Tawcester Towers, the family seat of the Lyminster family, has suffered an unwelcome injection of distant cousins, so distant that they aren't even British! Count Igor and Count Lyudmilla Bashusky had to flee Russia after the Revolution and have spent the intervening years building up debts in the hotels of Europe's capitals and sponging off ever more exasperated (and distant) relatives. The Bashusky's arrival at Tawcester Towers causes a stir, and it's up to Blotto and Twinks, that indefatigable duo, to provide a solution to get them back to Russia. Reversing the Russian Revolution and getting a Tsar back into St Petersburg's Winter Palace is just the sort of challenge the fiercely bright Twinks relishes, though her dim-witted brother Blotto shows less aptitude for the subtleties of international politics, despite his commendable bravery. The siblings soon find themselves in Berlin to try and broker a meeting with the White Russian community, and swiftly become embroiled in a world of spies, counterspies, conspiracies and counter-conspiracies. Just when things seem to be looking up, little do Blotto and Twinks realise that their plans are being monitored by the spymaster Fyodor Vlachko, a former worker on the Bushusky's estate who has now risen to a senior post in the secret police of the newly-formed Soviet Union . . .

サイモン・ブレットが描く本作の真髄は、黄金時代の英国ミステリに対する極上のパロディと、痛快なまでの知性的なユーモアにあります。愚鈍だが勇敢なブロトと、明晰な頭脳を持つトゥインクスという対照的な兄妹が織りなす冒険は、単なるコメディの枠を超え、没落する貴族社会の虚飾とロシア革命後の国際情勢を皮肉たっぷりに描き出しています。 読者を虜にするのは、テキストに刻まれた軽妙な文体と、時代錯誤な情熱が衝突した瞬間に生まれる火花のようなおかしみです。スパイが暗躍するベルリンの緊張感さえも、著者の手にかかれば洗練された知恵比べへと昇華されます。文学的な教養と遊び心が凝縮された本作は、古き良き英国の香りを愛でつつ、現代的な鋭い視点で歴史を再解釈する喜びを教えてくれる逸品です。