Lil, the Evil Gollarks, [[MadScientist Professor Fiendish]], the gang of crinimals led by Blade Bocelli... the list goes on. The books are filled with plenty of gags, as it is with many of Poskitt's books.

* LittleGreenMen: The Gollarks fit this trope ''exactly''. Come to think of it, they fit a handful of tropes.