Product Description

Accused of stealing valuable antiques from a vacant mansion, antique expert Lovejoy investigates and becomes caught up in the activities of two very corrupt dealers. Reprint.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1092540 in Books
• Published on: 1993-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Gash's 15th Lovejoy mystery again conveys "the bliss that is antiques," as his antiques dealer/sleuth returns to the deceptively idyllic English countryside and becomes caught up in crimes.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this British author's disappointing new work, a muddle of minor characters and colloquialisms fail to disguise the plot's insignificance. The impecunious and womanizing Lovejoy natters and noshes his way through an antiques scam for which police blame him, then finds a crony murdered in a reed-cutter's hut. Nonetheless, Lovejoy shines forth with his usual panache, dedicating some of his chauvinistic time to the mayor's wife--his "apprentice." Strictly for diehard fans, although the Arts & Entertainment Channel's weekly broadcast of Lovejoy , loosely based on the books, may spark some library demand. Previewed in Prepub Alert, 4/1/92.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Irresistible rogue Lovejoy--back home in East Anglia after a stint in the States (The Great California Game, 1991), between sessions with a pet snake and its voluptuous owner, ``making smiles'' (romps in bed) with a talk-show host's wife, and training the mayor's wife, Luna, in the fine art of faking antiques--finds time to query the death of another antique scammer, old Prammie Joe, who may have fallen afoul of the plans of a dollop broker (a storer of stolen goods for ten percent of the resale price). Also afoot are a certain descendant's plans to avenge her family for deaths imposed on it back in 1694 by the Witch-Finder General, which will soon cause Lovejoy to roust the larcenous residents of the Sampney Young Ladies Academy and rescue another antique-dealer chum from a well in a priory. One more will die; the mayor will prove to have a scam of his own; and Lovejoy, of course, will find another, nubile benefactress before all is set to right. Rambunctious, ribald, and, at times, rendered in such idiosyncratic syntax as to be incomprehensible. Crammed with antique lore, historical asides, and verve. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Lovejoy gets in heaps of trouble with his ladies in this one
This is another winner in the Lovejoy series. In this one Lovejoy is totally in a "Women's world", and even the bad person in this one is a woman. The biggest problem that Lovejoy has is that he can't figure out who is the bad and who is the good, and he gets all confused when dealing with women anyway. I recommend this series highly, but this book is not a good place to begin to read the Lovejoy series. As usual there are a lot of characters and it's hard to keep them all sraight, even if you're a repeat reader. I recomend beginning at the beginning of the series, and working your way through. The books are wonderful, and you'll find you get as addicted to them as me. In this one we again learn a lot about the world of antiques and the world of faking antiques. We also get a first-hand look at what a "dollop broker" does. Boy these are good stories!

Lovejoy Stars in Revenge by Fair Ladies
Lovejoy is one of those scamps who always seems to be able to inveigle his way into the hearts and hearths of attractive women, and then lives off their generosity while he pursues he passion for antiques. In many of the Lovejoy novels, you get the sense that Lovejoy is in a superior position versus the women.

In The Lies of Fair Ladies, there's no question that the women have the upper hand. Plots pile upon plots as fair ladies seek vengeance against other fair ladies -- some for this generation's actions while others go back in time for their revenge.

Lovejoy becomes an unwitting (and sometimes happy) pawn in these plots as he goes on about his business of running Lovejoy Antiques, avoiding marriage with the wife of a local radio personality and solving the murder of his friend, Prammie Joe. As usual, Lovejoy also spends a fair amount of time keeping the police (he calls them, the plod) from sending him to jail for fiddles (his word for illegal activities) that others have done that look like Lovejoy's work.

If you haven't read a Lovejoy novel before, Lovejoy has two talents relating to antiques that are unusual -- he can tell the real thing from a fake by a feeling he gets when he is near the real thing, and he can make a great fake of anything that will fool most buyers of antiques.

From the humorous choice of a last name to the suprise ending, you'll laugh and delight in this irresistible tale of revenge, complicated by one of the funniest battles of the sexes ever. The language and plot are equally delightful!

This is my favorite in the Lovejoy series, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.