Simon Brett
Felony & Mayhem Press, 2011. 211 pages. Mystery.
When the ex-princess of the ex-king of Mitteleuropia is kidnapped from the ancestral home of the Duke of Tawcester, it is up to the rather stupid Blotto, the family's youngest son, to avenge the family honor by discovering the kidnappers, with a little help from his intelligent sister, Twinks.
Set in the carefree period between the world wars, this series has a lot of the tongue-in-cheek humor that characterizes P.G. Wodehouse's Wooster and Jeeves books. Although a little more heavy-handed than Wodehouse ever was, Brett nevertheless manages to create a fun mystery while poking fun at the literary conventions of the day, especially those employed by mystery writers. This book will appeal to anyone who has read (and loved) a classic mystery and is still willing to see the humorous side of the constant intervention and superiority of the amateur sleuth in police affairs.
JH
No comments:
Post a Comment