Blotto, Twinks and the Riddle of the Sphinx
by Simon Brett
Blotto, Twinks (5)
humour, crime ?!
copyright 2013
read in December 2013
rated 6 / 10: read to pass the time
This is a book for the hard-of-thinking.
I mean... How often does the reader need to be reminded that Blotto is stupid ? How many times do we need to be told that the family line consists of idiots, thugs and robbers ?
Early on in reading this book I thought, the author just does not like his characters. He puts them down at every opportunity. Repetitively.
Several pages are spent having the university genius discovering how thick the hero really is. The main point of this section is to demonstrate that the university genius is also an idiot. Even the super-brainy Twinks misses some obvious clues.
Not that it really matters... The characters are so flat that there is no empathy: I just don't care whether they are happy or lucky or smart...
Yet the main characters are not *un*likeable. I was glad that they -- as expected -- survived and conquered.
And wasn't it so convenient, that all the baddies gathered together, just in time to be dealt with en masse ?!
It's light. It's fun. It's harmless. The insults to brains and honesty and family are spread across all characters.
Switch off your critical thinking. Lighten the intellectual load. Read this book to occupy an idle afternoon.
Why not ? It's harmless.
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Problems ? Solved
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