Terry Pratchett's Going Postal

Our hero, the charming conman Moist von Lipwig, begins the tale incarcerated in a cell in the crazed city of Ankh Morpork, due to be hanged. He is saved by Lord Vetinari's offer of taking the role of Postmaster of the defunct Post Office. An uphill task with ruthless conspiracies, ghosts, a million backlogged letters and the fearsome monopoly of the Grand Trunk Company who now run the 'clacks' messaging system. Lipwig takes on the challenge (mainly because he can see a scam), hires some golems and introduces postage stamps. He also falls in love with the daughter of the man who invented the clacks, driven to death by the failure of the Cabbage bank (brought on by one of Lipwig's scams), he in fact finds the good in himself and the postage system.

When Reacher Gilt, owner of the Clack system, tries to burn the Post Office down, new Postmaster Lipwig refuses to be beaten, and promises that the post will go out as usual.