What do You think about Hot Water (2003)?
There's very little mystery to the reader of Wodehouse about whether and even how things will be tidied up in the end, but that's not the joy of reading his books. Instead the delight is the rollicking ride he takes you on to get to the finish (which is not without a few surprises). Here our protagonist, Packy, does indeed get himself into some hot water at the Chateau Blissac, where almost everyone is impersonating someone else, and hoax is layered upon hoax, all in the name of altruistic chivalry. This is one of the best Wodehouse I've read so far.
—Dani
It begins simply enough. Mrs. Gedge has guests coming to the French chateau she's renting -- the Vicomte, the son of the landlady, and she has firm instructions to keep him from drink and firm intentions of complaining about the plumbing, and Senator Opal, a firm Dry, whom she intends to persuade to get her husband appointed Ambassador to France. But this is Wodehouse. . . .Two American criminals are hanging out in St. Rocque -- Soup Slattery and Oily Carisle -- and meeting up in a foreign land so has them chatting about their female accomplices who left them, and the prospects in the area. Mr. Gedge (who has no desire to be ambassador) confides in Slattery about how he lost all his money in the crash, so only Mrs. Gedge has it -- plus all the jewelry, worth thousands, that he had bought her before. Meanwhile, a young American millionaire named Packy and Lady Beatrice have become engaged. She gives him firm instructions to stay in London and meet Blair Eggleston, who was, according to the people who mattered, among the most promising writers of his generation. Eggleston himself is engaged to Jane, Senator Opal's daughter. Owing to some contretemps about a barbers' strike and a letter from the Senator to his bootlegger, he sets sail to St. Rocque to help Jane and Eggleston, out of pure sympathy for fellow lovers.It goes on from there, involving a lady's maid who's reading a book about a detective disguised as a lady's maid, catching a burglar and putting him on the window sill until morning, a carnival disguise, Packy getting into the chateau under two separate false pretenses, Soup Slattery's desire to buy a farm, and Senator Opal's getting confused about who his daughter is engaged to. Culminating in one of Wodehouse's glorious complicated and hilarious plots
—Mary Catelli
J. Wellington Gedge hates the chateau in southern France his wife made them rent. He misses his old life back in California but Mrs. Gedge has other plans that involve staying in France. She needs the help of Senator Opal, a teetotal tyrant who tries to bully everyone, including his daughter Jane. Jane is secretly engaged to a penniless novelist her father would never approve of. What happens when Packy Franklyn, ex-Yale football star and bon vivant is let loose in St. Roque without his stuffy fiance? A solution to Jane's problem, a boozy French Viscomte, a couple of crooks and a zany plan that just might work... if everyone plays their role correctly. There is so much going on in this book. It was hard to get into and moved so slowly that I didn't really get into the story until it was almost over. The plot is very similar to early Blandings Castle stories but not quite as well written. It's hard to keep track of who's who and who is pretending to be what and who has which job to do. The story lacks a true screwball scene but has some unexpected plot twists. I wondered which one would prove to be a certain someone but was surprised at who it was. None of the characters are likable except Jane. She refuses to be bullied by her father. She knows her own mind and is determined to do things her way. She doesn't get discouraged or dismal like the Blandings ladies. She's delightful in every scene and there aren't enough of them. In this novel the women are the stronger characters. The men are weak and stupid.
—QNPoohBear
