Clever Italian art-history crime series featuring scholar and dealer Jonathon Argyll, from the author of the best-selling masterpiece ‘An Instance of the Fingerpost’.
The hardest part of being an art dealer is having to sell your beloved works. For Jonathan Argyll, the pain is soothed when an American billionaire agrees to pay a vast sum for a relatively minor piece.
Arriving in the Californian sunshine eager to collect his cheque, Jonathan bumps into one of his less scrupulous colleagues, and discovers he is not the American's only seller. A bust of Pope Pius V is being smuggled out of Italy, and trouble is following in its wake.
Within hours, Jonathan's billionaire is dead and both the smuggler and his bust have gone missing. Thinking things can't get any worse, Jonathan calls for the help of the Italian Art Theft Squad – and instead finds himself the killer's next target...
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Praise for ‘The Bernini Bust’:
‘An elegant and amusing book, perfect for those who love a clever puzzle.’ Mail on Sunday
‘Delightfully pursued and narrated puzzle.’ Sunday Times
‘Iain Pears get better and better...frothy, fun and nicely plotted.’ Spectator
Praise for the Jonathan Argyll series:
'Superior entertainment.' Allan Massie, Scotsman
'There is nothing so satisfactory as the deconstruction of a puzzle in the hands of such an erudite and sure-footed author.' The Times
'Pears is a delightful writer, with a light, ironic touch.' Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday
'Iain Pears writes delightfully witty, elegant, well-informed crime novels.' The Times
'You don't have to know much about art to enjoy Iain Pears's Italian mysteries. Like a good teacher, he shares his passion unobtrusively and flavours his lessons with wit.' Val McDermid
'Pears is a delightful writer, with a light, ironic touch.' Mail on Sunday
British art historian Jonathan Argyll has just sold a minor Titian to an American museum for a highly inflated price. But as he complacently awaits his cheque in the Californian sunshine, trouble erupts: the museum's billionaire owner is murdered, a dubious art dealer disappears, and a Bernini bust, apparently smuggled out of Italy is missing.
Things could hardly get any worse, and the situation calls for assistance from his friends General Bottando and Flavia de Stefano of the Italian National Art Theft Squad . . . especially as things very definitely 'do' get worse when the killers attention turns to Jonathan himself.
Cleverly mixing murder with art, 'The Bernini Bust' is a witty and intriguing mystery from the bestselling author of 'An Instance of the Fingerpost.'
“Excellent”
Gerald Kaufman,
'Scotsman'
“Iain Pears has a superior line in this sort of tale”
Guardian
“Delightfully pursued and narrated puzzle with several prize sinuosities”
Sunday Times
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Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # VC-9780007229192
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