Blotto, Twinks and the Bootlegger's Moll-Simon Brett

Blotto, Twinks and the Bootlegger's Moll Felony & Mayhem, Jan 7 2014, $14.95 www.felonyandmayhem.com ISBN: 9781937384920 Due to plumbing at their Tawcester Towers, the Lyminster Family is in financial trouble; besides more important the noisy pipes and flooding (even a Gainsborough took a drenching) drive the Dowager Duchess crazy. She assesses their assets and decides the best bet is marrying her handsome but dumb son Deveraux AKA Blotto to a wealthy American as doltish as her male offspring for paying to enter the aristocracy. Thus his Mater exiles Blotto, accompanied to keep him on mission by his brilliant beautiful sister Twinks, to Chicago for him to wed Mary, the heiress daughter of meat-packing magnate Luther P. Chapstick III. Furthermore, Mater explains to her son he will live in the States with his in-laws and wife as they are unacceptable in her England. However, Mr. Chapstick makes demands that the Duchess arranges a party filled with blue bloods or his daughter marries someone else. Twinks realizes that Chapstick is wealthy from his illegal activities, but she knows Blotto must marry Mary and the mob or face a more dangerous foe their Mater. The latest Blotto and Twinks 1920s English drama (see Blotto, Twinks And The Dead Dowager Duchess and Blotto, Twinks And The Ex-King's Daughter) is an engaging satire that lampoons mysteries and rigid social mores. Though the behavior of the matrimonial dealmakers is over the top of the Willis Tower as stereotypes of a mobster and a monetary strapped aristocrat (albeit their discussions are inanely amusing), readers will appreciate the Bootlegger’s tale. Harriet Klausner