Caravaggio's Angel ******SIGNED & LINED****

Brandon, Ruth

ISBN 10: 1845296974 / ISBN 13: 9781845296971

Published by Constable, London, 2008

About this Item

1ST EDITION, 1ST PRINT, SIGNED & LINED BY AUTHOR TO TITLE PAGE. Book as new unread, FINE/FINE condition. Review An art mystery leads an academic to tangled family feuds and baffling deaths.Bewildered by her breakup with her raffish boyfriend Joe, Dr. Reggie Lee dives full-tilt into her new assignment, an exhibition at London's National Gallery of a small collection of Caravaggio masterpieces. She spots an unusual old news clipping that describes the hanging death of young Robert de Beaupre close on the heels of a high-profile Caravaggio theft from the Louvre, which houses one of the Caravaggios she seeks. Another is at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the third she hopes to locate. Her trip to Paris unearths more mystery in the recent accidental death of Surrealist painter Antoine Rigaut, who may have been connected to Beaupre. This potential link takes Reggie all the way back to Beaupre's notebooks from before World War I, and through complex political and familial dynamics of more recent decades. Despite an agreement to the contrary, Reggie also contacts Joe on a regular basis, giving the story and her character more dimension. The mystery deepens with the unexpected discovery of a missing Caravaggio. Is one of the paintings a forgery? And is Reggie paranoid, or is somebody following her?Brandon's background in art history (Surreal Lives, 1999, etc.) serves her well in her fiction debut, the first in a proposed series. Her refined prose matches the ornate plot, well-suited to a niche audience. (Kirkus Reviews).

Seller Inventory # 002705

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Caravaggio's Angel ******SIGNED & LINED****
• Publisher: Constable, London
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845296974
• ISBN 13: 9781845296971
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Dr Reggie Lee, newly arrived at the National Gallery, is putting together a small exhibition around three Caravaggios depicting 'St Cecilia and the Angel.' One is at the Getty, one at the Louvre, and she hopes it won't be too hard to track down the third. But a series of inexplicable obstacles keep getting in her way - and then, unexpectedly, a fourth Caravaggio turns up. One of them must be a fake. But which?

When people start to die, it seems clear that someone doesn't want Reggie's show to go ahead. Why, she can't imagine. But her career is at stake, and she'd damned if she'll let herself be intimidated and bullied by these unseen forces. So Reggie investigates and her research takes her from Surrealist suicides to shady Italian art dealers, from seventeenth-century painting techniques to modern French politics in a viciously-fought Presidential election year. By the end it seems as though nobody in the opaque and ill-defined world of art can really stay incorruptible - perhaps not even Reggie herself.

About the Author

Ruth Brandon is the pseudonym of Marian Silver. She divides her time between London and France and is currently working on her second crime title featuring Dr Reggie Lee. Her works include Other People's Daughters: the Life and Times of the Governess (W&N 2008) and The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini (Pan 2001).