Great fun. Lines that I wanted to read aloud (except the kid was sleeping so that would be silly). Plot? Yes. Characters? Almost. Readability? Absolutely, if you are ok with extreme silliness in the old English fashion. There is a meal in hear for old English foodies as well as two blue cocktails, an almost switcheroo on two missing files, and much old (plot) furniture is moved around. My copy is an old "Florin Edition"—i.e. a cheap hardcover from the early 1930s, just before the paperback really took off—with fun notes all the way through from previous readers which makes me want to make a few notes, add my signature to the final page (last signed in the 1980s), and send it on its way to meet another happy reader.