Blotto, Twinks and the Maharajah's Jewel

Blotto and Twinks #10

by Simon Brett

'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. James'Murder most enjoyable' Colin DexterAnyone for cricket - and a spot of burglary? An idle conversation on the merits of the glorious game with an old Etonian chum is just the excuse Blotto needs to put himself forward for a cricket tour to foreign climes... and so begins the next adventure for our intrepid duo, where the action takes them to India where, as everyone knows, the finest cricket players hail from - as well as the world's most skilled jewel thieves...The Dowager Duchess has no problems in letting her two children go to the subcontinent as having her beautiful daughter Twinks married off to a massively rich Maharaja offers the Dowager Duchess the prospect of a permanent solution to the cash-draining maintenance of the Tawcester Towers plumbing.So Twinks joins Blotto on a steamer bound for India, one that is full of young woman desperate to marry well there - only once having encountered the dashing Blotto, a lot of them fancy the idea of getting married before they reach their destination. And, unbeknownst to the siblings, also on the ship is the international jewel thief Archie Montmorency, passing himself off as one of Blotto's cricketing entourage. His real mission though is to steal the diamond which adorns the turban the Maharajah of Koorbleimee . . . Praise for Simon Brett'One of British crime's most assured craftsmen . . . Crime writing just like in the good old days, and perfect entertainment' Guardian'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories. I would recommend them to anyone' Jilly Cooper

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Crime, Comedy, British Literature

218 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 21, 2021

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

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having met the author last week at a library crime festival I am glad that he admitted that this series is like Marmite ! I liked this book but not as much as his other series. I did find the made up language and names rather irritating and silly and they got in the way of the story. I think that I will stick to the other books, there are plenty to chose from.

[Toby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I… just can’t. DNF after painful painful dialogue that’s trying too hard to be witty and just is annoying.

Examples from the first 10 pages of this book:
”But surely, Ponky, the Indians don’t play cricket in the winter, do they? They must get as cold as bare feet on an iceberg.”
“No, they do play and they don’t get cold. See, Blotters, the Indians have different seasons than us.”
“Do they? Well, I’m totally crab-whacked. That really is a bit of a rum baba. What’s wrong with the old spring-summer-autumn-winter routine? It’s worked all right for us for a good few millennia.”
“No, you’re still shimmying up the wrong drainpipe.” Ponky tried to explain. “In India, they do have the same seasons as us, but just have them at different times of the year.”
“Why, in the name of snitchrags, would anyone do that?”
(P. 4 & 5)

In a short story that would be fine but I can’t imagine reading 200+ pages of this…

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes place in the 1920's. Blotto and Twinks, a brother and sister, are heading to India so Blotto can play cricket with some old classmates. On a stop over an attempt is made on Blotto's life and then a maharajah's diamond is stollen.

Blotto is attractive, aristocratic, and exceptionally unintelligent. Twinks is gorgeous, aristocratic, and brilliant. Blotto is incapable of speaking without using the slang of the 1920's. It becomes tiring after the first chapter. Every man she meets proposes marriage to Twinks.

This is very much a light hearted comic mystery. The mystery is never very mysterious and there are no clues or red herrings. It's evident from the moment the criminal is introduced who the criminal is. It has a bit of the feel of a PG Wodehouse without the finesse of Wodehouse.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I usually dislike this series, I seem compelled to read one once in a while, and this one was a bit surprising. Twinks actually is concerned about someone else's feelings--a fellow aristocrat, of course, but it's something. Her brother Blotto finds a girl who is even more vapid than he is and enjoys the unprecedented experience of being admired for his intellect (the girl, in turn, finds someone even more vapid than she is to marry since she feels Blotto is just too clever for her). The plot is a farrago of impersonation, jewel thieves, and everyone's attempt to marry Twinks while the pair joins a cricket expedition to India.

[Nicholas George · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're one of those boddos who love a quirky mystery, you've pinged the partridge with this one. Like all of Blotto and Twink's adventures, it's the panda's panties. In this one the siblings are off to India and immediately become entangled with a swarm of muffin-toasters intent on either marrying them or coffinating them. Broken biscuits! But the pair eventually show the boot scrapers that they're shinnying up the wrong drainpipe. Larksissimo! So, settle down, fire up your brain box, and uncage the ferrets. If you've figured out the puzzle by the end, give the pony a rosette! If not, you'll feel kippered like a herring.

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A amusing tale of attempted murders, and theft. A mystery that is more about the characters than the mystery itself. The mystery is almost incidental. We pass through at least half the book before there is any mystery to be solved at all, nd then our detectives do not actively seek an answer for some time.

Not being british, some of the British words and phrases that aren't shared with me in addition to the boffing jargony nonsense that people often spout, plus the intellectual conversations that Twinks sometimes spouts, can make some things difficult to follow.

[Michele Yellin · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, Blotto and Twinks are an escape when reading mysteries with violence. This volume was more repetitious in phrases, than past adventures. Predictable, fun, a lark! I’ve read Brett’s other mysteries, that’s how I met B & T. Can’t take them too seriously, that’s their appeal. Looking to next adventure!

[Anne Lind · Rating 3 out of 5]

Madcap, fun, crazy 1920's British slang.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

WAY too much (presumably) period slang which distracted me from the story

[Jennifer Jank · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun romp, with some occasional VERY sharp zingers thrown in.

[Andy Gore · Rating 5 out of 5]

As ever Blotto and Twinks never fail to please; a cracking story and a pleasure to read.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always a treat to spend time with Blotto and Twinks.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just could not get into this book.
“Me old length of knicker elastic” just about covers it!

[abbey parkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

bubbly in the most British way 🥰🥰