Blotto, Twinks and the Dead Dowager Duchess

Blotto and Twinks #2

by Simon Brett

Hurrah for the return of that intrepid Blotto (handsome, honorable, not the sharpest knife in the drawer), and his sister Twinks (just a bit brainier than a girl should be)! As this is the 1920s, they are of course attending a weekend house party, where – how astonishing! – a murder is announced. One of the guests has the gall to accuse Corky, the siblings’ family chauffeur, so Blotto and Twinks have no choice but to find the real murderer and clear Corky’s good name. And also, you know, keep Corky from hanging and so on. Their sleuthing will take them to an opium den, a crumbling Scottish castle, and – most thrillingly – the headquarters of the evil League of the Crimson Hand

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Humor, Audiobook, Historical Mystery, Cozy Mystery

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2010

About the author

Simon Brett is a prolific British writer of whodunnits.

He is the son of a Chartered Surveyor and was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a first class honours degree in English.

He then joined the BBC as a trainee and worked for BBC Radio and London Weekend Television, where his work included 'Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and 'Frank Muir Goes Into ...'.

After his spells with the media he began devoting most of his time to writing from the late 1970s and is well known for his various series of crime novels.

He is married with three children and lives in Burpham, near Arundel, West Sussex, England. He is the current president of the Detection Club.

Reviews

[Allie Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hugely enjoyable froth. A clever, well observed satire of the amateur detective genre. Blotto and Twinks are an aristocratic brother and sister team who apparently often join forces to solve various crimes. While staying at another stately home, a Dowager Duchess is murdered by the expedient method of a pitchfork in her back. The trail leads to the infamous League of the Crimson Thumb who the intrepid duo then track down bit by bit, but will they defeat them in their plot to blow up the House of Lords? Highly amusing. The contrived aristocratic slang can get a little wearing on occasion, but the pace of the plot and brevity of the novel ensure that it doesn't become too annoying. I gobbled this up in just a few hours. Delightful chewing gum reading.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, silly, perfect for late night bedtime reading when my brain can't fully engage. (If I was rating the book with regards to that capacity, 5 stars! But I don't want to misleadingly put it in Middlemarch range, just because it's a fun light read.

I've been warned that these books are silly by my bookseller, but the author knows they are silly (which is quite a different feeling from unintentionally silly), and of course one's tolerance for intentional silliness varies. Some of it gets a bit wearying (the constant supposedly-posh slang that I assume is entirely invented), but other bits were delightful (at one point, faced with quite a pickle of a cliffhanger, the author begins the next chapter with something like "after getting out of that, Blotto and Twinks continued on their way ..." (I'm paraphrasing) which I thought was perfect, an authorial equivalent of Indiana Jones' shooting his way out of a tense stand-off.

I was alarmed at some startling Chinese stereotyping, until it turned out it was actual Chinese stereotyping as a plot point in the book--hard to explain without spoilers, but it's fine once you realise what's happening.

And I'll happily read the next one. So a high 3 from me.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).

[JackieB · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a Marmite book (you'll either love it or hate it). I loved it because the author parodied everything he could. His main targets were the conventions of detective novels the British class system generally and the aristocracy in particular. However if he could fit in a swipe at anything else he did. It's the funniest book I've read for ages.

[MD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always ridiculously entertaining...a good palate cleanser!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fellow Goodreads reader Allie describes this book as "Hugely enjoyable froth. A clever, well observed satire of the amateur detective genre". It is a perfect and accurate description. (I followed her immediately!)

I love the patter of posh slang -- Wooster and Jeeves on steroids. It's perfect for very light and amusing bedtime reading. What I find so refreshing about this book is that it is so over-the-top that you have to let your guard down and fully commit to the spirit of the thing in order to tolerate it.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for a forthcoming book group, otherwise I wouldn’t have finished it, I’m afraid. I get what the writer is trying to do, and the parody of a golden age murder mystery is a clever idea, but the satire is simply too exaggerated for me.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dowager Duchess of Melmont is found speared to the ground with a gardening fork; who has done the dastardly deed and that on her own property at a house party to boot?

After the Dowager Duchess of Lyminster's chauffeur is arrested for the murder Blotto and Twinks set out to prove his innocence. Thus begins an investigation that proves hair raising in the extreme.

They travel by rail, air and road to track down the perpetrator of the crime and when they discover him he too is killed before he can impart any information. However, they do discover that he belongs to the dreaded League of the Crimson Thumb.

They need to find the other members and who is the leader of the gang? In some outrageously preposterous, but hugely enjoyable, escapades they eventually discover the boss and in a stunning ending they save the world, or at least that part of England that was targetted!

Along the way they are captured, visit opium dens, Cornish tin mines and a Scottish castle and to complicate matters Blotto has a young lady, Laetitia Melmont, fall madly in love with him. He does not return the feelings but how does he get out of the quandary? Needless to say he does so and lives to fight, complete with cricket bat and sister and as a confirmed bachelor, another day.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For an absolute romp of a 1930s brother sister mystery solving team, Brett’s novel won’t disappoint. From the opening paragraph on, readers are in line for a comic treat. “If there was one thing Blotto (properly known as the Honourable Devereaux Lyminster) didn’t like about weekend house parties, it was the inevitable gathering-together of a large number of people with dark secrets in their past, along with the tiresome near-certainty that one of them would get murdered. Not to mention the unavoidable presence of a know-it-all polymathic amateur sleuth who would happen to be staying for the weekend. And the obligatory moment when the aforementioned know-it-all polymathic amateur sleuth would dragoon everyone into the library to tell them whodunit” (Brett 1). When the sleuth gets it wrong it’s up for Blotto—cricket enthusiast and hunting fan—and Twinks—the devastatingly beautiful sister with whom all men fall madly in love to set things right. Sharp tongued dowagers are especially a treat in this installment.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simon Brett is a distinguished author whose works I generally enjoy. I don't know why he wastes his talent on this series. For that matter. I don't know why I wasted my time reading it when I so disliked the first in the series. Blotto and his sister Twink, children of the nobility, clear their chauffeur of the death of a dowager duchess by tracking down a plot, sinister of course. Of course it's a satire of the indifference and, in Blotto's case, stupidity of the aristocracy, but at more than 200 pages, it stretches a short story's worth of scorn into something much too long.

[Mommalibrarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can't say I did not know what this book was.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

What would we do for cozies without the myth of the prewar English aristocracy? Nobody has more fun with it than Simon Brett. Here’s the formula: Take some country estates and exaggerated characters that would be at home in a P. G. Wodehouse novel. Kill off a dowager duchess. Bring on the brother and sister team of Blotto (dumb but carries a handy cricket bat) and Twinks (sharp as a tack and devastatingly beautiful). They use methods from Agatha Christie (think Tommy and Tuppence more than Miss Marple), Arthur Conan Doyle, and Sax Rohmer (Dr. Fu Manchu) to get in and out of trouble and eventually solve the mystery. Delightful.
Here is the first sentence: “If there was one thing Blotto (properly known as the Honorable Devereaux Lyminster) didn’t like about weekend house parties, it was the inevitable gathering-together of a large number of people with dark secrets in their past, along with the tiresome near-certainty that one of them would get murdered.”

[Steven Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

The extremely aristocratic but extremely thick Blotto and his extremely brainy sister Twinks are attending a weekend house party when the inevitable happens. Their hostess, the Dowager Duchess of Melmont, is murdered. An amateur detective, conveniently staying for the weekend, deduces that the Lyminster family chauffeur Corky Froggett must have done it. For Blotto and Twinks, the only way to prove Corky's innocence is by finding the real perpetrator. So begins the second investigation for the daring duo... one which takes them via an opium den in Limehouse, a Scottish castle and a disused Cornish tin mine, to a thrilling final confrontation at the nerve-centre of the evil League of the Crimson Hand

[R. R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect to enjoy this book.It is silly on a funny way.The author takes time in mocking the British aristocracy of early 20th century.
Blotto is a reminder of Bertie Wooster (the Jeeves and Wooster series by P.G.Wodehouse). Also in a way I felt that the Author was further inspired by some of the characters in the 'Her Royal Spyness ' series.
The plot was a little weak.But the silliness of it all let's the author get away with this weakness. It's a pity that Simon Brett doesn't write more comedy books.
There is one point I really don't understand in many mystery novels :why do the murderers kill off those that give information to the protagonists and not shoot off the protagonists altogether? I know it's part of 'Novel reality',but still it bugs me.

[Ninamarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of a hybrid of Tommy and Tuppence novels, James Bond movies and Amelia Bedelia stories. Silly and sardonic, this second in the series puts the idiosyncrasies of the British aristocracy under a microscope. Action/adventure aspect was less appealing than the English country side murder mystery of the first in the series.

[Nick Baam · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Toad-in-the-hole, Twinks. That bodddo's slang's a tough rusk to chew, isn't it?'

'Yes, Blotto me old biscuit barrel, greengages who've been through the Royal Flying Corps seem virtually to have invented a language of their own.'

'Well, it's a bit of a candle-snuffer. Why can't he uncage the ferrets in normal English like you and me, Twinks me old banana box?'

Who couldn't turn the page?

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually love Simon Brett, and the premise of Blotto and Twinks has the potentially to be very funny. Unfortunately the "satire" was laid on so thickly it just became embarrassing after a while. I got through it, but I won't be reading any more.

[Michael McEwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toad-in-the-hole! Spoffing good adventure from greengage Blotto and his scrumpdillicious sister, Twinks. Completely ridiculous as usual, but more focused and fun than the others I’ve read in the series.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hoot - Agatha Christie on steroids.

[Nicholas Decker · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was still an enjoyable read, but I was a little disappointed that there wasn't nearly as much of the humor that I enjoyed so much in the first book.

[Andy Gore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reassuringly ridiculous me old fruit bat.

[Lisa Grayston · Rating 2 out of 5]

No one talks like that. The invented expressions and manner of conversation was most annoying.

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mildly entertaining but in the end, too silly for me.

[Cate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful mockery of the classic murder mysteries

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frothy fun for the crime fan who likes fizzing wit not buckets of gore. From the master of the genre.

[Margaret Haigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these books they make me laugh out loud. An affectionate pastiche of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers with a dash of P G Wodehouse.

[J Grimsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A silly story and a Guilty Pleasure.

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a new series for me, set in the 1920's, England.... It was fast paced, full of excitement & adventure, but it was also full of upper-class slang which felt "affected" to me....
Blotto & Twinks are brother and sister, although Twinks is the younger of the two, she is by far the most intelligent & enterprising. So far they have avoided marriage like the plague, but it might not be possible for Blotto to remain a bachelor for long.
His mother has connived a long weekend invitation from a rival who has a daughter well enamored of Blotto. In the course of the weekend the hostess is found dead in the kitchen garden with a large red hand in paint on her back, and the footman has taken a very abrupt leave, Blotto's great friend & driver is arrested for the crime, and the Poirot-like detective is there for the opening scenes (Brett uses him a point of slur against Christie/Poirot) but later is nowhere a round.
Blotto & Twinks find the footman in an Opium Den as they question him about the Red Hand, he is shot through the head....... Blotto & Twinks are attacked, the Opium Den burns to the ground & the attackers turn out to be white men w/ painted yellow faces & wigs.
The chase begins and as Blotto & Twinks get nearer to the solution, it becomes clear that a group known as the Red Thumb/Hand (I forget) is out to stage some heinous feat towards the government.
Now here's what I didn't understand: Why was the Dowager Duchess killed? What if anything did that have to do w/ the Red Hand/Thumb group? The language! The fact that men were entranced by Twinks, but Blotto only cared about his car & cricket bats? The Poirotesque detective who was there only for purpose of derision aimed at Christie?
It just seemed like a merry mad-cap romp that really had no real plot or substantial characters (unlike Phryne or Tommy/Tuppence), so I marked it down 1 star.

[Addison Public Library]

The Honourable Devereux Lyminster (aka Blotto) and his sister, Lady Honoria Lyminster (aka Twinks) are attending a house party when a murder occurs. With nods to P.G. Wodehouse, this tongue-in-cheek mystery is a madcap romp that takes our heroes from the quiet countryside to an opium den in London and onward to a crumbling Scottish castle. Along the way, the slang of 1920’s Britain livens up the chase. 2nd in the series.
KD 2-17

Check out this book today!

[Mandolin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blotto isn't happy. He's been finagled into a long weekend at the estate of the Dowager Duchess of Melmont, where he knows he'll suffer at the hands of his mother and the Dowager, who are resolved upon his marriage to the hideous Laetitia Melmont, and at the inevitable murder that is bound to occur and be solved by some pompous amateur sleuth. The only thing that makes the weekend bearable is the presence of his sister, the beautiful and intelligent Honoria (better known, of course, as Twinks!) As expected, a murder occurs and the amateur sleuth does his best to solve the crime....but Blotto and Twinks are a few steps ahead of him and not only solve the murder (in just a few short chapters) but infiltrate a dastardly anarchist group that's threatening England's social system and all that the pair know is right in their aristocratic existence.

I love Simon Brett's books and this series is just a perfect example of them. He has mastered the perfect blend of satire and mystery to make the book delightful. With a hilarious cast of characters (including the amateur sleuth who's a strange mixture of all the "negative" qualities of Poirot, Holmes, Wimsey and even Miss Marple), abundant witty dialogue and laugh-out-loud descriptions and plays on words, this parody is sure to delight any fans of P.G. Wodehouse and Golden Age mysteries. I certainly enjoyed it!

[Warren Olson · Rating 1 out of 5]

One genre I really enjoy reading for a change is the Light/Crime/Humorous type of series, epitomised in my eyes by Archie McNally - the wise cracking star of the late Laurence Sanders novels. I thought when I read the inside cover of a couple of Blotto and Twinks books, I had found an English equivalent. Certainly for a few pages I believed I had, however pretty soon the ; Lumpy Custard, Touchpaper Ignited, and for Love of Strawberries became old hat and the plot as such resembled the type of thing my 10 year old enjoys. I understand its over the top humour, and Blotto the 30 something British aristocrat understands nothing other than hunting or cricket - while conversely his stunning sister is a genius on all matters under the sun - but heavens to Besty we are adults an even clueless Blotto should have some idea about the opposite sex - or perhaps the poor fellow has been castrated along with his horse. Anyway, sad to say I couldn't suffer the torture long enough to complete the book. Over and definitely out Blotto me old chum !