By Simon Brett, Felony and Mayhem Press, $14.95, 211 pages
“Don’t worry, sir. I have a plan to foil his plans to foil my plans to foil his plans to foil your plans.”
First Blotto finds a dead body in the library. Then he overhears a plot to kidnap one of the female guests at the house party hosted by his mother, the Dowager Duchess of Tawcester. There’s only one person Blotto can turn to…his sister Twinks. Author, Simon Brett takes readers on a mysterious and hilarious British romp in Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King’s Daughter. His snappy dialogue and witty descriptions will have readers chuckling from page to page.
Both siblings fancy themselves amateur sleuths, but when it comes time to do any major deduction, let alone thinking, Twinks is on her own. Blotto’s handsome face is his most redeeming quality. Besides trying to keep up with his sister, Blotto’s main goal is to avoid the flirty and rigorous eyelash fluttering of any female. He’d rather play cricket.
Readers will love the terms of endearment he uses for his sister (an old biscuit barrel and the Lark’s larynx). The author’s creative character names will also lead to laughter. How can you take seriously a man named Margrave von Humpenstaupen? Brett’s use of language adds to the fun (a problem translates to “another earwig in the cream”).
Reviewed by Kathryn Franklin