Money For Nothing

In this incisively insightful novel P. G. Wodehouse, as is his invariable custom, delves deep into the souls of his characters to lay bare many aspects of the human condition including the emotional, (“A snail crossed her path. She did not tread on it, for she had a kind heart, but she gave it a look. It was a look which, had it reached John, at whom it was really directed, would have scorched him”), the intellectual, (“Those just-as-good imitation heads never pay in the long run. What you ought to do is sell yours for what it’ll fetch and get a new one. And next time,” said Chimp, “make it a prettier one.”) and the theological. (“On that last awful day… do you know what’ll ‘appen? The Lord God Almighty will say, angry-like, ‘Oo’s responsible for all these corpses I see laying around ‘ere?’ and E’ll look at you sort of sharp , and you’ll have to rise up and say ‘If I’d of done as Sergeant Major Flannery repeatedly told me…there wouldn’t have been none of these poor murdered blokes.’ “)

This book introduces Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish, who later appeared in two Blandings Castle novels. Master criminals Dolly and Soapy Molloy and Chimp Twist make a return appearance in this story, after their debut in Sam In The Suburbs (Sam The Sudden in the UK). The action mainly takes place in and near the sleepy village of Rudge-in-the-Vale, with an interlude in London. (Summary by Zach Hoyt)