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| Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened)
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Main page / Bibliography / Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin (The Plot That Thickened)
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UK Title: Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin
First published in UK: October 12 1972 by Barrie & Jenkins, London
US Title: The Plot That Thickened
First published in US: August 6 1973 by Simon & Schuster, New York
 Russian translation
Monty Bodkin returns home to England after a year in America, his absence
having strengthened his resolve to claim the hand in marriage of his
intended, the hockey-playing Gertrude Butterwick. However, his association
with an overweight Hollywood movie mogul, his redoubtable wife and even
more formidable step-daughter sets the scene for complications. Add to this
pot-pourri the piquant seasonings of a third-rate private detective, a
devious pair of confidence tricksters and a string of pearls, and the
course of true love certainly won't run smoothly for Monty...
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Click for enlarge book cover
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Characters
(Monty) Montrose Bodkin — Adviser for Productions for
Superba-Llewellyn motion picture studio. Engaged to Gertrude
Butterwick. Becomes Secretary to Ivor Llewellyn in the
writing of his autobiography
(Sandy) Alexandra Miller — Monty's small, pretty and vivacious
secretary who loves him
Gertrude Butterwick — Reggie Tennyson's hockey-playing cousin who lives at
11 Croxted Road, West Dulwich. Monty's fiancee
(Jumbo) Ivor Llewellyn — President of Superba-Llewellyn
Grayce Llewellyn — Ivor's domineering 5th and current wife, a
former silent screen star and Mavis' mother
J. B. Butterwick — Gertrude's father, an import-export merchant
Mavis Mulligan — Grayce's imperious daughter by her first
marriage to silent movie star Orlando Mulligan. A tall,
handsome girl with a fine figure. Loves Jimmy Ponder
Chimp Twist — Professionally known as J. Sheringham Adair,
Private Investigator. Supposed to be guarding Grayce's pearl
necklace, he becomes Ivor's valet
Soapy Molloy — Con man posing as a rich American with
oil interests. Tries to sell stock in non-existent oil wells
Dolly Molloy — Soapy's wife and professional shop-lifter
Jimmy Ponder — A Greek god with a small clipped moustache
who is a partner in a jewelry firm. Bought oil stock from
Soapy and gets engaged to Mavis
Wilfred Chisholm — Hockey-playing bounder for England who
is in love with Gertrude. His full-time occupation is that
of a policeman who tries to arrest Monty, with whom he
was at school
Otto Flannery — Owns The Happy Prawn nightclub. Married
Ivor's third wife, Gloria
Claude Witherspoon (*)
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 Synopsis
Rich Monty (Montrose) Bodkin must put in another year's employment with
Ivor Llewellyn, the Hollywood tycoon, if hockey international Gertrude
Butterwick's father is to allow him to marry her. Now he is Llewellyn's
secretary, and pint-sized Sandy Miller, who had been Monty's secretary in
Hollywood, is now Mrs (Grayce) Llewellyn's secretary, and the Llewellyns
have taken Mellingham Hall in Sussex, furnished, for a season. Sandy has
long been in love with Monty, but has let concealment, like a worm i' th'
bud etc., as she knows he's engaged to that beefy English girl. Grayce has
a valuable ($50,000) pearl necklace, and you know what that means - a
detective to watch it (Chimp Twist, of course) and that nice couple they
met in Cannes, the Molloys, Soapy and Dolly, soon to be watching Chimp and
their own opportunity. And, wouldn't you know (Ivor Llewellyn does, because
he did the switch - poor chap, he has a joint bank account with Grayce, so
how else can he get spending money for gambling? See Sigsbee Waddington in
The Small Bachelor 1927), the pearls are fake. Besides which Grayce has put
Llewellyn on a diet, and Chimp is disguised as his valet with orders to
report if he eats or drinks anything he shouldn't. Grayce makes Chimp shave
off his moustache for the part.
The old problems: a) a tycoon shackled by a joint bank account with his
wife and b) an English gentleman (Monty) wanting to get out of his
engagement with a girl. Monty, you see, is now in love with Sandy. When he
saw her pull a dustbin full of bottles down over a policeman's head in a
raid on a nightclub, he knew that there was the girl he must marry. It all
ends happily, with Grayce divorcing Ivor Llewellyn, Monty and Sandy teamed
up and Gertrude to marry the dustbin-crowned cop, who is an Old Etonion and
also a hockey international. And Chimp, Dolly and Soapy are stuck with a
lot of dud pearls.
There is an affinity between this story and Money in the Bank (1946).
Source: Richard Usborne. Plum Sauce. A P G Wodehouse Companion.
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