''A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans'' P. D. James

''Murder most enjoyable'' Colin Dexter

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 . . .

Praise for Simon Brett

''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