Read more
'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. James Anyone 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. From the moment they arrive in Bombay, Blotto and Twinks are caught up in a rollercoaster of crime and adventure. Blotto's wish to concentrate only on the cricket is constantly frustrated by the machinations of Archie Montgomery, and he has to constantly resist the attempts of the Maharajah of Koorbleimee to marry him off to his beautiful daughter, his 'jewel', Suhana. The customary cavalcade of jeopardy and hair's breadth escapes ensue, until Blotto and Twinks once again return, unwed, to Tawcester Towers. Praise for Simon Brett 'Murder most enjoyable' Colin Dexter '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 ...
