Product Description

High-stakes antiques dealer Lovejoy is coming off an unsuccessful liaison with a rich fashion-plate when he finds himself choosing between helping a friend find a missing teenage girl, or exploring a mysterious invitation found in a borrowed tuxedo. Reprint. K. "

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #855868 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Fans of the lovably crooked antique "divvy" Lovejoy will doubtless rejoice at a new caper, while those unused to the convoluted comings and goings of the wily East Anglian con man will despair at the hopeless muddle that Gash has the gall to pass off as a plot in this 19th series entry. Lovejoy makes fun during a fashion show, and his newest lover casts him aside. Meanwhile, his business is sinking. Each time the slick thief spots a genuine find, another crooked soul beats him to the purchase. Is another "divvy" invading his territory? Affairs worsen as the lowly Lovejoy domicile is cordoned off by the gendarmes. Lovejoy is forced to offer his unique services in a chain dating enterprise, and he's grudgingly made master of ceremonies at a combined fashion show/antique sale. The antiques aren't much, but the valuable older dresses modeled by the sad-eyed anorexics soon have things heating up, especially when a good pal is murdered and a Molotov cocktail explodes a little too close to Lovejoy for comfort. All this is recounted in the breathless prose Gash has long and effectively employed. Little of it makes too much surface sense, and the only time the author lets up is to linger on a convoluted piece of antique lore, usually concerned with the fobbing off of a masterly forgery onto the unsuspecting public, a ruse as often as not masterminded by the never-modest Lovejoy himself. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Trying to save his beloved Lovejoy's Antiques, visited regularly by A&E viewers and readers of Gash's 18 previous best sellers, Lovejoy accepts a mysterious dinner invitation that appears in the pocket of his tux and heads for London-where murder is just around the corner.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
That lecherous Lothario Lovejoy is at it again in yet another highly entertaining adventure involving murder, antiques, and beautiful women. This time, the setting is the world of high fashion, which is, for Lovejoy, a deeply perplexing arena where purple-tressed, sticklike girls parade down runways wearing mind-bogglingly ugly outfits made of metal, feathers, and--gasp!--a valuable Oriental carpet. Along with offending everyone he encounters at a fashion show, Lovejoy must deal with his failing antiques business and decide whether to help a friend find a missing teenage girl or join the mysterious Olga Maltravers Featherstone for what promises to be an evening of heady enchantment. Life is never easy for Lovejoy, what with juggling all those hot-for-him women, lusting after fire screens, figurines, and armoires, and unwittingly getting involved in tracking down vicious killers. With his usual wit and style, Gash offers up another hilarious tale featuring one of the most appealing eccentrics in crime fiction. The Lovejoy fan club grows by leaps and bounds! Emily Melton

Customer Reviews

Lovejoy revisits his past!
In this book Lovejoy is escaping East Anglia. He's in hot water again. He's been recruited for an illegal activity, he's got women angry at him and his cottage has been repossed. So he takes the first opportunity that he can to get away, and goes back to the North of England where he grew up. He' trying to find Tinker's niece, but he's also trying to get into something that will make him some money. As usual he finds more trouble there, and he brings some of his old troubles with him, so before long, Lovejoy is in big trouble again, and people that he knows start dying. The book has fast-paced action and of course some wonderful characters. This series is a lot of fun.