There is something rather satisfying about reaching the end of a trilogy, particularly when the journey has involved magic, ancient powers, impossible situations and the sort of workplace politics that make you grateful your own job is probably considerably less complicated.

Earth, Air, Fire and Custard brings the Paul Carpenter trilogy to a close, and after The Portable Door and In Your Dreams, it feels like a fitting place to pause and take stock of the wonderfully strange world Tom Holt has created around JW Wells & Co.

There are more JW Wells & Co novels after this one, and I have read and enjoyed them. However, I won’t be reviewing those at this time. For me, there is something neat about treating these first three books as a complete story, particularly because this final instalment brings Paul’s particular journey to a proper conclusion.

And what a journey it has been.

One of the things that becomes increasingly apparent as the trilogy progresses is that beneath all the jokes, absurd situations and supernatural bureaucracy, Holt is playing with some fairly substantial ideas. In Earth, Air, Fire and Custard is particularly interested in destiny, free will and the extent to which any of us are actually in control of our own lives.

At the heart of the story is the question of what happens when somebody else has already decided what your future is supposed to look like.

That is a surprisingly weighty idea for a book that is perfectly happy to spend so much time being ridiculous.

Holt has a lot of fun with the concept of higher powers manipulating events from above. There is something deeply unsettling about the idea that the apparently random events of your life might not be random at all. Worse still, what if the decisions you think are your own are simply the decisions somebody else wanted you to make?

That tension between destiny and control gives the story its underlying seriousness.

Paul is faced with circumstances that force him to consider exactly how much agency he possesses. It is one thing to stumble into the magical world of JW Wells & Co and discover that reality is considerably stranger than you thought. It is another thing entirely to discover that there may be forces operating at a level far beyond anything you can see, quietly arranging events and expecting you to play your assigned part.

The obvious response would be to rebel.

Of course, in a Tom Holt novel, rebelling against cosmic forces is never going to be quite as straightforward as simply refusing to cooperate.

This is where Holt’s particular style works so well. He can take a philosophical question about free will and put it into a situation involving magic, bureaucracy and people who have their own very practical concerns. The result is a story that can be funny and thought-provoking at the same time without ever becoming too solemn about either.

There is a pleasing contradiction at work here. The story is concerned with some very big questions, but Holt refuses to treat them with the sort of solemnity that might make them feel like a lecture.

Instead, he pokes them with a stick.

Are we really in control of our lives? What does destiny actually mean? If some higher power knows what is going to happen, does that make our choices meaningless? And if somebody is actively manipulating events, can we ever genuinely claim that we are acting freely?

These are questions that have been occupying philosophers, theologians and writers for centuries.

Holt’s contribution appears to be, “Yes, but wouldn’t it be considerably more irritating if the people doing the manipulating were also incompetent?”

That irreverence is one of the great pleasures of the book.

The supernatural forces at work never completely lose their sense of absurdity, but they are still capable of posing a genuine threat. That balance matters. If everything were simply a joke, the story would have very little emotional weight. If everything were played completely straight, much of what makes Holt’s writing enjoyable would disappear.

Instead, he allows the two sides to coexist.

The world can be ridiculous and dangerous at the same time.

That has been one of the defining qualities of the JW Wells & Co books, and In Earth, Air, Fire and Custard brings it together particularly well. The magical and the mundane continue to collide in ways that feel completely natural within Holt’s world. People still have ordinary concerns even when extraordinary things are happening around them, and there is something wonderfully British about the idea that the end of reality might be less pressing than whatever immediate problem has landed on your desk.

Holt’s humour also comes from the way people deal with power.

The book is full of characters who occupy different positions within various hierarchies, and the idea of authority is constantly being questioned. Who is actually in charge? Who thinks they are in charge? Who has been told they are in charge? And who is quietly manipulating everyone else while pretending to be doing something entirely different?

The answers are rarely as straightforward as they first appear.

That makes the story more interesting than a simple battle between good and evil. There are competing interests, different agendas and plenty of people who have their own ideas about how events should unfold. Paul finds himself having to navigate not only supernatural forces but also the expectations placed upon him by people who believe they know what is best.

That is where the theme of control becomes particularly effective. Destiny can sound almost comforting when it is presented as a grand plan, but Holt explores the darker side of having your future dictated by somebody else. What if the plan isn’t yours? What if you don’t agree with it? What if you discover that the person holding the map doesn’t actually understand where the journey is going either?

Those questions give the comedy something substantial underneath it.

The characters remain another strong part of the book. Paul has come a long way since the beginning of The Portable Door, and watching that development across the trilogy makes this feel like a genuine conclusion rather than simply another adventure that happens to feature the same characters.

There is a sense of accumulated experience here. The events of the previous books matter, and Paul’s understanding of the world has changed accordingly. He may not suddenly become a conventional fantasy hero, but he has learned how to cope with a world that refuses to behave according to sensible rules.

And frankly, that is probably the most useful skill anyone can have in the JW Wells universe.

Ray Sawyer’s narration once again deserves particular credit. He brings the characters to life and makes the increasingly bizarre events feel real. That is not an easy task with material like this. The story asks the listener to accept some wonderfully strange ideas, and Sawyer’s performance provides the grounding needed to make those ideas work.

His characterisation remains strong throughout, with different voices and personalities clearly identifiable without becoming excessive. More importantly, he understands the tone. The comedy is allowed to emerge naturally rather than being overplayed, which makes the more absurd moments considerably funnier.

There is also a sense of continuity across the trilogy. Having Sawyer narrate all three books means that the characters have a consistent presence from beginning to end, and that helps make Paul’s journey feel like one extended story rather than three disconnected adventures.

That is particularly valuable here because this really does feel like the conclusion of something.

There are still plenty of questions, plenty of weirdness and plenty of opportunities for further stories in the JW Wells & Co universe. As I mentioned, there are more novels in the series, and I have read and enjoyed them. I simply won’t be reviewing them at this time.

For me, In Earth, Air, Fire and Custard is the natural stopping point for this particular set of reviews because it completes Paul’s trilogy. It gives his story a sense of closure while leaving the wider world open for whatever Holt wants to do with it next.

And that seems appropriate.

Ultimately, In Earth, Air, Fire and Custard is another entertaining example of Tom Holt’s ability to take enormous ideas and make them feel surprisingly approachable. Destiny, free will, control and the influence of higher powers are serious subjects, but Holt wraps them in a story filled with magic, absurdity, bureaucracy and characters simply trying to work out what is going on.

It is clever without becoming self-important, funny without being entirely frivolous and strange without ever losing its grounding in recognisable human behaviour.

Most importantly, it feels like a conclusion.

After following Paul Carpenter from the beginning of his adventures with JW Wells & Co, there is something satisfying about reaching the end of this particular chapter. His story has travelled a long way from where it started, and Holt has managed to bring the central questions of destiny and control to the forefront without losing the humour that makes the series so enjoyable.

Ray Sawyer’s narration is the perfect accompaniment, bringing these characters to life and making even the strangest elements of the story feel real.

There are more JW Wells & Co books waiting beyond this point, and I am glad to know they are there. I have read and enjoyed them, but for now I am happy to leave Paul Carpenter here.

A trilogy completed, a story brought to a satisfying close, and another thoroughly enjoyable trip into the peculiar world of JW Wells & Co.

Not a bad place to stop.

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