What do you think?
Rate this book
Blotto and Twinks #4
Blotto, Twinks and the Bootlegger's Moll
Due to financial hardships at Tawcester Towers, the Dowager Duchess has decreed that the only way the family fortunes can be restored is to marry Blotto to an American. So begins the fourth adventure in the Blotto and Twinks series, and this time the aristocratic sleuthing siblings end up being transported across the Pond to the gangster-ridden hell-hole that is Prohibition Chicago. Reluctantly, Blotto being together with Twinks and his trusty chauffeur Corky Froggett set sail on ocean liner S/S His Majesty. He feels like a condemned man as waiting him in Illinois is fabulously wealthy heiress Mary Chapstic. She is the only daughter of meat-packing magnate Hiram P. Chapstick III. But it's Twinks who discovers early on that all is not as it seems and that Hiram P. Chapstick III is in fact up to his neck in a bootlegging operation run by the notorious Chicago mobster, Spagsy Chiaparelli. So Blotto and Twinks set out to unmask the villainy of Hiram P. Chapstick III, where a final shootout takes place among the filthy stockyards, abattoirs and caning factories of Chicago's Meatpacking District. Will Blotto and Twinks ever make it back to dear old Blighty?
6 pages, Audio CD
First published July 1, 2012
8 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Simon Brett
329 books532 followersSimon 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 11, 2013
On display in my local libary it was the cover that steered me towards the book and led to an enjoyable read about Simon Brett's brother and sister aristocrats.
Blotto and Twinks find themselves heading across the Atlantic to help resolve a problem related to the family seat of Tawcester Towers, where they encounter love-struck young people, bootleggers and gangsters, meat magnets and private eyes.
The dialogue is light and humorous with overt and subtle observations on both the upper class and their behaviours and lives of this period. This was my first Blotto and Twinks book and once used to the dialogue I grew to like the main characters, their realtionship and indeed the plot and story.
The book is not Christie nor Allingham and the author does neither suggest or propose such, but Mr Brett does nod with plot line, dialogue and characters to the "Golden Era" of detective novels and the formula/code described for this genre and period by Ronald Knox in 1929, and in that spirit, and that of P G Wodehouse' Jeeves it is a good read, and a series I shall return to.
Blotto and Twinks find themselves heading across the Atlantic to help resolve a problem related to the family seat of Tawcester Towers, where they encounter love-struck young people, bootleggers and gangsters, meat magnets and private eyes.
The dialogue is light and humorous with overt and subtle observations on both the upper class and their behaviours and lives of this period. This was my first Blotto and Twinks book and once used to the dialogue I grew to like the main characters, their realtionship and indeed the plot and story.
The book is not Christie nor Allingham and the author does neither suggest or propose such, but Mr Brett does nod with plot line, dialogue and characters to the "Golden Era" of detective novels and the formula/code described for this genre and period by Ronald Knox in 1929, and in that spirit, and that of P G Wodehouse' Jeeves it is a good read, and a series I shall return to.
April 25, 2013
Naturally Blotto and Twinks let loose in Prohibition-era Chicago is a formula guaranteed to generate a great deal of fun. Henchmen with curious nicknames such as Ziggy 'Tomato Sauce' Radiatore and Toni 'Nostrils' Linguini lurk in the shadows dressed in pin-striped suits and carrying violin cases. Of course Blotto and Twinks are completely oblivious to this threat and are more concerned about the odd habits of the Americans such as driving on the wrong side of the road. A hard-nosed PI also makes an appearance providing an interesting foil for Twinks.
I loved this as I have all the Blotto & Twinks books and here Brett does a wonderful job of sending up Prohibition-era USA. It's not just Golden Age detective tropes or Americans that come under fire as he also is quite scathing in his portrayal of the British upper class. There isn't the nostalgia of Downton Abbey.
This was a short novel and I so love Simon Brett's reading that I both listened to the audio book as well as read the print version.
I loved this as I have all the Blotto & Twinks books and here Brett does a wonderful job of sending up Prohibition-era USA. It's not just Golden Age detective tropes or Americans that come under fire as he also is quite scathing in his portrayal of the British upper class. There isn't the nostalgia of Downton Abbey.
This was a short novel and I so love Simon Brett's reading that I both listened to the audio book as well as read the print version.
December 22, 2012
Easy to read. Made a two hour train journey on a packed train enjoyable.
Best of this series so far.
Recommend to anyone who enjoys MC Beaton's Hamish Macbeth or Agatha Raisin series.
Best of this series so far.
Recommend to anyone who enjoys MC Beaton's Hamish Macbeth or Agatha Raisin series.
May 13, 2014
I love this series! It is so very British. The quaint mannerisms and the upper class attitudes. Then Brett shows us they are really the same as everyone, maybe even a little more clueless than most!
May 15, 2023
I thought I had a higher tolerance for Brett's silliness as applied to these stories. I remember being particularly pleased in a prior novel when at the end of a chapter, surrounded by enemies, the next one began with something like "after successfully getting away, Blotto and Twinks" ... which I thought was hilarious.
In this volume, though, the forced incouiance rubbed me the wrong way. I liked a lot: the Duchess' stare, the joke about Womens' Studies not yet existing, etc., but I was troubled by the casual indifference to death, whether it's Chicago mobsters routine dispatching of those that mildly irk them, all the way up to (most troubling) absolutely zero concern on the part of our heroes that someone was murdered at their home, with no attempt to bring the killer to justice, because the victim wasn't of their class.
Unless you want us to absolutely loathe your heroes, that's not a good option. The Duchess can take that stand, but surely our heroes should have a flickering unease at the back of their minds and suggest that despite the lowly birth of the corpse, surely they deserve to have their murderer brought to justice?
Without spoilers, let's just say they end up doing about the exact opposite of bringing the murderer to justice. And it doesn't sit well with me.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
In this volume, though, the forced incouiance rubbed me the wrong way. I liked a lot: the Duchess' stare, the joke about Womens' Studies not yet existing, etc., but I was troubled by the casual indifference to death, whether it's Chicago mobsters routine dispatching of those that mildly irk them, all the way up to (most troubling) absolutely zero concern on the part of our heroes that someone was murdered at their home, with no attempt to bring the killer to justice, because the victim wasn't of their class.
Unless you want us to absolutely loathe your heroes, that's not a good option. The Duchess can take that stand, but surely our heroes should have a flickering unease at the back of their minds and suggest that despite the lowly birth of the corpse, surely they deserve to have their murderer brought to justice?
Without spoilers, let's just say they end up doing about the exact opposite of bringing the murderer to justice. And it doesn't sit well with me.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
November 12, 2018
The Tawscester Towers plumbing is in need of repair and there is no money in the coffers. Blotto finds himself sent to marry an American in Chicago whose father is the magnate of a meat-packing facility (and heavily involved with the mafia). Out of all four books in the series so far, in this one Brett’s characters become better rounded and the entire story becomes more than a collection of repeated jokes and coined phrases.
June 15, 2019
This book is about a brother and sister British aristocratic duo that does crime fighting. Blotto is used as a pawn to gain $$ for the family to repair the aging castle in England. Blotto is engaged to an American woman to gain her families money. Both Twinks and Blotto go to America and get themselves into multiple scrapes. Both Blotto and Twinks come back to England as single people. Read the novel to hear the rest.
October 24, 2018
Another Blotto and Twinks spoof this time in Chicago where the pair are trying to devise an escape plan for Blotto who has had a marriage arranged into a mobster family in order to reinstate plumbing at the ancestral home. Great fun.
December 25, 2022
Stalwart yet impossibly dim Blotto and brainy, resourceful Twinks are always fun, but their schtick wears thin pretty fast. Brett livens things up in this one by transporting the pair to crime-ridden Chicago, and he keeps the whole affair short.
July 29, 2023
The Blotto and Twinks books make the Wooster books look serious. I find them amusing in small doses.
the reason it doesn't get 5 stars is I find the humour a bit palling by the end of the book. I will still read another one after a while.
the reason it doesn't get 5 stars is I find the humour a bit palling by the end of the book. I will still read another one after a while.
December 27, 2023
This was such a pleasure to read! What a fun and perfect pair of siblings to go on adventures and play detective with. Lots of action and lots of humour. I’m glad I discovered this series!
P.S. This book is available to read for free from Open Library.
P.S. This book is available to read for free from Open Library.
August 25, 2024
It took off on a funny note,but dropped too much into cliches, stereotypes,sarcasm and political incorrectness in a way that stopped being funny. I just had to finish reading it to understand the events in later books in the series.
August 1, 2017
Toad in the hole! A tad predictable, but it was just what I needed!
October 18, 2019
Funny, but too over-the-top
November 15, 2020
Another rip roaring read where Blotto and Twinks have to navigate the griefs and sorrows of those who were not born British by travelling to America.
March 29, 2023
Blotto needs to marry a crime boss's daughter in Chicago, where they drive on the wrong side & there's no whisky available. But he has his cricket bat & Twinks so maybe all is not lost
July 19, 2024
Clever, competent,lots of parody ...not very appealing to my sense of humour...got fed up of the names of mafia etc....
September 27, 2024
Silly and snobbish but fun
April 25, 2014
Handsome but brainless aristocrat Blotto is going to be sold into slavery--that is, married to an American heiress--unless his equally good-looking but much smarter sister Twinks can find a way out. They travel to the vulgar home of his fiancee and learn just how crooked a meat packer in Chicago can be, before a series of circumstances provide them with danger and opportunity. Either this series is growing on me--heaven forfend!--or this is a superior entry.
April 18, 2017
Again another absurdly fun outing for the two amateur sleuths. This time things really do look broken biscuits for poor Blotto luckily his sisters grade A Brainbox manages to formulate an escape plan. And due to some accidental smuggling even the Dowager Duchess is happy with the outcome.
A pleasant read with some endearing and fun characters, one of my favorite cozy series guaranteed to go well with a relaxing Sunday and a nice cup of tea !
A pleasant read with some endearing and fun characters, one of my favorite cozy series guaranteed to go well with a relaxing Sunday and a nice cup of tea !
January 21, 2013
A light bit of fluff. I picked this up in the library with no idea what it was, having had a bit of a PG Wodehouse binge last year I thought I'd give it a go. It was a gentle whodunnit, trying to be a bit Bertie Wooster, but without the innate wit, I felt. Good enough for what it was, and a good book to read in bed as it was easy to put down when I needed to go to sleep.
December 15, 2014
Picked at random from my local library. It started off well, I was charmed at first by the Wodehousian setting and language. However the silly-ass language became just too forced and frequent, and the plot was very slight. I felt that the author was in a real rush to finish the book off in the end.
September 17, 2015
3.5 stars. Brother and sister Blotto and Twinks embark on an American adventure. Blotto is being forced to marry an American heiress so the Tawcester Towers plumbing can be replaced. And there are miles of pipes in their beloved ancestral pile. The hijinks and harrowing episodes seem to affect each sibling individually, and I kind of missed them "working" together. Still, a jolly good read!
May 25, 2016
I love the Blotto and Twinks series, starring the 1920s upper-class brother and sister detective team of the gorgeous but dimwitted Blotto (the Honourable Devereux Lyminster) and the gorgeous and fearsomely bright Twinks (Lady Honoria Lyminster). In this book, they cross The Pond and get mixed up with The Mob but (spoiler alert) it all works out in the end. Cleverly plotted and great fun.
November 11, 2012
I love Mr. Brett's dry wit. I could read this series over and over again. I never cease to be amused by his description of upper class English society in the 1920s. Too funny.
February 24, 2013
Another fun read from Simon Brett. I realy enjoyed its silly take on the clasic mystery story.
April 25, 2013
This was a short novel and I so love Simon Brett's reading of his work as he captures the voices so well that I both listened to the audio book as well as read the print version.
January 3, 2014
simon brett must love writing these books ..they are mad ,fast flowing and really enjoyable
June 3, 2014
For those who love the Wooster & Jeeves era, this is a great read! Keeps you guessing! good plot!
August 31, 2014
One would not think that the British aristocracy would have so much in common with the American mafia . It seems they think alike and talk alike.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews